David Agler - M.A. (American Philosophy), January 2010

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and in English from IUPUI in 2004. In January 2010, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy. He was awarded a graduate assistantship at the Peirce Edition Project for 2005-06 to work on annotations research related to volume 9 of the Writings of Charles S. Peirce. He received travel grants from the Graduate School and the Graduate Student Organization to deliver a paper at the 8^th International Pragmatism Meeting in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2006, he received the Kern Award and has taught ethics as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Philosophy. He is interested in philosophy of logic, pragmatism, semiotics, and the thought of Charles S. Peirce. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in philosophy at Pennsylvania State University, where he was recently awarded the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award and is a research assistant for the Rock Ethics Institute. For an extended profile, see http://www.davidagler.com

Publications

• 2013 [forthcoming]. Peirce     and the Specification of Borderline Vagueness. Semiotica.
• 2012 [forthcoming]. Polanyi     and Peirce on the Critical Method. Tradition     and Discovery: The Polanyi     Society Periodical.
• 2011. Peirce’s Direct,    Non-Reductive Contextual Theory of Names. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal     in American Philosophy 46(4):611-640.
• 2010. The UFAIL Approach:    Unconventional Weapons and their ‘Unintended’ Medical Effects. Bulletin of Science, Technology &    Society. 30(2):103-112.

Andrew Arndt - M.A. (American Philosophy), June 2010

Received an M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy in June 2010.

Lance Aschliman - M.A., May 2012

Received a B.S. in Secondary Education from Purdue University in 2007 and has since been a mathematics teacher for the Tippecanoe School Corporation in West Lafayette, Indiana. He completed his M.A. in May 2012 and was awarded a teaching assistantship in the Department of Philosophy for 2011-12. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of Miami.

Rebecca Ballard - J.D./M.A. (Bioethics), August 2006

Received a B.S. in Microbiology from Southwest Texas State University in 1999. In August 2006, she completed her M.A. and has the distinction of being the first recipient of the combined J.D. and M.A. degrees with concentrations in health law and bioethics. Her capstone project focused on ethical and legal issues concerning genetic testing of third parties as a means of discovery in civil lawsuits. She also worked with Dr. Jason Eberl on a research project concerning the ethical implications of creating animal-human chimeric embryos. She was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2005-06. Having passed the Indiana Bar Examination in July 2006, she has served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert D. Rucker at the Indiana Supreme Court and was also appointed an adjunct faculty member of the IU School of Law-Indianapolis, where she taught a course concerning research on human and nonhuman subjects. She has worked as the conflicts of interest manager at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and is currently the research compliance officer at Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center and an adjunct faculty member of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.

Publications

• (w/ J.T. Eberl) "Metaphysical and     Ethical Perspectives on Creating Animal-Human           Chimeras," Journal     of Medicine and Philosophy 34:5 (2009): 470-86.
• "Animal/Human Hybrids and     Chimeras: What are They? Why Would Scientists Create Them? And What     Attempts Have Been Made to Regulate Them?" Michigan State University Journal of Medicine and Law 12     (2008): 297-319.
• (w/ J.T. Eberl) "Exercising     Restraint in the Creation of Animal-Human Chimeras," American Journal of Bioethics 8:6 (2008): 45-6.
• "You Get a Line, I’ll Get a Pole     We’ll Go Fish’n in the Plaintiff’s Gene Pool," Defense Counsel Journal 74 (2007): 22-34.

Paper Presentations

• (w/ J.T. Eberl) "The Creation and     Use of Animal-Human Chimeric Embryos: Metaphysical and Moral Ambiguities,"    Bioethics Research Rounds,    IU Center for Bioethics, April 2006.
• (w/ J.T. Eberl) "The Creation and     Use of Animal-Human Chimeric Embryos: Metaphysical and Moral Ambiguities,"    Health Care Ethics Seminar,    The Poynter Center at IU-Bloomington, March 2006.

Robin Bandy - J.D./M.A. (Bioethics), December 2009

Received a B.A. in Political Science from IUPUI in 2006. In December 2009, she completed combined-degrees in Law and Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics. Her capstone research project concerns incapacitated adult patients who require court-appointed guardians during their hospital stay. In Spring 2008, she was awarded a legal internship with the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics, and was also awarded a Clinical Ethics Fellowship at the Fairbanks Center for 2009-10. She was recently acknowledged by Dr. David Orentlicher for her research assistance in the following publications:

• "Health Care Reform: Beyond     Ideology" JAMA 301:17 (2009).
• "Presumed Consent to Organ     Donation: Its Rise and Fall in the United States" Rutgers Law Review 61:2 (2009).

Robin initiated the IUPUI Bioethics Journal Club in 2007 and facilitated it for the next two years. She is a certified guardian with the National Guardianship Association and a member of the Indiana State Guardianship Association. Robin is currently employed by Wishard Memorial Hospital to direct the Wishard Volunteer Advocates Program, which uses court-appointed volunteer advocates to act as limited guardians for hospitalized, incapacitated patients. This program received the 2011 Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award in the field of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. She is also an ethics consultant for Wishard and an adjunct faculty member of the IUPUI Department of Philosophy.

Publications

• (w/ A.M. Torke, P.R. Helft, and     R.W. Bandy) "Medical Decision-making during the Guardianship Process for     Incapacitated, Hospitalized Adults: A Descriptive Cohort Study" Journal of General Internal Medicine (April     27, 2010).

Poster Presentations

• (w/ A.M. Torke, P.R. Helft, and     R.W. Bandy) "Socio-demographic and Medical Characteristics from a     Descriptive Cohort Study of Adult, Incapacitated Patients
      Requiring Court-appointed Guardians," American Society for Bioethics and     Humanities Annual Meeting, October 2009.

Emily Barker-Krueger - M.A. (Bioethics), June 2010

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2006. In June 2010, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. During her studies, she worked as a graduate assistant and taught as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Philosophy. She has worked as a member of AmeriCorps at the Marion County Health Department in the Fetal Infant Mortality Review program and as a grants writer for Health and Hospital Corporation. During her career as a grants writer, she assisted staff at Wishard Health Services with the development of grant-related research methodologies and activities that included high-risk populations. Also, during her employment at Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, she participated on its internal Research Review Committee, which reviews research studies involving Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County patients, clients, and community members. The focus of the committee is to protect the rights of the underserved/vulnerable populations in Marion County, Indiana. She also assisted with the development of the new and innovative program called the Social Immersive Media Project for Life Education (SIMPLE) Program, which is housed at the Indiana State Department of Health. The SIMPLE program offers an innovative social marketing approach to increase public awareness of the importance of integrating the life-course perspective into preconception planning and care.

Recently, she was offered an opportunity to merge her two interests: maternal and child health and the law and accepted a position at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), which is located in Reno, Nevada. The NCJFCJ is a national organization that strives to improve the outcomes of children and families through research, training, and technical assistance to juvenile and family courts, judges, and staff. Emily focuses her research and work on child abuse and neglect issues, including permanency planning for foster children and racial disproportionality and disparities within the Dependency Court system. 

