Biomedical ethics

Biomedical Ethics is a program administered by a committee of faculty members in philosophy, medicine, and religious studies. The program, which offers an undergraduate concentration in the ethical problems raised by recent advances in biology and medicine, was a result of informal meetings beginning about 1972 of a group of professors who met to exchange views on medical ethics. A grant by the the Ittleson Family Foundation to the Division of Biological Medical Sciences in 1973 formalized the committee consisting of John Ladd and Dan W. Brock, professors of philosophy, Sidney Cobb, an epidemiologist and professor of community medicine and psychiatry, David Kass, psychiatrist, Robert P. Davis, professor of medical science, and Sumner B. Twiss, professor of religious studies. The committee sponsored roundtable discussions and conferences, and initiated the interdisciplinary courses and concentration in biomedical ethics.