The Hopkins Undergraduate Bioethics Society (HUBS) is a very small group that has been on campus for a few years. Meeting twice a month for discussions, 10 committed members discuss issues such as medical insurance, drug policies, abortion issues, environmental issues and informed consent.
“[The group is something that] everyone can relate to . . . really anyone who has ever had a conversation about whether or not House is a good guy or not is having a conversation similar to the kind that we’re having in bioethics club,” senior Amy Marco, the current HUBS president, said.
Marco admitted that their group is currently small due to the fact that not many people think they know what bioethics is.
“Even though a lot of people might think they don’t know what bioethics is about, anyone can have an opinion and provide good insights into our discussions,” she said.
Junior Ban Wang said he initially became interested in bioethics through his interest in medicine. “However, after taking classes in bioethics and being in this group, I’ve come to learn that bioethics is a field that encompasses many disciplines and is pertinent to almost all areas of study,” he said.
The group meets twice a month for discussions, which are moderated and recorded so that the contents of the meeting can be posted on the blog. Through this platform, those who cannot attend meetings, or have additional thoughts may comment on the topic. On weeks that there are not discussions, speakers will come in to give a talk.
“The first speaker [was] Professor Hilary Bok, who [discussed] stem cell banks,” Marco said. The program entitled, “Who Will Be Counted?: A Closer Look At Stem Cells” took place on Wednesday, Feb. 23rd. Additionally, the club will be hosting several members from the Berman Institute of Bioethics, located on the Eastern Hopkins campus, as well as Valerie Bonham, the executive director of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.
“We all know that medicine is important,” Wang wrote. “However, we hardly ever consider the ethical implications behind medicine, as well as how the decision-making process doctors go through in treating patients essentially follows the same path of theoretical analysis as say public policy, law, political theory, or even physics.”
There are currently 10 student members who, along with several members of the Berman Institute, are working to make HUBS a legitimate presence on the Hopkins campus. Marco stressed that Executive Director Abbas Rattini, along with Ishan Dasgupta and Larissa Woskob, have been integral in working with HUBS. “They’ve worked really hard to help organize and mobilize the organization, find speakers, and create the website,” she said.
“When I was first hired by Hopkins in September, I was interested in engaging undergraduate students in bioethics,” Rattini wrote in an email to The News-Letter. With the help of colleague, Ishan Dasgupta, Rattani revived the Hopkins Undergraduate Bioethics Society.
“We hope to give more power and independence to our members as well as successfully train them in substantial leadership skills,” Rattani wrote. “So far we have recruited some amazing passionate students who have been helping HUBS grow into a nuanced student organization.”
“I think this is a mental faculty that undergraduates at Hopkins, including myself, oftentimes lack,” Wang added. “We have the general conception that knowledge is about learning theories and applying them when needed, but we fail to look at new problems and critically analyze them through the lens of ethics.”
HUBS is currently working on some film projects that have developed from short films into more sitcom-like webisodes. “The point of the film is to highlight a bioethical issue in a humorous way that can briefly introduce people to the kind of ethical concept that can occur in medicine,” Marco said.
The projects will be shown to medical students and possibly to undergraduate students eventually.
“They’re also proving to be a great way for our members to grapple with the best way of presenting these conflicts,” Marco said.
The current focus is on writing and organization, and the group hopes to have at least a few episodes for next fall. Some of the subjects include informed consent, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research, dementia, addiction and psychological disorders. “This project is one that we plan to continue and add on to as we go,” Marco said. “Hopefully we’ll be adding on the list of topics [that we are covering] as time goes on.”
“In essence, being in this group has helped me develop a faculty for critical thinking, and I ultimately hope to empower all undergraduates at Hopkins with the same ability,” Wang wrote.
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