Paper/Poster Presentations

• "Physician-Patient     Relationships: The Variables of Beneficence, Autonomy, and Trust," Great Lakes American Studies     Association Conference, University of Notre Dame, March 2009.

• "Assessment     of Maternal Obesity using Body Mass Index (BMI) in a sample of fetal and     infant deaths in Marion County, IN 2004-2007," Indiana Perinatal Network     Annual Conference, April 2008; Health Bound Indiana AmeriCorps Conference,    April 2008.

Patrick Barrett - M.D./M.A. (Bioethics), May 2009

Received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Wabash College in 2004. In May 2009, he completed combined-degrees in Medicine and Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics. He was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2007-08 and received the Medical Humanities Student Essay Award in 2008 for his paper, "Dueling Autonomy - An Analysis of the Relationship between Patient and Physician Autonomy."

Gabriel Bosslet - M.A. (Bioethics), February 2011

Received an M.D. from Ohio State University in 2003 and a B.S. in Pre-professional Studies with a concentration in Science, Technology, and Values from the University of Notre Dame in 1999. He completed an Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at Ohio State University in 2007. In February 2011, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. He is currently a fellow in the division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine at the IU School of Medicine. He also completed a fellowship in clinical ethics at the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics.

Publications

• "Parental     Procreative Obligation and the Categorisation of Disease: The Case of     Cystic Fibrosis," Journal of Medical     Ethics 37 (2011): 280-4.

Brandon Brown - M.D./M.A. (Bioethics), August 2008

Received a B.A. in Political Philosophy from the University of Dallas in 2003. In August 2008, he completed combined-degrees in Medicine and Philosophy (M.D./M.A.) with a concentration in bioethics. His thesis on natural embryonic function was entitled "Ergon and the Embryo," and was directed by Dr. Jason Eberl. He was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2005-06 and received the Medical Humanities Student Essay Award in 2006 for his paper, "The Industry of Fertility." In the fall of 2008, he studied Catholic bioethics at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, Italy. He completed a transitional medical internship at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis in 2009, and is currently a radiology resident physician at Indiana University Hospitals. He has taught as adjunct faculty member of the Philosophy Department at Butler University since 2008. He is a lecturer for the Indiana University School of Medicine in the courses, "Radiology" and "Introduction to Clinical Medicine," as well as for the Indiana University Radiologic Sciences Programs.

Publications

• (w/ J.T. Eberl) "Brain Life and     the Argument from Potential: Affirming the Ontological Status of Human     Embryos and Fetuses," Persons, Moral     Worth, and Embryos: A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments, ed.    Stephen Napier (Springer, 2011).
• (w/ B. Hawley et al.) Magill’s Medical Guide, 6^th    ed. (Salem Press, 2010).
• (w/ E.D. Morrell, R. Qi, K.    Drabiak, and P.R. Helft) "The Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) Order: Associations     with Advance Directives, Physician Specialty, and Documentation of     Discussion 15 Years after the Patient Self Determination Act," Journal     of Medical Ethics 34:9 (2008): 642-7.
• (w/ R.B. Gunderman) "Affliction is     a Treasure," The Pharos (Spring 2008).
• (w/ R.B. Gunderman) "Pandemic     Influenza," Radiology 243:3 (2007): 629-32.
• "Christian Bioethics," Masterplots     II: Christian Literature (Salem Press, 2007).
• (w/ J.T. Eberl) "Ethical     Considerations in Defense of Embryo Adoption," The Ethics of Embryo     Adoption and the Catholic Tradition, ed. S.-V. Brakman and D. Weaver     (Springer Academic Press, 2007).

Paper Presentations

• (w/ R.B. Gunderman) "Affliction is     a Treasure: Suffering and Hope in Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent     Occasions," Suffering and Hope, Center for Thomistic Studies,    University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, November 2005.  

Sean Brown - M.A. (Am. Phil.), June 2010; Graduate Certificate (Bioethics), June 2011

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2006. In June 2010, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy, and completed a graduate certificate in bioethics in June 2011. In May 2012, he graduated with his J.D. from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis. In 2010, he was named Chancellor’s Scholar for the Graduate School - Master’s Programs.

Zhen Cai - Graduate Certificate (American Philosophy), August 2009

Received a doctorate in Philosophy from Peking University in 2008. In August 2009, she received a graduate certificate in American philosophy while also studying bioethics with Prof. Eberl. She is currently on the faculty of East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. In 2010, she received a two-year grant from the Chinese government to study ethical issues in genetic engineering. In Fall 2011, she was a visiting scholar at Baylor University.

Dereck Coatney - M.A., May 2012

Completed his M.A. in May 2012 and was awarded a graduate assistantship at the Peirce Edition Project for 2010-11 and 2011-12. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in philosophy at Tulane University.

Maureen Craney - M.A. (Bioethics), December 2011

Received an M.S. in Applied Health Sciences from Indiana University in 2005 and a B.A. in Germanic Languages from Brigham Young University in 1984. In December 2011, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in Bioethics. She has served as the facilitator for the IUPUI Bioethics Journal Club and as an administrative assistant for the Dept. of Philosophy.

Troy Crayton - M.A. (American Philosophy), September 2007

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Management from IUPUI in 2005. In September 2007, he completed his M.A. with concentration in American philosophy. He is interested in religious studies and metaphysics, as well as the theories of William James and Carl Jung.

Paper Presentations

• "On     Semeiotic and Human Consciousness," 31^st    Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, Purdue     University, September 2006.

Rachael Eckles - J.D./M.A. (Bioethics), June 2009

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2004. In June 2009, she completed combined-degrees in Law and Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics. She has served as a research assistant and project manager under Dr. Paul Helft at the IU Cancer Center and the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics. She was also awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics in 2004, as well as a visiting scholarship at Eli Lilly & Company. She has conducted research concerning the use of hospital ethicists as expert testimony in probate cases and is employed as Manager of Global Public Policy for Eli Lilly & Company.

Publications

• (w/ P.R. Helft, V.L. Champion,    C.S. Johnson, and E.M. Meslin) "Cancer Patients’ Attitudes toward     Future Research Uses of Stored Human Biological Materials," Journal of     Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics 2:3 (2007): 15-22.
• (w/ E.M. Meslin, M. Gaffney, and     P.R. Helft) "Medical Ethics Education: Where are We? Where Should We Be     Going? A Review," Academic Medicine 80:12 (2005): 1143-52.
• (w/ P.R. Helft, C. Stair     Johnson-Calley, and C.K. Daugherty) "Use of the Internet to Obtain Cancer     Information among Cancer Patients at an Urban County Hospital," Journal     of Clinical Oncology 23 (2005): 4954-62.

Joshua Farrington - M.A. (Bioethics), December 2011

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2006. In December 2011, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics.

Wes Fenton - M.A. (American Philosophy), June 2011

Received an M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy in June 2011. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy.

