The 30 or more students taking part in the free program will consider such issues as stem cell research, human development, evolution, and more. In addition, they will get to visit a laboratory where they will have the hands-on experience of extracting and examining DNA, the basic genetic material of life. The program will be taught by science and philosophy professors from Rutgers and other universities, and includes break-out sessions on specific issues in bioethics. To prepare the participants for the break-out sessions, the students first will take part in morning workshops in critical thinking.
Says, Jeffrey Buechner, one of the institutes coordinators from the Prudential Business Ethics Center and a lecturer in philosophy at Rutgers, It is essential to reach out to our youth and to provide them with the tools with which to critically assess arguments of any kind whether they are for or against the claims such arguments make. He continued, We are not in the business of telling participants what to think, but we do want to show them how to tell whether what they think is critically sound or not. We hope that this program will create a ripple effect in which participants will leave the institute and engage in discussions of bioethics issues, such as stem cell research, with their families and friends.
During the week-long session, students will reside at Woodward Hall on the Rutgers-Newark campus and experience the college atmosphere.
High school students participating in the Merck Summer Bioethics Institute come primarily from the Newark public schools, as well as schools in surrounding urban communities. Students will be selected by a panel of Rutgers faculty members through an application process that weighs a variety of factors including the creativity shown in an essay they are required to write.
Said Ray Bramucci, director of the Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers, Community outreach is a high priority for the Rutgers-Newark campus. In this summer program, we will be focusing on some of the most important ethical issues generated by rapid advances in biotechnology.
Added Jacqueline Brevard, chief ethics and compliance officer at Merck & Co., Inc., In the science and health care sectors, ethics and transparency are of critical importance not only to corporations business success but also to patients and health care professionals. She continued, I am confident that the Merck Summer Institute on Bioethics will teach these promising students lessons about this very important issue that they can apply as tomorrow's leaders in the field.
In addition to Professor Buechner, coordinators for the program are Barry Komisaruk, distinguished service professor of psychology at Rutgers; Robert Nahory, digital library applications developer for Rutgers Dana Library; and Prudential Business Ethics Center academic director Peter R. Gillett, associate professor of accounting, business ethics and information systems at Rutgers Business School.
Lecturers and discussion leaders at the institute will also include:
- Dr. Valentine Burroughs, chief of surgery at North General Hospital in Manhattan
- Dr. Kathrann Duncan, assistant professor of Family Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey (UMDNJ)
- Dr. Mark S. Johnson, MD/MPH, chair and professor of Family Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey (UMDNJ), and director of the University Center for Family Medicine
- Mill Jonakait, professor of biology in the Federated Department of Biological Sciences at Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
- Dr. J. Liu, University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey (UMDNJ)
- Linda MacDonald Glenn, Senior Fellow, Institute for Ethics, American Medical Association
- Kenneth A. Richman, Ph.D., associate professor, chair of the Institutional Review Board and chair of the Medical Humanities Interest Group at the School of Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Care
- Patricia Soteropoulos, director of the Center for Applied Genomics, Public Health Research Institute
- Anna Stubblefield, chair of the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers-Newark
The Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey:
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has taken a leadership role in promoting the value of ethics in todays business world. Founded in 2002 with a major grant from The Prudential Foundation, the Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers is an academic research center of Rutgers Business SchoolNewark and New Brunswick. Directed by Ray Bramucci, the Centers mission is to help create social as well as financial capital for the business and professional communities of New Jersey and beyond. Its activities, which include conferences, lectures, courses and research at Rutgers Business School, are designed to contribute to the theory and practice of ethics in business and the professions. The Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers supports the teaching of business ethics to students as well as to corporate audiences, and it provides visible leadership that will raise issues and inspire a broader community. For additional information, visit www.pruethics.rutgers.edu.
Merck & Co. Inc.:
Merck & Co., Inc., is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company dedicated to putting patients first. Established in 1891, Merck currently discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs. The company devotes extensive efforts to increase access to medicines through far-reaching programs that not only donate Merck medicine, but also help deliver it to the people who are in need. Merck also publishes unbiased health information as a not-for-profit service. For more information, visit www.merck.com.