Laney Graduate School and the Center for Ethics launch new masters program in Bioethics
September 21, 2009A new Master of Arts program in Bioethics enrolled its first students this fall.
The program is a collaboration between the Center for Ethics and the Laney Graduate School, and involves faculty from a wide range of academic, clinical, and research entities.
The program is directed by Kathy Kinlaw, Director of the Center's program in Health Sciences and Ethics. "Drawing on Emory's many resources and on close ties with organizations beyond campus, the master's degree in bioethics provides rigorous and innovative training in the ethical dimensions of health care and the health sciences," says Kinlaw.
"Our training will include both academic study and a practicum experience where our students will engage directly with real-life bioethics settings -- such as sitting on an IRB or hospital ethics committee, or interning at a community organization -- as well as a capstone course where students focus on an independent project, perhaps resulting in a grant proposal, a peer review article or legislative proposal."
One distinguishing feature of the Master of Arts in Bioethics program is the ability for students to focus their studies on a defined area of bioethics. In addition to the program’s strong curriculum in clinical bioethics, the program provides strong support for research ethics, international ethics, religious studies and health ethics, public health ethics, and rural health ethics, and many other areas of particular interest.
"We have designed the program to give the students a thorough grounding in bioethics while providing hands-on experience in institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NASA, the Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia, and Emory’s superb medical, nursing, public health, law, business and theology schools," says Paul Root Wolpe, Director of the Center for Ethics, in a University statement.
In the same statement, Lisa A. Tedesco, Dean of the Laney Graduate School, notes that "the program reflects our strong commitment to scholarship that engages difficult problems and contributes to the public good, and it resonates deeply with the expertise, experience and resources available at Emory."