Olivia Fisher - M.A. (Bioethics), June 2012

Received a B.A. in Biology from IUPUI in 2009 with a minor in Medical Humanities and Health Studies. In June 2012, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. She has worked as a volunteer at Wishard Hospital and with an HIV/AIDS prevention program.

Ian Grant - M.D./M.A. (Bioethics), June 2012

Received a Pre-Medicine B.S. from the University of Notre Dame in 2006 with a minor in Psychology. In June 2012, he completed combined-degrees in Medicine and Philosophy (M.D./M.A.) with a concentration in bioethics.

Casandra Greene - M.A. (Bioethics), May 2012

Received a B.A. in Political Science from IUPUI in 2010. In May 2012, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. She was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2010-11.

Michael Griffin - M.A. (American Philosophy), June 2012

Received a B.S. with highest distinction in Accounting from Purdue University and a J.D. cum laude from IU-Bloomington. After practicing law for a number of years, and earning VA educational benefits for serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, he matriculated into the philosophy program in 2006, pursuing his interest in legal pragmatism and the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., as well as epistemology, ethical theory, and applied ethics. In June 2012, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy. In addition to philosophy, he has strong interests in politics and public service, having served for four years as Chairman of the Hancock County Republican Party, serving as Hancock County Prosecuting Attorney since 2011, and serving as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve since 1999. Currently, he is mobilized and deployed with the U.S. Army, serving as Chief of Military Justice for JTF-GTMO at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Jill Lauren Kauffman - M.A. (Bioethics), August 2009
Received a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland at College Park in 2002. In August 2009, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. Her thesis is entitled "Poetry ‘Found’ in Illness Narrative: A Feminist Approach to Patients’ Ways of Knowing and the Concept of Relational Autonomy," and was directed by Dr. Peg Brand. She received the Medical Humanities Student Essay Award in 2009 for her paper, "The Vigil of Breathing and Decay: The Prose Poetics of Illness, Body, and Ethics." She is currently enrolled in a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Paper Presentations

• "The Vigil of Breathing and Decay:    The Prose Poetics of Illness, Body, and Ethics," Great Lakes American     Studies Conference, University of Notre Dame, March 2009.
• "Physician-Authored Pathography as     an Answer to Issues of Empathy Loss Resulting from Traditional Medical     Socialization," Cancer Stories: The     Impact of Narrative on a Modern Malady, Indianapolis, IN, November     2008.

Madeleine Kennedy - M.A. (Bioethics), December 2008

Received a Ph.D. in Inquiry Methodology (Applied Statistics) in 1980, an M.S. in Applied Linguistics in 1977, and a B.A. in Linguistics and German in 1975, all from Indiana University. She has been employed at Eli Lilly & Company and, in December 2008, completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. Most recently, she has been working for PAREXEL International as Vice President for Operations Quality Management, supporting the clinical research organization in identifying and mitigating quality-related risks, resolving quality issues during the lifecycle of the clinical trials conducted for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and organizing a bioethics committee for the company. She is currently enrolled in the Professional Doctoral Degree Program in Bioethics at the Neiswanger Institute at Loyola University Chicago.

Mitchell Klopfenstein - M.A. (Bioethics), July 2008

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and English from IUPUI in 2003, and served in the United States Marine Corps. In July 2008, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. His thesis is entitled "Towards and Ethical Community Response to Pandemic Influenza," and was directed by Dr. Jason Eberl. Throughout his studies, he has been employed at the Indiana State Department of Health and has served as the Bioethics Liaison for the ISDH Pandemic Influenza Planning Committee working with Dr. Eric Meslin and the IU Center for Bioethics on projects to address ethical issues in pandemic influenza preparedness and response. He is currently a Senior Bioethics Associate at Eli Lilly & Company.

Publications

• "Pandemic Influenza and the Duty     to Treat: The Importance of Solidarity and Loyalty," American Journal of Bioethics 8:8 (2008): 41-3.

Paper Presentations

• "Ethics and Pandemic Influenza     Planning," National Public Health Preparedness Summit, Atlanta, GA,    February 2008.
• "Pandemic Influenza: An Exercise     for the Rural Community," Indiana Rural Health Conference, Evansville, IN,    June 2007.

• "Ethics in Public Health," Indiana     Mid-America Public Health Training Center, December 2007.

Daniel Kruidenier - M.A. (American Philosophy), January 2007

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from Appalachian State University in 1999. In January 2007, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy. During his graduate studies, he was awarded a graduate assistantship at the Institute for American Thought through a grant from Arthur and Alice Burks, with the assignment to work on the collection of documents and artifacts related to the ENIAC computers that were previously donated to the IAT by the Burks. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of South Carolina.

Paper Presentations

• "Is Prophetic     Pragmatism Pragmatist?" 28^th    Mid-South Philosophy Conference, Memphis, TN, February 2005.

Tanya Martin - M.A. (Bioethics), May 2012

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2009 with a minor in Psychology. In May 2012, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. During her studies, she also pursued a graduate certificate in professional editing. She is current an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Ivy Tech in Franklin, IN and is working with a clinical research project concerning colorectal cancer at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Indianapolis.

Mary Mattern - M.A. (Bioethics), August 2007

Received a B.S. in Biology from Loyola University-Chicago in 2005. In August 2007, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. Her thesis is entitled "Prenatal Screening: Quality Control and the Genetics Gateway," and was directed by Dr. Jason Eberl. She was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2006-07. She is currently enrolled in medical school at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Bonnie Meyer - M.A. (American Philosophy), June 2011

Received a B.A. degree in English at IUPUI, with a minor in philosophy.  She has worked as a tutor in the IUPUI Writing Center and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Philosophy.

Eric Morrell - M.D./M.A. (Bioethics), June 2008

Received a B.A. in English literature from Indiana University in 2003. In June 2008, he graduated with combined degrees in Medicine and Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics. His thesis is entitled "Who Are You Calling Normal! The Relationship between Species Function and Health Care Justice," and was directed by Dr. Peter Schwartz. In addition to his publication listed below, he has written or co-written a dozen peer-reviewed published journal articles in the field of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, pulmonary hypertension, and right heart failure. From 2009-2011 he was a Medical Officer attached with the U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, NC and Afghanistan. He is currently in the internal medicine ABIM fast track residency pathway at the University of Pittsburgh and will be starting pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship in 2012.

Publications

• (w/ B.P. Brown, R. Qi, K. Drabiak,    and P.R. Helft) "The Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) Order: Associations with     Advance Directives, Physician Specialty, and Documentation of Discussion     15 Years after the Patient Self Determination Act," Journal of Medical     Ethics 34:9 (2008): 642-7.

Paper Presentations

• "Do-Not-Resuscitate Ordering     Patterns among Physician Specialties," Joint Ethics Conference of the 18^th    Canadian Bioethics Society Conference and the 3^rd International     Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation, Toronto, Canada, June     2007.

