Duquesne Contingent Adds to Global Discussion of Ethics

Duquesne and its Center for Healthcare Ethics participated in key global discussions about the teaching of ethics in Ankara, Turkey, at the second conference of the International Association for Education in Ethics (IAEE).

Dr. Henk ten Have, director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics and secretariat, treasurer and a founding member of the IAEE, delivered the keynote The Principle of Vulnerability in Present-day Global Bioethics at the May 21-23 conference. The theme focused attention on security, technology and sustainability challenges from an ethical perspective.

Duquesne participants, in addition to ten Have, were:

• The Rev. Peter Osuji, C.S.Sp., assistant professor in the Center for Healthcare Ethics, who presented Tortoise and Alia: Beyond A Nostalgia for Traditional Moral Education: The Method of The Igbo People of Nigeria
• Student Alex Dubov, who presented Decision Ownership and Education of Medical Residents
• Student Aiyub Alwehaibi, who presented A Daily Dose of Ethics: Teaching Method in Hospitals
• Student Aimee Zellers, who shared Rethinking The Integration of Ethics Across the Undergraduate Curriculum.

The conference attracted ethicists and educators from 22 countries in the fields of education, business, biotechnology, communication, law, engineering, environment, history, religion, medicine, nursing, sports, social science and veterinary medicine.

Gathering such a diverse group together provides the opportunity to share ideas about how we make decisions and to reflect on how these decisions may impact others, ten Have said. “Sharing and discussing best practices across disciplines provides a critical foundation to applying ethical decision-making to different global settings and individual contexts,” ten Have explained. “We are pleased that Duquesne could participate so fully in this international exchange.”