Bioethics for Beginners - How Do You Enter the Field of Bioethics?

Professor McGee sheds some light on the path to the field of bioethics
by Glenn McGee

Things have changed dramatically in bioethics in the past three years; I would say that the changes compare in magnitude with those in the software industry more than with the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, medicine or anthropology. Only one of the changes in bioethics is obvious from a cursory look at the world of academia: the enormous and expanding market for those with interest in and talent for bioethics. That change is illusory though, because while professional academics with Ph.D. degrees are always invited to apply for positions in bioethics, more and more of the appointments are being made to physicians trained in a special form of health services research (empirical research of the kind taught at schools of public health like Johns Hopkins and Harvard) that has begun to go by the name bioethics as well. Also, more and more of the academic appointments in bioethics are being made to scholars for whom bioethics, rather than generalized training in philosophy with an emphasis on bioethics or applied ethics, is the focus. While there are only a few Ph.D. programs in bioethics per se, there are Ph.D. programs that can provide essentially the same training. But there are problems with this plan, both for the participant and for the sponsoring institution, and there is nothing systematic about either the programs that are available or the outcomes they produce. Equally important, many who today work in bioethics do not aspire to a full-time role in bioethics, or to a role that has research or teaching or both as a primary concern.

Students who are finishing up their undergraduate work and choosing graduate training--but who don't want to become physicians or lawyers--have some tough decisions to make. It is possible to take a degree in philosophy, sociology, law, medicine, nursing or any of several other disciplines and to take a second masters' degree in bioethics "on top." There are high quality masters programs in bioethics at several major universities. There are also many more programs emerging, including some at the schools currently recognized as Ph.D. or post-M.D. institutions of choice in bioethics. We have assembled a list of such programs.

do site Bioethics.net