Monica Morrison - M.A. (American Philosophy), May 2011

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from Washington University in 2008. In May 2011, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy and was awarded the Sophia Prize by the Department of Philosophy. During her undergraduate studies, she served as treasurer for the student philosophy club, "Philosophia," as well as treasurer and editor for the undergraduate philosophy journal, Enquiry. She was awarded a graduate assistantship at the Peirce Edition Project for 2010-11. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of Miami.

Emily Munson - J.D./M.A. (Bioethics), May 2010

Received a B.A. in Political Science from Hanover College in 2006. In May 2010, she completed combined-degrees in Law and Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics. Emily is primarily interested in advocating for individuals with disabilities. She is a founding member of the student organization A.B.L.E. (Active Bodies Lobbying for Equality). In Fall 2008, she was awarded a legal internship with the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics. Emily was also selected as "Ms. Wheelchair Indiana 2009" and was awarded the 2010 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Paper Presentations

• "Contemporary Eugenics: How     Stereotypical!" Disability and Ethics through the Life Cycle: Cases,    Controversies and Finding Common Ground, sponsored by Albany Law School,    The Bioethics Program of Union Graduate College and Mount Sinai     School of Medicine, and The Rapaport Ethics Across the Curriculum     Initiative of Union College, May 2010.

Mary A. Ott - M.A. (Bioethics), June 2010

Received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, and a B.A. in Political Science from Princeton University in 1990. She completed a residency in pediatrics and fellowship in adolescent medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In June 2010, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. Dr. Ott is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, IU School of Medicine. Dr. Ott’s work in research ethics focuses on sensitive issues with vulnerable populations. Her work in clinical ethics focuses on the adolescent’s emerging decision-making capacity, vulnerability, and relationship ethics. Dr. Ott is co-chair of the Pediatrics Ethics Consultation Sub-committee at Riley Hospital for Children. She is also a member of the IU Health Ethics Consultation Sub-committee and the IUPUI-IU Health IRB.

Publications

• (w/    J.G. Rosenberger and J.D. Fortenberry) "Parental Permission and Perceived     Research Benefits in Adolescent STI Research," Journal of Empirical     Research on Human Research Ethics 5:2 (2010): 57-64.
• "It     Takes Two to Tango: Ethical Issues Raised by the Study of Topical     Microbicides with Adolescent Dyads," Journal of Adolescent Health    42:6 (2008): 541-2.

Paper/Poster Presentations

• (w/    E.J. Pfeiffer, E.M. Meslin, P.Z. Brand, T. Johnson, and J.D. Fortenberry)    "Time to Rethink Benefit-Harm Approaches to Research with Adolescents on     Socially Sensitive Topics?" Pediatric Bioethics Conference, University of     Washington, Seattle, WA, July 2009.
• (w/    J.G. Rosenberger and J.D. Fortenberry) "Someone to Talk To…Adolescent     Boys & Parents Perceive Benefits, not Harms, of STI Research," Pediatric     Bioethics Conference, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, July 2009.

Brooke Patz - M.A. (Bioethics), March 2008

Received a B.S. in Biology from Butler University in 2005. In March 2008, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. Her thesis is entitled "Embryo Adoption: Implications on Personhood, Marriage, and Parenting," and was directed by Dr. Peg Brand. She is currently working at the Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities as the Director of Operations for the Indiana Health Study.

Scott Philotoff - M.A. (American Philosophy), July 2009

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and English from Indiana University.  In 2005 he was also accepted in the graduate certificate program in professional editing.

Diana Popov - M.A. (Bioethics), July 2008

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2002. In July 2008, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. Her thesis is entitled "HIV Positive Children in Medical Research: Ethics of Disclosure and Assent," and was directed by Dr. Richard Gunderman. She has taught as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Philosophy and is pursuing a B.S.N. degree from the IU School of Nursing. She is currently working at the Krannert Unit of IU Health University Hospital as a student nurse extern, as well as in the Urology Department of Indiana University as a clinical research assistant. She has also been invited to become a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

Frank Ransom - M.A. (American Philosophy), June 2011

Received an M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy in June 2011.

Daniel Rieger - M.A. (Bioethics), September 2007

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan in 2005. In September 2007, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. During his studies, he worked with Dr. Eric Meslin on issues related to international research ethics. He also received the Medical Humanities Student Essay Award in 2007 for his paper, "Standard of Care in Guidelines, Literature, and Developing Countries." Daniel was accepted to pursue doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of South Carolina.

Michelle Ruben - M.A. (Bioethics), February 2008

Received a B.A. in Religious Studies from IUPUI in 2004. In February 2008, she completed her M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. During her studies, she worked with Dr. Jason Eberl on the concept of ordinary vs. extraordinary treatment applied to the use of Left Ventricular Assist Devices. Since 2005, she has been the assistant secretary for the Department of Philosophy and is currently an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Ivy Tech Community College and at IUPUI.

David Ryan Smock - M.A. (Bioethics), May 2010

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2009. In May 2010, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. During his studies, he taught as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Philosophy.

Steven Takacs - M.A. (American Philosophy), August 2010

Graduated in 2010 with his M.A. in Philosophy with a concentration in American philosophy. His thesis is entitled "An Instrumentalist’s Guide to the Perpetuation of Human Individuality."

Edye Taylor - M.A. (International Research Ethics), February 2012

Received a B.A. in English, with an emphasis on creative writing, from Oklahoma State University in 2004 and a J.D. from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis in 2008. In February 2012, she completed her M.A. and has the distinction of being the first graduate with a concentration in international research ethics. She is a licensed attorney with an international human rights background who has worked for Indiana University since November 2008. She previously worked for numerous human rights-focused NGOs in England, Belgium, and Zambia, as well as presented twice to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, both in New York and Switzerland, all as a part of her education and dedication to international human rights. At IU, she began focusing on the role of human rights in health and has worked at the Human Subject Offices on both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses, the Indianapolis Grant Services office, and now in the Clinical Research Compliance Office aiding in quality assurance and compliance matters including managing accreditations, internal auditing and managing consultation projects involving outside entities. During her M.A. studies, she was the program manager for a National Institute of Health one year grant to aid in creating a joint international institutional review board (IRB) in conjunction with IU’s existing Moi University medical school partnership in Kenya and the IU Center for Bioethics, which has expanded her ability to assist and consult in compliance matters globally. Additionally, she teaches at the IU School of Law-Indianapolis, as well as continues to develop health law compliance curriculum initiated by herself and colleagues for their Hall Center for Law and Health, and serve in a pro bono capacity in their Health and Human Rights Clinic.

Milton Turner - J.D./M.A. (Bioethics), August 2010

Received a B.A. in History from Wabash College in 2005. In August 2010, he completed combined-degrees in Law and Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics. He has practiced as a licensed Emergency Medical Technician for St. Joseph Hospital and Health Care Center and received a commendation from Governor Frank O’Bannon in 2001 for independently volunteering more than 2,000 hours in the emergency room, as well as pioneering an in-house internship program for Kokomo-area youth. He was a 2007 Indiana Conference for Legal Educational Opportunity Fellow and was nominated by the Indiana Black Expo for a 2009 Diversity Volunteer Award. As Moot Court Chief Justice, he organized the IU School of Law’s hosting of a national moot court competition in 2011 concerning the topic of legal ethics. He is currently employed at Lee, Cossel, Kuehn, and Love LLC and will soon be entering the US Army JAG Corps.

