In recent past years, UP held intramural ethics bowl events, but this year they engaged in intercollegiate competition. This year’s efforts and team travel were generously sponsored by the McNerney-Hanson Endowed Chair in Ethics, the Philosophy Department, and the School of Nursing.
The team competed in the National Bioethics Bowl, April 8-10, at Case Western Reserve University. In competition, UP was the only team to go undefeated in the preliminary rounds—defeating University of Maryland Baltimore County, Ripon College, and San Jose State University—securing an advancement to the quarterfinals, in which UP fell to Macalaster College. During the Bowl, students debated a wide array of bioethical issues, including the ethics of uterine morcellation, state-sponsored newborn bloodspot biobanks, medical deportation, neuroenhancement, postmortem genetic testing, and voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) advance directives.
This year’s team members hail from a wide variety of disciplines:
Megan Berg, Biology major, Spanish minor
Madeleine Boyle, Philosophy/ Math
Emma Brooks, Nursing
Savannah Collas, Biology
Lucas Gushikuma, Nursing
Elisa Reverman (team captain), Biology major, Chemistry and Philosophy minors
During competition, and throughout the conference more generally, the team did an excellent job of representing UP; they were models of collegiality, intellectual rigor, and moral sensitivity.
In the fall, UP will begin building a new Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team (which will compete on a wider array of ethical issues).