A national election year allows for both sagacious and salacious talk about ethics issues in the political arena. While most ethics talk fitfully follows what voters lose from negative and false political advertising, and superficially attends to the profound ethical dilemmas posed by the increasing link between income and political inequality, we think the local political arena offers some of the best insights about political ethics issues that impact us all.
One of the first resources A2Ethics offered on our website was a map showing permanent ethics initiatives distinguishing our state. Notably unique among them in our view was--and still remains--The Center for Law, Ethics and Health at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The Center was founded in 2005 and is directed by Peter Jacobson, Professor of Health Law and Policy.
Should "Dead Media" Have Moral Standing?
There are so many ways to present the fascinating curatorial work, teaching and original research of Finn Brunton, Assistant Professor of Information at the University of Michigan School of Information, and author of the forthcoming book--Spam: A Flood, A Theory, A History (MIT Press).
Before A2Ethics talked with Darlene Wahlberg, an IRB administrator for St. Joseph Mercy Health Care System, we had to get her informed consent. We thought it meant getting her to talk with us about her responsibility for managing and documenting the work of one of St. Joseph Mercy's Institutional Review Boards. Institutional Review Boards, more commonly known as IRBs, have been part of the structure of health care and foundations of medical ethics for forty years.
There are many centers doing ethics work and contributing to the growing global "ethics economy." As far as we know, however, there is only one center which combines study of bioethical issues with the social sciences in medicine. Notably, it is in Michigan--at the University of Michigan Medical School--and known as CBSSM, a felicitous acronym for The Center for Bioethics and the Social Sciences in Medicine.
What Better Life Than Teaching Ethics?
"If I major in philosophy or ethics, what will I be able to do? Other than teach?"
We didn't pose those questions to distinguished ethics teacher Brian Miller. Such questions would never occur to us. After all, what better life than teaching ethics and philosophy?
In America, we rely on multiple institutions and as many pathways to train new educators in the fundamentals of the teaching craft. Reformers have routinely called for more systematic approaches, prominent among them transforming teacher education to model the clinical training, research practices and mentoring of doctors.