Publications

• "Recent Developments in Indiana     Tort Law," Indiana Law Review 43:1 (2010): 1053-87.

Matthew John Williams - M.A. (Bioethics), May 2009

Received a B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from IUPUI in 2006. In May 2009, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. During his graduate studies, he completed a graduate assistantship at the IUPUI Center for Service & Learning. His bioethical interests include egalitarianism as it relates to health care, as well as health care reform policies. His philosophical interests include theories of distributive justice (John Rawls and Norman Daniels) and pragmatism (William James and John Dewey). He is currently working with Prof. Eleanor Kinney and Dr. Jason Eberl on a project concerning the foundation for a natural right to health care, and is employed as a research assistant at the IU Center for Health Policy in Indianapolis. In addition, he is a J.D. candidate at the IU School of Law-Indianapolis.

Publications

• (w/ J.T. Eberl and E.K. Kinney)    "Foundation for a Natural Right to Health Care," Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 36:6 (2011): 537-57.

Brian Wilson - M.A. (American Philosophy), December 2010

Received a B.A. from Evergreen State College in 2000. In December 2010, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy. He was awarded a graduate assistantship at the Peirce Edition Project for 2004-05 to work on annotations research related to volume 9 of the Writings of Charles S. Peirce. He received travel grants from the Graduate School and the Graduate Student Organization to deliver a paper at the 7^th International Pragmatism Meeting in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2005, he was accepted to pursue doctoral studies in philosophy at Purdue University.

Paper Presentations

• "Peirce’s     Fallibilism, Realism, and the Scientific Method of Inquiry," 7^th International Pragmatism     Meeting, São Paulo, Brazil, November 2004.

Chris Wilson - M.A. (American Philosophy), July 2009

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from SUNY-Fredonia in 1994, and a M.L.S. in Library and Information Science from SUNY-Buffalo in 1995. In July 2009, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in American philosophy. A former student of Randall Dipert, his main interest is in logic. Employed through the Development Office of the School of Liberal Arts, he worked part time on the Peirce Edition Project Newsletter.

Paper Presentations

• "The One     Law of Mind," 31^st    Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, Purdue     University, September 2006.

John Witt, III - M.A. (Bioethics), July 2008

Received a B.A. in Biology from DePauw University in 2000. In July 2008, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. His thesis is entitled "Equipoise and Skepticism: Past, Present and Future," and was directed by Dr. Eric Meslin. After managing the MiraVista Diagnostics clinical laboratory for five years, he has taken on the challenge of developing the technical infrastructure to manufacture in vitro medical devices for the new production facility at MiraVista Diagnostics.

David Zahl - M.A. (Bioethics), December 2008

Received a B.S. in Biology from Butler University in 2004. In December 2008, he completed his M.A. with a concentration in bioethics. He was awarded an internship with the IUPUI Medical Humanities and Health Studies Program for 2006-07, researching eugenic practices in Indiana. During the summer of 2007, he was hired as an intern at the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance to research and write the 125 year history of the organization. He was also awarded a Sam H. Jones Community Service Scholarship from the IUPUI Center for Service Learning in Fall 2007 and Fall 2008. He currently works as a Curriculum Development and Clinical Skills Education Specialist at the IU School of Dentistry.

Publications

• 125     Years of Indiana Pharmacy:  A     History of Indiana’s Pharmacists Association (Indianapolis: Indiana     Pharmacists Alliance, 2007).
• "The Founding of the Indiana     Pharmaceutical Association, May 9, 1882," The Indiana Pharmacist 88:3 (2007): 24-27, 35.

Paper Presentations

• "The Seventeen Years War: Enacting     Pharmacy Legislation in Indiana," Indiana Association of Historians 28^th    Annual Meeting, February 2008.

Odette Aguirre-Zero - Graduate Certificate (Bioethics), July 2010

Received a B.S. in Biology from Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City in 1983, and a D.D.S. from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City in 1989. She completed a G.P.R. at Eastman Dental Center in Rochester, NY in 1991, and received an M.S. in Anatomy from the University of Rochester in 1993. In December 2009, she completed a graduate certificate in bioethics. She has been Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral Biology at IU School of Dentistry since 1999, where she is also involved with the Professional Ethics course for dental students. 

Current Students

Ian Anderson (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in 2008 with a minor in Applied Ethics. He completed a practicum working with the Institutional Review Board at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN. He also studied abroad at the Rene Cassin Institute for International Human Rights Law and was the assistant director of the Purdue University Human Rights Institute.

Emily Begeman (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and English from IUPUI in 2011.

Natalie Beltz

Received a B.A. in Psychology from Purdue University in 2008, with a minor in Philosophy. Before coming to IUPUI, she taught while pursuing graduate studies in cognitive neuropsychology at San Diego State University. She currently works as an Associate Registrar for a private post-secondary institution and serves as English editor for Mind and Cognition-a forthcoming collection of papers based out of Tsinghua University (Beijing). Her primary interests are in the philosophies of science, education, and mind, as well as epistemology.

Stephen Clouse

Received a B.A. in History and Political Science from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in 2010. He is interested in classical American philosophy and its political implications.

Erin Connelly (Bioethics)

Received an M.D. from Florida State University in 2007 and a B.A. in Biology from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in 2002. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine focusing on child abuse. Prior, she was the chief pediatric resident at the Orlando Health/Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.

Chelsea Cooke

Received a B.A. in English from IUPUI in 2011. She is interested in semiotics, queer theory, and film theory, as well as the theories of C. S. Peirce and feminism.

Amanda Couture

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from the College of Wooster in 2000, and a J.D. from the IU Maurer School of Law-Bloomington in 2004. She has worked as an attorney at DeLaney & DeLaney, LLC in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Jimmy Daruwala (International Research Ethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from IUPUI in 2010. Before coming to IUPUI, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry serving in various capacities related to clinical trials. He was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Lawrence Garetto (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Biology from the University of California-San Diego in 1975, an M.S. in Applied Physiology in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Physiology in 1983, both from Boston University. He is currently Professor of Oral Pathology, Medicine and Radiology, and formerly Associate Dean for Dental Education, at the IU School of Dentistry. He is an active member of the American Dental Association, American Dental Education Association, American College of Dentists, and American Society of Dental Ethics. During his sabbatical, he is pursuing a graduate certificate in bioethics while also a fellow at the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics for 2011-12.

Phillip Garver (American Philosophy)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2010.

