A new department of medical ethics will be added to Penn's School of Medicine this summer in response to the growing importance of the field of bioethics.
The department is scheduled to open July 1, with current director of the University's Center for Bioethics Arthur Caplan also serving as chairman of the new department.
The University Board of Trustees passed the resolution to create the new department at their annual winter meetings last month.
"I think this is a really good thing," Caplan said.
As chairman, Caplan will work closely with deans and department chairs in the medical school to ensure that students receive the highest level of education, to help shape medical school and hospital policies and practices and to advocate for faculty promotions and tenure.
"My goal is to use the creation of the department to better integrate bioethics with Penn Medicine, to improve our teaching with residents... to continue to expand our undergraduate teaching and opportunities for student internships and to attract philanthropic support and gifts in response to the University's commitment to this new department," Caplan said.
A new department is established when a new discipline has evolved to the point where it needs an academic home, according to Provost Robert Barchi.
Currently, the Center for Bioethics offers a concentration in the History and Sociology of Science major, and the center employs over 20 full- and part-time faculty, with associate faculty in other University departments.
"Bioethics is an extremely important academic endeavor," Barchi said. "Just look at the national news. I doubt a day goes by without a story or interview or comment about bioethics or by a bioethicist. Some most recent examples are developments with stem cell research and life support issues for brain-dead patients. These are very important social and moral issues."
While the Center for Bioethics was created in 1993, discussions on the possibility of establishing a separate department began in the spring of 2000. Those discussions were the result of a six-year review of the center, as well as a review of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy and the Molecular and Cellular Engineering Department between 1998 and 1999.
The resolution was passed by the Penn Medicine executive committee and was then approved by the Trustees.
"Although this field was begun years ago as a group within the School of Medicine, [the Medical School trustees and the University Trustees] felt comfortable that they warranted growing. The field and the faculty deserved to be established as a department," Medical School Dean Arthur Rubenstein said. "The field of medical ethics has more impact in dealing with challenging topics, and the faculty involved in medical ethics didn't have a cohesive home."
Though clinical practices at the IHGT came under heavy scrutiny in 1999 after the death of a gene therapy research subject, Caplan said the decision "preceded IHGT stuff. We always figured we'd head that way."
In 1999, Penn researcher James M. Wilson was leading an IHGT study that resulted in the highly-publicized death of his 18-year-old patient Jesse Gelsinger. Gelsinger's family sued many involved with the study, including Caplan.
"Our review of IHGT in 1998-1999, before the Gelsinger case, concluded that bioethics should be a separate department," Barchi said.
According to Caplan, there are many benefits to having an official department as opposed to a small division.
"This creates a masters program, giving the field an academic home, and it opens the possibility of a Ph.D. program," he said. "It also helps with fundraising, because I think donors will be more motivated to contribute."
"Integrating bioethics into the medical education is really important for clinicians," Barchi said.
Indeed, one of the department's outlined goals includes fostering collaborative research with other departments in the medical and health care fields. The resolution also states that a separate department would ensure that there was adequate faculty support and representation.
"We hope the critical faculty will make critical decisions, and that this will attract more students and Ph.D.s," Rubenstein said.
