U. to set up new center on bioethics

Hires top biomedical ethicist The nation's leading biomedical ethicist will come to the University next spring, bringing a new perspective to the study of hotly-debated topics such as AIDS, euthanasia and surrogate motherhood. Arthur Caplan, described as "the most prominent figure in the field of bioethics" by Medical School Dean William Kelley, is leaving his position as director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Minnesota for a similar position at the University. Caplan will arrive in the spring to start the University's new bioethics center. Caplan's counsel has been most recently sought by President Clinton's Task Force on Health Care Reform. Bioethicists study ethical questions in the sciences, particularly medicine. But Caplan said he sees the upcoming bioethics center as a "University-wide resource." Although rooted in the Medical Center, students in the Wharton School, the Law School and the School of Arts and Sciences will benefit from thcenter's presence, Caplan said. He said he expects scholars in feminist theory, economists and anthropologists – along with professors in the Medical School – to contribute to the "eclectic" study of bioethics. Caplan said bioethics is an "interdisciplinary field" that examines issues from "the bedside to policy making." Confidentiality, "truth-telling," the use of scarce resources and doctors' relationships with their patients are some of the issues the bioethics center will study. But Caplan says he will focus primarily on health care and health policy issues. He also said he wants to take advantage of University faculty members' "expertise in the genetics area." "It's an area that interests me a lot," he said. Caplan said that of the 120 medical schools in the nation, about half have bioethics centers. While the University's is "one of the newer ones," it is set at "one of the first-rate medical schools in the country." "There hasn't been a center with all of the assets that [the University's] will have," he said. James Wilson, director of the University's new Institute for Human Gene Therapy, said in a statement that he is "looking forward to Dr. Caplan's arrival." Caplan's "expertise and insight into the challenging issues raised by the rapidly emerging field of biomedicine will be invaluable," Wilson said.