Stephanie Harris

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and Anthropology from IUPUI in 2011 and was awarded the Sophia Prize from the Department of Philosophy, named Outstanding Senior by the Department of Anthropology, and named to the IUPUI Top 100. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted ethnographic research examining notions of kinship among women who have placed children for adoption. Stephanie is interested in American pragmatism, the work of John Dewey, and organizing for social change. She was awarded a University Fellowship for 2011-12 and a teaching assistantship in the Department of Philosophy for 2012-13.

Publications

• "Redefining the Family Post-Placement: Birthmothers and Kinship through the Adoption Lens" North American Dialogue 14:2 (October 2011): 23-30.

Paper Presentations

• "Redefining the Family Post-Placement: Birthmothers and Kinship through the Adoption Lens," Butler University Undergraduate Research Conference, April 2011; Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, March 2012.

Elizabeth Ferries-Rowe (Bioethics)

Received an M.D. from Indiana University in 2002, as well as a B.S. in Biology and B.A. in English from Bradley University in 1998. She is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in bioethics.

Michael J. Hope (Bioethics)

Received a Bachelor’s in General Studies with a minor in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2008. He is interested in studying topics ranging from informed consent to animal ethics. He participates in the Consortium for Health Policy, Law and Bioethics, and is a founding member of the student organization A.B.L.E. (Active Bodies Lobbying for Equality). He was awarded a teaching assistantship in the Department of Philosophy for 2009-10.

Jacob Jones

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Indiana University - South Bend in 2011. During his undergraduate studies, he served as president of the student government and was a member of the debate team.

Rachel Kearby (Bioethics)

Received an M.D. from Indiana University in 2008 and a B.A. in Psychology from Olivet Nazarene University in 2004. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Neonatology at the IU School of Medicine and is pursuing a graduate certificate in bioethics.

Andrew Kimmel

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2010. During his studies, he was actively involved in both the Philosophy and English Clubs, and was awarded the Laurence Lampert Scholarship in Philosophy and the Sidney W. Houston Memorial Scholarship in English. He was awarded a University Fellowship for 2011-12 and a graduate assistantship at the Peirce Edition Project for 2012-13.

Sarah Lachenman (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Environmental Ethics from IUPUI and graduated with the distinction of IUPUI’s Top Female Student in 2006. During her studies, she worked with Dr. Jason Eberl on environmental ethics, with a focus on childhood development and ecology. She has worked as an intern for an energy consultancy firm, done internship work in environmental lead contamination with the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis, and taught high school for two years at Indianapolis Metropolitan High School. She has been awarded a fellowship in the Department of Earth Sciences at IUPUI, where she is pursuing climate change, energy, and policy research.

Amber Malcolm (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Political Science from Indiana University in 2006 and J.D. from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis. She is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in bioethics in combination with her doctoral studies in health policy and management. She has served as a law clerk for the Indiana Supreme Court.

Kalli McBride (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and Economics from Ball State University in 2007 and a J.D. from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis in 2010. She was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2009-10. As part of her assistantship, she collaborated on the IU-Moi Academic Research Ethics Partnership and served as program manager for 2010-11 and 2011-12. During law school, she was a board member of both the International Human Rights Law Society and the Feminist Law Society. During the summer of 2009, she was awarded an internship from the law school’s Program for International Human Rights. For the first half of her internship, she spent time in Buenos Aires with Prof. Eleanor Kinney researching Argentina’s National Program for Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation. She completed the second half of her internship in New York City working for International Women’s Rights Action Watch-Asia Pacific, a non-governmental organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Britney McMahan (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Religious Studies from IUPUI in 2009. She has worked in the health care field as a care tech at St. Vincent Hospital, a paramedic for Wishard Hospital, and an EMT for Wayne Township Fire Department.

Lisa Mims (Bioethics)

Received an M.D. from the University of Illinois in 1995, an M.S. in Biology from Chicago State University in 1990, and a B.A. in Archaeology from Boston University in 1988. She is currently Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology in the IU School of Medicine and is pursuing a graduate certificate in bioethics.

Brandon Mouser (American Philosophy)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and Sociology from IUPUI in 2010 and won the Philosophy Academic Achievement Award. While an undergraduate, he served as president of the Philosophy Club from 2009-2010. He is also enrolled in the Sociology M.A. program, where he is concentrating in work/organizational theory and completing his thesis, which is a critical literature review of the theoretical conceptualizations of social class. He was worked as a teaching assistant for the Department of Sociology since 2010. He is mainly interested in the history of American philosophy, especially early American thought.

Paper Presentations

• "The     Philosophy of Thomas Paine" IUPUI Philosophy Club, TBA.
• "Marx     and Work," Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Annual Meeting, Oct.    2011.
• "Capitalism     and the Migrant Worker: The Theories of Nels Anderson," Association for     Humanist Sociology Annual Meeting, Evanston, IL, October 2011.
• "The     Real Problems of Philosophy." IUPUI Philosophy Club, November 2010.
• "The     War-Genocide Paradox: An Analysis of Iraq’s Offensive Against the Kurds,"    Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Annual Meeting, October 2010.

Heather Mullins-Owens (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2007 and graduated with a J.D. from the University of Dayton in 2010 with pro bono honors. While studying at the University of Dayton, she was a Ramzi Nassar Social Justice Scholar, President’s Scholar, Legal Opportunity Scholar, and was President and Co-Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. She also earned a Certificate in Chinese Legal Systems from East China University of Politics and Law in 2009. Currently, she is the Co-Founder and Director of Global Health at HERO Network LLC, member of the Wishard Health Services Clinical Ethics Committee, Adjunct Faculty in the Master’s in Management Program for the School of Business and Economics at Indiana University East, and works in the Biomedical Compliance Division of the Indiana University Human Subjects Office.

Publications

•   (w/ M. Henderson and J. Henderson) "Protecting a Vulnerable Population with Little Regulatory Framework: A Comparative Analysis of International Guidelines for Pediatric Research Ethics" Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy (Fall 2012).
• (w/ I. Thomsen) "Deconstructing the Domestic Support Obligation: When Will the Dust Settle?" National Association of Chapter Thirteen Trustees (September 2010).

Paper Presentations

• "Increasing Multi-Centre Research     Collaborations with the United States through the Equivalent Protections     Standard" Asia Pacific Research Ethics Conference, Singapore, March 2012.

Benjamin Peltz (American Philosophy)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2005. He has worked as a graduate assistant for the Santayana Edition, conducting annotations research related to the critical edition of Santayana’s Life of Reason (MIT Press, forthcoming), and is currently teaching a writing course for the Department of English.

Paper Presentations

• "The     Moment of Meaning: Apperception in the Philosophy of Josiah Royce." 10^th    International Pragmatism Meeting, São Paulo, Brazil, November 2006.
• Commentary     on "Communities, Traitors, and the Feminist Cause" by Kara Barnette. 6^th    Annual Donald G. Wester Conference, Oklahoma City, April 2006.

Michael Persinger

Received Bachelor’s in General Studies from Ball State University in 2007. He is interested in philosophy of religion, ethics, early modern philosophy, and analytic philosophy. Since June 2011, he has been leading monthly philosophical discussions at Center for Inquiry, Indiana.

