By Nicholas R. Brown, Director of the Bioethics Minor and Clinical Faculty in the Bioethics Institute at LMU
A scroll through today’s headlines can be both intriguing and exhilarating yet bewildering and alarming at the same time. “New Trials Aim to Restore Hearing in Deaf Children-With Gene Therapy”, “Baby of brain-dead pregnant woman kept alive under abortion law has been delivered, family says”, “Lab-Grown Human Brain Tissue Works in Rats”, “More States Are Considering Bills Allowing Medically Assisted Death”, “These are just a snippet of the thousands of headlines we are inundated with daily. What are we supposed to think about these complicated but enormously important issues? And more importantly, how are we supposed to think about them?
These are the types of questions and thought experiments that define bioethics. Now you may be asking yourself, what exactly is bioethics? Bioethics is a field of study and a profession dedicated to addressing the pressing ethical questions that arise in the context of modern medical practice and research. Such questions may be very personal and practical in nature, like should a pharmacist be allowed to refuse a prescription of hormonal treatments to a trans patient if that pharmacist holds a sincere religious objection to transsexualism? Or, they can be more public and conceptual, like, should AI robots be granted political and human rights? In either case, answering these kinds of questions requires more than just knowing the legality of health worker conscientious objection laws or the finer points of the sentience theory of moral status. They require us to probe the profound depths and mysteries of what it means to flourish as a human being and explore the very nature of being human.
Bioethics provides us with some very tangible and meaningful ways to grow personally, academically, and professionally. And this is precisely why LMU has created an undergraduate minor in bioethics. For over seven years now, dozens of students have had the opportunity to take classes in biology, philosophy, theology, sociology, and other related subjects in the sciences and humanities to examine these complex ethical questions through a critical and interdisciplinary lens. Bioethics students have had the opportunity to engage with a variety of key stakeholders like physicians, nurses, medical researchers, public health officials, and lawyers. They have acquired skills in critical thinking, ethical reasoning and communication that have enabled them to stand out academically and pursue careers in health care, public policy, clinical research, psychology, and law, just to name a few. So, whether you are a pre-health student or just someone who enjoys thinking about and debating interesting ethical topics, come and explore the bioethics minor. You are sure to find it a valuable tool that helps you think about the pressing questions of today and tomorrow.