Twenty-eight faculty members, most of them teaching in the life sciences, came to Bloomington for the five-day workshop and one- day conference. They represented eleven Big Ten universities (IUPUI, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, and University of Wisconsin-Madison). It was an intense week, but it seemed to us that no one regretted the effort.
David Smith opened the week with an address on "Teaching Ethics in the University." He also presented two other sessions: "Levels and Types of Ethical Analysis" and "Using Living Subjects in Scientific Research." Karen Muskavitch, Biology, also had a major presence in the workshop, leading three sessions on writing and using case studies in teaching research ethics.
Muriel J. (Mickey) Bebeau, Education Director at the Center for the Study of Ethical Development at the University of Minnesota, led two sessions on assessing student learning in ethics courses. Deni Elliott, Mansfield Professor of Ethics and Public Affairs at the University of Montana, described her own FIPSE/NSF funded project, "Educational Scope and Process for the Teaching of Research Ethics." Deni also brought along a copy of her recently completed video, "The Burden of Knowledge: Ethical Issues in Prenatal Testing."
Michael J. Zigmond, Professor of Cellular and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, talked about his own experience in "Teaching Ethics as a Survival Skill." David Boeyink, Professor of Journalism at IU and Director of Media Studies at the Poynter Center, discussed "Cold Comfort: Peer Review, Responsible Communication with the Media, and the Case of Cold Fusion."
David DeMets, Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (and one of the workshop participants) gave a presentation on "Introducing Bias with Statistical Analysis (Intentionally and Otherwise)." Dave included several anecdotes about his own experiences in uncovering and investigating cases of research fraud. Nicholas H. Steneck, Director of the Historical Center for the Health Sciences at the University of Michigan, talked on "Lessons Learned from a Decade of Confronting Misconduct in Science." Nick also provided a copy of an article of his in proof: "Research Universities and Scientific Misconduct: History, Policies, and the Future" Journal of Higher Education 65 (No. 3, May/June 1994): 54-69.
C. K. Gunsalus, Research Standards Officer and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, spoke on "Institutional Issues in Investigating Fraud and Misconduct." Kenneth D. Pimple demonstrated a HyperCard stack designed to make it easy to create interactive case studies. Called "Case Builder," the software was distributed to interested participants and will soon be available on the Poynter Center gopher.
Another major feature of the workshop was small groups. Led by Peter Finn (Psychology), George Heise (Psychology), Marc Muskavitch (Biology), Julia Pedroni (graduate student in medical ethics), and Brian Schrag (Poynter Center and APPE), the small groups gave everyone a chance to speak up (as it happens, not a major problem for this crowd!). Each participant was charged with developing a case study before the end of the week, and they discussed and polished their cases in the small groups. In the last session of the workshop, one person from each small group presented her or his case for the whole group to discuss.
On Friday we moved from workshop to conference mode. The workshop participants were joined by almost 100 other scientists and scholars from Indiana, the Midwest and elsewhere in the United States for a conference entitled "Scientific (Mis)Conduct and Social (Ir)Responsibility." Rosemary Chalk, National Academy of Sciences, presented the keynote address, "Scientific (Mis)Conduct and Social (Ir)Responsibility"; respondents were Thomas Gieryn, Sociology, IU, and C. K. Gunsalus. Additional presentations were "Science as a Socially Responsible Community," Mark S. Frankel, American Association for the Advancement of Science, with responses by Martha Crouch, Biology, IU, and James Capshew, History and Philosophy of Science, IU, and "Teaching Responsible Science," Frederick Grinnell, Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of Texas, and Penny Gilmer, Chemistry, Florida State University.
"Teaching Research Ethics" has major funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. Plans are already underway for next year's workshop and conference.
This year's conference will be bracketed by two concurrent events that will appeal to Association members -- a seminar on "Current Research on Moral Psychology," which will convene on March 2, and a conference on "The Reporting of Ethics and the Ethics of Reporting," meeting on March 4 and 5. Both meetings will convene at the Stouffer Concourse Hotel.
Submissions for presentations will be accepted in the traditional categories of formal papers, pedagogical demonstrations and curriculum projects, and case studies. Poster sessions, introduced at last year's meeting, will again be featured this year. The 1995 meeting will introduce a new feature, Breakfast with the Authors. Association members are invited to nominate their own books published between April 1993 and September 1994; nominated books must be related to the interests and goals of the Association. Conference registrants will sign up for breakfast on Saturday, March 5, with the author of their choice.