Derek L. Ramey

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Illinois at Springfield in 2006. His main philosophical interests are logic, ethics, semiotics of C. S. Peirce, and absolute idealism of Josiah Royce.

Avril Rua (International Research Ethics)

Received an L.L.M. in International Human Rights Law from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis in 2011 and an L.L.B. from Moi University in 2009. She has worked for both the AMPATH Program and the Legal Aid Centre in Eldoret as part of the IU-Kenya Partnership. She was awarded a graduate assistantship at the IU Center for Bioethics for 2012-13.

David Russell (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Communications from Baylor University in 2006. He began working for the IU Office of Research Administration in 2010, and is currently pursuing the combined J.D. and M.A. degrees with concentrations in health law and bioethics.

Zeynep Salih (Bioethics)

Received an M.D. from Ankara University in 1990. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and Riley Children’s Hospital. Dr. Salih completed a pediatric residency at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois and a fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Loyola University-Chicago. Having completed a fellowship in clinical ethics at the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics, she is a member of the IU Health Ethics Consultation Sub-committee and the Pediatrics Ethics Sub-committee. Dr. Salih is interested in ethics education. She was the leading faculty member in the development and implementation of a neonatology fellowship ethics curriculum. She is also interested in team ethics and is developing a new team approach to in-hospital resuscitation of neonates.

Publications

• (w/ D.W. Boyle) "Ethics Education     in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine in the United States," Seminars in Perinatology 33:6 (2009): 397-404.

Paper Presentations

• "Development of a Bioethics Curriculum in a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program," 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Washington, D.C.

Scott Saxman (International Research Ethics)

Received an M.D. from the IU School of Medicine in 1985 and a B.S. from Ball State University in 1981. He is currently a Senior Medical Advisor and a member of the bioethics committee at Eli Lilly & Company. Previously, he served on hospital ethics committees and IRBs at the University of Oklahoma and Indiana University. He has also worked at the National Cancer Institute and was Director of the Office of Medical Services for the Peace Corps.

Bradley Snow (American Philosophy)

Received a B.S. in Business from the IU Kelley School of Business at IUPUI in 2006. Has taught as an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy.

David Stout (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Psychology from IUPUI in 2004. He is broadly interested in ethics, including philosophy of law, political philosophy, philanthropy, bioethics, and ethical theory. He is currently interested in both bioethics and pragmatism, particularly in regard to how pragmatism may be applied to the field of bioethics and how a more useful ethical theory might be developed. Stout served as president of graduate student government, president of the graduate philosophy club, and is a member of an Institutional Review Board for biomedical research at IUPUI-IU Health. From 2005 through 2008, he served as a judge in the Central States Ethics Bowls. He has also worked for as a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician. As an undergraduate, he worked as a technical editor for several philosophy texts on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Plato.

Macey Leigh Thompson (Bioethics)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy with a minor in Medical Humanities and Health Studies from IUPUI in 2008 and a J.D. from the IU Maurer School of Law-Bloomington in 2011. She serves as the as the Chief Development Officer for HERO Network LLC, a for-profit health education and policy research corporation that she co-founded with Heather Mullins-Owens in 2011. Her interests in bioethics center on the ethical, legal, and policy concerns associated with the organ procurement and transplant system in the United States. She has worked with the United Network for Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) System for Transplant System Excellence and is also an individual member of UNOS Region 10, which includes Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. With an academic focus on clinical ethics in both the pediatric and adult population, she has worked with the University of Michigan Transplant Center developing transplant ethics program recommendations and collaborative research strategies. Her current research projects include health outcomes research studies using qualitative methodology to assess living kidney donor satisfaction with their donation evaluation and follow-up care; outcomes studies that utilize psychometrics to standardize the psycho-social component of the living kidney donor evaluation process amongst multi-site transplant facilities; and developing, implementing, and evaluating peer-mentoring programs for transplant patients, their families, and the living organ donor population. She is currently a visiting researcher at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and intends to pursue a Ph.D. in Health Policy at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Michael Walden (American Philosophy)

Received a B.A. in Philosophy from IUPUI in 2011 and was awarded the Laurence Lampert Scholarship in Philosophy. During his undergraduate studies, he worked as a teaching assistant for P265 "Introduction to Symbolic Logic." He was awarded a graduate assistantship at the Peirce Edition Project for 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Samantha Walker

Received a B.A. in Philosophy and Literature from Purdue University in 2010.

Alex Wessel (Bioethics)

Received a B.S. in Chemistry and Philosophy from Butler University in 2008. He is pursuing combined-degrees in Medicine and Philosophy.

Paul Helft, MD and Jason Eberl, PhD are jointly responsible as course directors. Dr. Helft is primarily responsible for coordinating the activities of the practicum on an individual basis with participating students. Dr. Eberl is primarily responsible for evaluating and assigning grades for students participating in the practicum. 

The practicum is a one semester course. Students are expected to spend a total of 40 hours engaged in on-site activities. Practicum activities take place at the IU School of Medicine, IU Health hospitals, and (through special arrangement) Wishard Memorial Hospital. Students may use the Methodist Hospital library, located near the FCME, if they require temporary space with computers available for coordinating their activities or writing reports.

Relative to each student’s areas of interest, experience may be gained in a number of different hospital-based clinical ethics activities, such as clinical ethics consultation, chaplaincy and the religious/spiritual aspects of clinical ethics, and legal aspects of clinical ethics and health law.

Students are required to complete the following activities during the practicum semester: 

• Participate in at least six biweekly meetings of the ethics consultation service,
• Participate in at least two monthly meetings of the hospital ethics committee,
• Attend at least two lectures related to clinical ethics sponsored by the FCME, Center for Bioethics, Medical Humanities Program, or Philosophy Department,
• Follow through with any specialized activities arranged by the FCME,
• Read the assigned literature about ethics consultation.

If time and circumstances permit, students may be able to observe a bedside consult. Students may also arrange meetings with individual members of a consultation service.

Students interested in additional experience in research ethics may also participate in the following activities:

• Meetings of any of the 5 IUPUI IRBs,
• Meetings of the IUPUI Executive Committee of IRBs,
• Meetings of the IUSM Conflict of Interest Committee,
• Relevant lab meetings of investigators designing clinical trials, or
• Research Subject Advocate program.

To complete the practicum, students will select a case study they have learned about during the semester and, maintaining compliance with confidentiality requirements, will write a critical analysis of the case or a conceptual analysis of ethical issues relevant to the case in an 18-20 page term paper due before the end of the semester. This paper may culminate in a publishable manuscript for submission to an appropriate journal or serve as the foundation for a student’s thesis/research project. In addition to the term paper, students will submit six biweekly 2-3 page reports outlining their activities and briefly describing and reflecting upon at least one of the cases they had learned about. One of these reports will be developed into a more in-depth 6-8 page analysis that will be due by mid-term and will be graded. This short analysis paper must be on a distinct topic from the student’s term paper.

