Washington University now has one of the only comprehensive programs in ethics and human values at a university in the United States.
The purpose of the Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values is to support the study, research and teaching of ethics in areas ranging from medicine to business to architecture. Many universities have ethics centers that address only one topic or are located within a particular school.
“The power of this endeavor is to create forums at the University and in the community to deal with the most controversial issues of our time,” said Ira J. Kodner, M.D., center director and the Solon and Bettie Gershman Professor in the Department of Surgery. “We want to bring together people with very different points of view.”
Kodner envisions the organization putting together educational programs, developing curricula and providing humanitarian outreach.
The center is sponsoring a seminar on professionalism in medicine, law and business, and it recently sponsored a lecture on health-care reform.
It also issued 15 $5,000 faculty grants last year for projects such as a one-day symposium on the participation of children in clinical trials and a workshop about the play Shooting Magda, which addressed claims of identity, honor and land held by Israelis and Palestinians. Ten projects have been funded for the upcoming year.
Citing the Enron and mutual-fund scandals, Kodner believes our society has become more self-centered and bottom-line oriented.
“And only a few of us have the privilege of looking at the long-range visions,” he said. “If we don’t do that, then we will suffer the consequences.”
Although it’s already been hosting programs and funding projects, the center’s inaugural event was March 24, when it co-sponsored Susan Sontag’s Assembly Series lecture in Graham Chapel.
The idea for the center started about three years ago, when Kodner helped the American College of Surgeons develop a curriculum to teach ethics to surgical students. Kodner came back to the School of Medicine and wondered why the University didn’t have a comprehensive ethics program.
He discovered there was interest in a campus-wide program.
“We surveyed the deans of all the schools and found that there was great interest and good advice along the way,” he said.
The chancellor’s office, Arts & Sciences, the School of Medicine, and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation and Medical Staff Council provided initial funding for the center. The center is also applying for grant support, working with community benefactors and taking private donations.
Stuart D. Yoak, Ph.D., serves as the center’s executive officer. Robert E. Wiltenburg, Ph.D., dean of University College in Arts & Sciences, chairs the center’s 15-member executive committee, which is made up of senior faculty from across the University. A program committee with faculty from each school also has been established.
Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences, and Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of the medical school, are ex-officio members of the executive committee.
Wiltenburg also believes that the impact of the center will be far-reaching.
“The center will have an important impact not only on faculty work and collaboration but also on undergraduate, graduate and professional education and training,” he said.
In the long term, Kodner hopes students and scholars from all over the world will come to the University to participate in the center.
“I also think this is a real opportunity for Washington University to take a leadership role and become the prototype program for other institutions,” he said.