For information on deadlines and other details, contact Brian Schrag, Executive Secretary, Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, 410 N. Park Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405 (812/855-6540; FAX 812/855-3315; Bitnet: APPE@INDIANA; Internet:APPE@INDIANA.EDU).
You know that testing is available -- testing that can tell you now whether you will develop HD, years before any symptoms appear. If your test results are positive, you know that you will become ill and die from a cruel and relentless disease that cannot be treated. If your test results are negative, you and your children will be free of that burden.
You are considering marriage, and you want to know your genetic status. Your father, however, does not want to be tested; he prefers to live in uncertainty rather than receiving the devastating news that he will contract HD. If your test reveals that you carry the HD gene, the information will automatically diagnose your father as a carrier as well. How should your interests and your father's interests be balanced?
An interdisciplinary research group is considering the questions raised by this case and many others in connection with its work on a project funded by the National Center for Human Genome Research at the National Institutes of Health. The three- year grant supports a the use of case studies to identify and explore the ethical problems encountered in presymptomatic testing for a group of late onset genetic diseases. The goal is to produce a book that will offer guidance for the ethical conduct of presymptomatic testing.
During this first year, the group focused on HD. Members drafted case analyses and responded to others' drafts with comments and questions, collaborating electronically on a Local Area Network (LAN) available through Indiana University's Computing Services and set up with the help of Ken Pimple, the Poynter Center's computermeister. The technology has proved a tremendous boon for a team whose members are divided between IU's Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses, but the group also maintains a regular schedule of face-to-face meetings at two-week intervals. Group members are Roger Dworkin, Law; Gregory Gramelspacher, Medicine; Kimberly Quaid and Gail Vance, Medical and Molecular Genetics; and David Smith and Judith Granbois, Poynter Center.
In May, the group presented eighteen cases, the tangible product of its first year of work, to the project's four consultants -- P. Michael Conneally, Distinguished Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics and of Neurology, IU; Robert Burt, Southmayd Professor of Law, YaleUniversity; Thomas H. Murray, Professor and Director, Center for Biomedical Ethics, Case Western Reserve University; and Madison Powers, Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University. Collaborators found the meeting helpful and affirming, and authors are currently refining their case analyses in light of the consultants' suggestions.
Plans for the next year call for the group to study cases that focus on the other six disorders of interest to the project. Members of the working group will visit a group of major testing centers to obtain cases, and the group also will solicit cases through correspondence with geneticists and counselors throughout the country.
A small invitational meeting scheduled for late September will bring together persons and families at risk of HD, along with professionals who counsel and test for the disorder. The meeting is intended to provide a reality check for the working group's analyses.
However, jouranlists who come from a tradition that values both concrete facts and moral neutrality can be unsure how or when to report these complex ethical issues. They may even see values as land mines to be avoided. Time constraints, especially in television news, can also short-circuit attempts to explore deeper questions of value in news stories. Journalists are often better equipped to cover the "who, what, where, when and how" than the "why."
The Poynter Center is sponsoring a national conference for jouranlists and ethicists to discuss the "why" at the core of many news stories: complex ethical questions of character, religion, justice and social benefit. The conference, "The Reporting of Ethics and the Ethics of Reporting," will convene March 4-5, 1995, in Crystal City, Virginia, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. (See related story, page .)
Individual sessions will focus on the role of values in reporting, media coverage of religion, and ethical issues in public policy stories. One session will begin to build a future research agenda for journalism ethics. Another will feature a case study on the reporting of character in political campaigns. Each session will include presentations by a professional journalist and an academic.
David Boeyink, Associate Professor of Journalism and Director of Media Studies for the Poynter Center, is in charge of planning the conference. For more information, Boeyink can be reached at 812/855-9872 or boeyink@indiana.edu.
The meeting opened Thursday night with the keynote presentation by Nel Noddings, Acting Dean and Lee L. Jacks Professor of the School of Education, Stanford University. Noddings' lecture was entitled "Should We Teach Ethics to Everyone? Where and Why?"
Friday morning, Michael Pritchard of Western Michigan University led a panel discussion on "Writing and Teaching Case Studies." Panel members Gerald Gruen of Purdue University, James Jaksa of Western Michigan University and Heinz Luegenbiehl of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology discussed their experience in using case study materials in the classroom.
Following that plenary session, participants chose one of two workshops: "Teaching Ethics in Sciences and Helping Professions" (a panel comprising Carol Grabow, IU-Kokomo; David Johnson, Indiana State University; and Stuart Offenbach, Purdue University, and led by Robert Strikwerda, IU-Kokomo) and "Teaching Ethics in Economics and Business" (a panel discussion by Jill Vihtelic, St. Mary's College, and Steven Cox, University of Southern Indiana, moderated by John Ruhe, St. Mary's College).
