UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Bioethics Bowl Team

UP Team Wins National Bioethics Bowl

The University of Portland bioethics team won the 2017 Bioethics Bowl by defeating Georgetown University in the finals on April 8 in Ogden, Utah. In only the second year competing, the UP team was undefeated in the Bioethics Bowl.

The competition drew 17 teams from around the country to debate a wide array of bioethical issues, including the ethics of international vaccine programs, clinical weight management, complex end-of-life care in the absence of surrogate decision-makers, and HIV disclosure policies. The UP team faced groups from the University of Miami, Macalester College, Weber State, and the University of Alabama Birmingham.

The University team was comprised of students from various majors including biology, chemistry, philosophy, nursing, computer science, math, and sociology. The UP bioethics team  includes team captain Elisa Reverman ’17, Savannah Collas ’17, Carolyn Lutzenhiser ’17, Owen Price ’19, and Kit Tobin ’19. Paddy McShane, assistant professor of philosophy, coached the bioethics team and student Morgan Wilhelmi ’19 helped the team prepare for the debates.

For more information contact McShane at x7282 or mcshanep@up.edu.

UP Bioethics Bowl Team Competes at National Level

Staff and faculty portraits

The University’s inaugural Bioethics Bowl Team traveled recently to an intercollegiate competition, the National Bioethics Bowl, on April 8-10, at Case Western Reserve University. The team is a first step in extending an initiative of College of Arts and Sciences dean Michael Andrews in his role as McNerney-Hanson Endowed Chair in Ethics. In recent past years, the University held intramural ethics bowl events, but did not compete in intercollegiate competition.

Team members are Megan Berg, biology/ Spanish; Madeleine Boyle, philosophy/math; Emma Brooks, nursing; Savannah Collas, biology; Lucas Gushikuma, nursing; and Elisa Reverman, biology/chemistry/philosophy. Patricia McShane, philosophy, is coach of the team. Drawing on previous experience coaching successful teams at Georgetown (where she founded their Ethics Bowl program), she worked extensively with the students  to help them understand how to discuss the cases at the competition.

The UP team was the only one to go undefeated in the preliminary rounds, defeating University of Maryland Baltimore County, Ripon College, and San Jose State University, but fell to Macalaster College in the quarterfinals. Students debated a wide array of bioethical issues, including the ethics state-sponsored newborn bloodspot biobanks, medical deportation, neuroenhancement, postmortem genetic testing, and more. This year’s efforts and team travel were sponsored by the McNerney-Hanson Endowed Chair in Ethics, the Department of Philosophy, and the School of Nursing.

For more information contact Paddy McShane, philosophy, at 7282 or mcshanep@up.edu.