Connecting Values with Scientific Innovation: Developing a Bioethics Minor

FAIN: AKA-279394-21

Clarkson University (Potsdam, NY 13676-1401)
Paul J. Cummins (Project Director: September 2020 to present)
Darryl L. Scriven (Co Project Director: August 2021 to present)

A one-year planning grant to develop a new interdisciplinary bioethics minor. 

Clarkson University proposes an NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant to develop a new interdisciplinary Bioethics minor. Social trends have led to increased emphasis on STEM and profession-oriented education and a devaluation of the humanities. Despite this, the country is poised for a renewed appreciation of the humanities’ relevance. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised urgent issues of human value in scientific research and health care: ensuring integrity in research; distributing scarce resources now (ventilators) and in the future (vaccines); maintaining trust in public institutions to affect public health; striking a balance between economic and health need. There is an acute need to integrate ethics training into STEM and Pre-health professions majors. A Bioethics minor would respond to this need and prepare students to reason about the intricate connections between human values and science, which have been brought to the fore by the COVID-19 health crisis.