Participants offered enthusiastic evaluations of the meeting. Many expressed regret that the project is coming to an end (the 1994-95 cohort is the final one) and expressed the hope that some means might be found to bring together the "alums."
This year's cohort for "Ethics and the Educated Person" includes representatives from the Indiana Institute of Technology, IU-South Bend, Indiana/Purdue-Fort Wayne, Indiana Wesleyan University, Marian College, Purdue University-Calumet and the University of Evansville. The one-week summer workshop is scheduled for June 5-10.
For the second meeting, the Fellows read a paper by Alfred Diamant, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, entitled "The Student Advocates Program at Indiana University: Practical Ethics in the Life of a University." Diamant's presentation and the ensuing discussion touched on many of the difficulties faced by the advocates and the importance of the program in the huge bureaucracy that is IU. Diamant reports that the Advocates Office asked him about using the paper, which includes five brief case studies, in their training for future advocates.
New Zeland's debate over the rationing of health care began three years ago when the newly elected government decided that the system (which had been modeled on the United Kingdom's plan: a single-payer system funded by taxation) needed to be changed. Critics believed that the health care system was inefficient due to a lack of competition and that health care should no longer be provided free of charge. A three-tier set-up of payment based upon income was established, raising concerns that the government was no longer treating health care as an entitlement program, but instead forcing a competition based upon ability to pay. The national government decided to allocate funds to regional health authorities and give them the responsibility of giving out contracts for services; hence, regional officials made decisions about what could or could not be provided and began "bidding out" the services.
This new approach has stirred up a huge debate. New Zealanders began experiencing fears that certain services might not be provided; the entire population has entered into the debate of how such decisions should be made. The government has undertaken the job of defining "core health services," those "to which everyone should have access, on affordable terms without unreasonable waiting time." The government states that it has "an obligation to assist" in the providing of health care -- a huge shift from the previously assumed "obligation to provide." The government has further stated that the list of what will be provided "should reflect the community's values" -- not the values of the medical professionals.
The struggle to define both "core health services" and "the community's values" has continued. Should the list be positive (what will be provided) or negative (what will not be provided)? What kind of flexibility should be built into the definitions in acknowledgment of rapidly changing technology?
The Bioethics Centre Campbell directs has been asked to prepare a paper, "Ethical Issues in Defining Core Services," and to assist in devising a way to consult communities about issues and priorities of health care rationing. The Centre has run a series of day-long workshops for several groups: the elderly, the intellectually and physically disabled, people living in rural areas who have difficulty getting access to services, the inner city poor, the Maori, the major groups of immigrant labor (i.e., Fijians), and high school students.
The debate continues to rage in New Zealand, underscoring the massive complexity of the issues. All agreed that Campbell's lecture illuminated recent developments here in the United States. Campbell stressed that the New Zealand experience shows that ordinary people want to be involved in the debate and have some input in what is voluntary vs. what is imposed. As Campbell said: "Can we feel that we are all doing this together instead of accepting something which is imposed from above or outside?"
Convening August 4-6 on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, the first program will inform persons who are trained in ethics about the need for ethics education, now mandated by the federal government for its employees; provide training about governmental ethics regulations; and offer practical advice on how to respond to government agencies' requests for proposals.
Workshop staff includes:
The second workshop, cosponsored by APPE, the Museum Trustee Association and the Poynter Center, will launch a national leadership program on board development supported by the Getty Foundation. A new educational resource, it is designed to help trustees to play a more active and effective role in responding to the challenges that confront museums today.
The one-day workshop, scheduled for September 9, will assist museum trustees in two ways. First, it will provide case studies and discussions that will expand their understanding of complex issues of museum ethics and the most effective role for trustees. Second, it will equip them with tools for effective leadership in developing a code of ethics that is tailored to the needs of their individual institutions. Codes of ethics are now required by the American Association of Museums.
The day's agenda includes a lecture on "The Ethics of Museum Trusteeship," case studies based on real issues such as conflict of interest and collection of plundered artifacts, and a panel of national leaders in the arts, who will discuss their own responses "When Ethical Codes Conflict."
For more information on these workshops, contact Brian Schrag, Executive Secretary, Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, 410 N. Park Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405 (phone 812/855- 0261).
Back to the Table of Contents.
