The Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics
and American Institutions

Summary of Other Completed Projects

• Ethics and the Professions
• Medical Ethics
• The Ethics of Research
• Trustees of Nonprofit Organizations
• Religion and American Society

Ethics and the Professions

In 1987, the Poynter Center received a two-year grant from the Exxon Education Foundation to explore issues of professional power and responsibility; this initiative has had continuing ramifications for the center's work. The project, "Professional Leadership and the Common Good," assisted Indiana University faculty in preparing students for professional careers. The grant also funded two annual conferences, which expanded the discussion of ethics in the curriculum to the university members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC).

One early outcome of these meetings was a 1989 conference entitled "Professional Ethics in Higher Education: Methods, Theories, Practices," cosponsored with Harvard University's Program in Ethics and the Professions and funded by the Lilly Endowment and The American Express Fund for Curricular Development. Participants urged further interchange among academics and professional practitioners on ethical issues in the professions.

Following that mandate, the Poynter Center spearheaded the effort to organize the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, which was founded in 1991. Housed at Indiana University and directed by Executive Secretary Brian Schrag, the Association encourages interdisciplinary scholarship and exemplary teaching in practical and professional ethics.

From 1989 to 1995, the Poynter Center extended its outreach to Indiana colleges and universities with grants from the Lilly Endowment, which funded a program entitled "Ethics and the Educated Person." Faculty teams from 42 institutions designed ethics curricula for their home campuses and applied to the Endowment for implementation funding.

Medical Ethics

In 1998, the center and the Indiana University School of Law cosponsored a conference on "Alternatives to Assisted Suicide," organized by Roger B. Dworkin, Robert A. Lucas Professor of Law. Presentations were collected and published as a Poynter Center monograph.

Also in 1998, the center and the Indiana Hospice and Palliative Care Organization established the Indiana Support Initiative on End of Life Care, a coalition of organizations and individuals who seek to improve care for the dying and their families. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's program on Community-State Partnerships, the coalition convened planning meetings and focus groups to survey the state of care for the dying, published a resource guide and offered programming for religious leaders.

In 1993, a major grant from the National Center for Human Genome Research funded the study that produced Early Warning: Cases and Guidance for Presymptomatic Testing in Genetic Diseases (Indiana University Press, 1998). The authors explored the salient issues from the perspectives of genetic counseling, clinical medicine, law and ethics, offering annotated cases and extrapolated guidelines.

In the 1980s, at the invitation of the National Institutes of Health, the center prepared advisory papers for task forces charged with developing policy directions for the federal government. One paper outlined medical care givers' responsibilities to patients with AIDS or HIV; a second explored the ethical issues raised by transplantation of human fetal tissue.

The National Endowment for the Humanities funded a year-long seminar on bioethics topics convened by David H. Smith in 1981-82 for college and university teachers and also supported earlier summer seminars for medical care providers.

The Ethics of Research

In 1989, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) awarded a grant to fund "Catalyst," which produced case studies focused on the conduct of scientific research, collected for Research Ethics: Cases and Materials (Indiana University Press, 1995), edited by Robin Levin Penslar.

The U. S. Office for Protection from Research Risks at the National Institutes of Health contracted with Ms. Penslar, then a center staff member, to revise the guidebook for institutional review boards, published in 1993 as Protecting Human Research Subjects.

Trustees of Nonprofit Organizations

The Lilly Endowment provided funding for Entrusted: The Moral Responsibilities of Trustees (Indiana University Press, 1995), in which David Smith examines the notions of trust and vicarious responsibility, offering a general characterization of trustees' moral responsibilities and case studies that challenge colleges, hospitals and community service organizations.

With a second Lilly Endowment grant, Judith Granbois and Robin Levin Penslar directed a project for private colleges and universities, health care providers and human services agencies. Forty-four Indiana organizations received funding to plan programs of board development; half received follow-on implementation grants.

Poynter Center staff members also provided programming for trustees of hospitals and museums.

Religion and American Society

From 1979 through 1985, with major funding from the Lilly Endowment, the center convened a series of seminars on religion and professional ethics. Religious leaders, academics and professionals joined in exploring ethical issues in health care, the media, the military and business.

"Religion and Morality of the Professions in America," funded by the Lilly Endowment in 1993, developed a research paradigm that incorporates descriptive and normative analysis. David H. Smith and Richard B. Miller, Religious Studies, assembled a group of scholars who conducted individual research projects; the center has published many of their essays as monographs.

"Religion, Ethics and Professional Life," a follow-on project also funded by the Lilly Endowment, produced three books. Caring Well: Religion, Narrative, and Health Care Ethics (Westminster John Knox 2000), includes individual essays by ten members of a distinguished seminar of scholars. In Children, Ethics, and Modern Medicine (Indiana University Press, 2003), Richard B. Miller focused on pediatric intensive care units. David H. Smith also wrote about the religious dimensions of the lives of professional health care givers.

In 1999, the center collaborated with the Indiana University School of Law's Law and Society Program in sponsoring a campus seminar and symposium on "Religious Liberty at the Dawn of the New Millennium," organized by Daniel Conkle, Professor of Law. Conference proceedings were published in the Indiana Law Journal.

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