Six current MacArthur Scholars (John Dugas, John Laudun, Paul MBatia, Michaela Pohl, Yasmine Rassam and Paula Wagoner) regularly attended the brown bag lunch meetings of the working group, as did several former MacArthur Scholars, past and prospective MacArthur Fellowship grantees, and other IU students and faculty members.
The last issue of this newsletter described the working group's activities during the fall semester. The new year opened with a presentation on January 18 by Jean R. Freedman, a graduate student in the Folklore Department at IU. She described her MacArthur Fellowship-sponsored research on popular culture in World War II London.
The remaining meetings of the working group featured presentations by current MacArthur Scholars on their research. Paula Wagoner talked about identity and blood quanta (If you are one-eighth Indian, are you an Indian?) among the Dakota Sioux; John Laudun discussed race, ethnicity, language and identity in Louisiana Cajuns and Creoles; Micheala Pohl explored the similarities and differences between state uses of folklore and folklore research in Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany; John Dugas described the process of constitution-forging in Colombia; and Yasmine Rassam raised several interesting questions about the status of women (especially Third World women) in the eyes of international law in a presentation called "Working Women or Beasts of Burden?"
The working group's film series was developed in cooperation with the Honors Division. Its theme was "The Good Life: What is it? How can we live it? How is it denied us? Views from four cultures." The series included "Pather Panchali" (India; Satyajit Ray, 1954); "Selbe" (Senegal; Safi Faye, 1982); "Saaraba" (Senegal; Amadou Saalum Seck, 1988); "Man Facing Southeast" (Argentina; Eliseo Subiela, 1986); and "Raise the Red Lantern" (China; Chiu Fu-sheng, 1992).
On April 7, the working group sponsored a visit by A. Peter Walshe, Professor of Government and International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Walshe met with the working group over lunch and presented an afternoon public lecture on the role of prophetic Christianity in the liberation movement in South Africa.
The Center is hooked up to Ethernet and rents space on a Local Area Network (LAN) from IU's University Computing Services (UCS). The LAN has made a great contribution to the work on the genome project, electronically uniting the six members of the working team, who are located on two campuses. Participants at the Poynter Center and the School of Law in Bloomington, and the Regenstrief Institute and the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics in Indianapolis have immediate access to case analyses as they are developed, as well as a common bibliography.
Another benefit of the new computers and our Ethernet hookup is our new gopher server. Thanks to the tremendous support of University Computing Services, we were able to establish a gopher site with no expense and not too much effort. Currently, we have posted the most recent edition of the Poynter Center Newsletter, the text of the Poynter Center's brochure, the text of the brochure of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, a list of our currently available monographs, and, best of all, an image (in GIF format) of the Poynter Center's Official Coat of Arms (designed by Ken when he was a fledgling member of the staff and pictured in the Summer 1989 issue of this newsletter). There's also a subdirectory for "Teaching Research Ethics," Ken's major project, which is described in more detail elsewhere.
To explore the Poynter Center gopher, you need your own gopher software and local help on how to use it. Once you're up and running, use the following settings:
type = 1
port = 70host = gopher.ucs.indiana.edu
From the main IU Gopher menu, follow this path:
Other IU Gopher Servers > Poynter Center
Subsequent sessions focused on proposals for research. First to present was a group who are concentrating on the scientific professions. Paul Camenisch plans to interview the health care professionals who cared for him before, during and after his open heart surgery. Richard Miller will focus on issues of children's pain and suffering in medical settings. Lisa Parker will study genetics counselors and the ethical dilemmas they confront, and David Smith will investigate how scientists' religious definitions affect behavior in biology laboratories.
Additional presenters included Louis Newman, who is working on legal ethics specific to judges, and Daniel Conkle, who wants to study professionals in the law who define themselves as Christians. Carol Greenhouse will review literature in anthropology as it pertains to the circulation of ideas, and Thomas Schwandt will focus on perfect vs. imperfect duties as they play out in terms of moral character.
Exploring issues in journalism, David Boeyink will describe a religion reporter at a newspaper in Elkhart, while Ed Lambeth will compare the morality of journalism with that of other professions. William Meyer will study a Presbyterian congregation to delineate roles within the church, and David Schmidt will interview business professionals to define the role morality plays in their lives.
The group met for the final time this year May 12-13. Draft chapters by David Schmidt and Lisa Parker. William F. May methods of fieldwork and theoretical perspectives he has found useful.
Last updated: 22 January 1996
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~poynter/nl1994-1.html
Comments: pimple@indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, The Trustees of Indiana University