Dr. Eberl will evaluate all written assignments and assign an overall course grade: 60% for the term paper, 30% for the short analysis paper, and 10% for on-time submission of biweekly reports. Two percentage points will be deducted from the final grade, per activity, if the minimum requirements outlined above are not met by the end of the semester.

Enrollment in the practicum is limited and subject to approval by the FCME. Students who wish to be considered for the practicum should first contact Dr. Eberl. A brief application form is required. Selected candidates will be invited for an interview to discuss an optimal educational experience.

« Back

Current holdings within the libraries at IUPUI include over 1,338,889 volumes, more than 36,000 current periodicals and journals, over 1,197,000 microforms, and more than 152,400 government documents and audiovisual materials. The libraries’ holdings are accessed through a computer network linking Indiana University libraries statewide, and an interlibrary loan system makes available additional local, state and national academic library resources. The library provides many study and learning spaces, including hundreds of study carrels and group study rooms. The library is one of the most technologically sophisticated library/high technology centers on the North American continent. From its more than 300 scholar’s computer workstations, students can access academic reference and research tools, application software, course reserves, live news/educational television, videotapes, and the Internet.

From its inception, the Philosophy Department has had a focus on American philosophy, and courses in American philosophy have been taught with great regularity. Because of continued faculty and student interest, the University Library contains an extensive collection, built over many years, of books and professional journals in American philosophy. A parallel faculty and student interest has also led to an extensive collection in the University Library of books and journals relevant to bioethics.

Main Research Library (Bloomington)

Students enrolled in the program will have access also to the Bloomington Libraries, which are considered to be among the leading libraries in the nation. They contain more than five million books and bound periodicals and seven million other materials. The east tower of the Main Library houses the Research Collections, which emphasizes the social sciences and the humanities, and includes several world-renowned collections.

Free Printing for Liberal Arts Students

Any student – undergraduate or graduate – enrolled in a liberal arts course is entitled to print for free at designated print stations in Liberal Arts student technology centers (STCs). There is a 15 page limit per print job, but there is no limit to the number of 15-page jobs that can be submitted in a given session (the limit is needed to prevent "runaway" print jobs). Liberal Arts STCs are located in CA 436, CA 425, CA 323, CA 008, and BS 3003.

Resources in Bioethics

The University Medical Library

This library houses a collection that focuses on authoritative literature in biomedical research and clinical practice. The library contains more than 245,000 volumes, with current subscriptions to approximately 1900 journals. Materials not available at the Library can be requested from other institutions. The Document Delivery Service is available without charge to students. There are public workstations for searching MEDLINE and other databases on all three floors.

The Ruth Lilly Law Library

The Ruth Lilly Law Library is one of the largest legal research libraries in the United States, housing a collection of over 475,000 volumes. The library is one of the early United States government publications depositories and a full depository of the United Nations. The collection includes virtually complete holdings of federal statutory and case materials; attorney general reports and opinions; federal, regional, and state digests; all published state encyclopedias; bar association reports and proceedings; and the standard sets of encyclopedias, annotated cases, and citators. Extensive collections of legal periodicals, law and law-related treatises and textbooks, specialized law report sets, multi-volume practice sets, and jury instructions complement the primary holdings. The library is also a depository for records and briefs of the Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Court of Appeals.

Additional Bioethics Resources

The Medical Library at Methodist Hospital and other hospital libraries, the IU Center for Bioethics library, Joseph and Matthew Payton Philanthropic Studies Library, and the library at the Poynter Center (Bloomington). In addition, students will have access to several seminars, visiting lecturers, study groups, listserv discussion groups, and collaborative research opportunities facilitated by the Center for Bioethics, the Medical Humanities and Health Studies Program, the Center for Law and Health, and the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics.

Resources in American Philosophy

Extensive additional resources are available for students who opt for the concentration in American philosophy. A steady stream of researchers from around the globe come to Indianapolis to access materials held at the Peirce Edition Project and the Santayana Edition. A full electronic inventory of these resources is currently in preparation with support from a 2001 IU Arts and Humanities Research Grant.

Max Fisch Library

This library is currently part of the Peirce Edition Project. Over one hundred scholars from nineteen countries have visited the Max H. Fisch Library since 1993. At present, the library contains roughly twenty thousand books and well over three hundred linear feet of filing cabinet drawers filled with papers and items from the collections acquired by the Peirce Edition Project. The archives include correspondence, lectures, notes, articles, manuscripts, photographs, newspaper clippings, book reviews, grant applications, vinyl recordings, and other items. The major collections are the Peirce Collection, the Max H. Fisch Collection, the Carolyn Eisele Collection, and the Charles W. Morris Collection.

· The Peirce Collection contains eighty linear feet of files. The collection includes photocopies of all known Peirce papers archived in libraries around the country, representing well over one hundred thousand manuscript pages. There are approximately twenty books with Peirce’s annotations in them, several artifacts from the U.S. Coast Survey, and other personal items.

· The Max H. Fisch Collection contains over one hundred and ten linear feet of files and papers. The latter include correspondence, lectures, notes, published articles, pamphlets, conference programs, newspaper clippings, and other items connected with his research. Fisch spent nearly forty years collecting research to write Peirce’s biography, a project he never finished. The collection includes a comprehensive reference catalog related to the life and work of Peirce, divided by subject, chronological year, and manuscript number in accordance with the Robin Catalog.

· The Carolyn Eisele Collection contains over one hundred linear feet of papers. Carolyn Eisele (1902-2000) was a renowned mathematician, a historian of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century mathematics and science, and an expert on the life and work of Charles S. Peirce.

· The Charles W. Morris Collection contains seventeen linear feet of papers. Charles Morris (1903-1979) was a student of George Herbert Mead. He edited much of Mead’s work, was involved in the Unity of Science Movement, and developed an original form of pragmatism. The collection includes, among other things, personal and professional correspondence, lecture notes of courses taken with Mead, unpublished papers, pamphlets, Morris’s Ph.D. dissertation, and copies of Peirce papers with Morris’s annotations.

· Smaller collections include the David Savan papers and the Arthur W. Burks collection.

Santayana Edition Library

The Santayana Collection serves as a centralized library for students and scholars researching the life and works of George Santayana. The collection includes photocopies of original Santayana manuscripts and papers held by libraries around the country. In addition to the photocopies of Santayana’s manuscripts and papers, the Santayana Collection includes books published by Santayana, books published about Santayana, and translations of Santayana’s works. The Santayana Collection maintains an electronic database that includes scanned copies of Santayana’s books, articles, and letters. The database can be searched by topic or by keyword.

· The John O. McCormick Collection contains copies of the marginalia from Santayana’s books with McCormick’s annotations, correspondence, notes, articles about Santayana, criticisms of Santayana, and receipts from McCormick’s Spain research trip. John Owen McCormick (1918-) is a comparative literature/Santayana scholar and author of George Santayana: A Bibliography (Paragon House, 1987). McCormick’s papers have been organized both by theme and by year in Santayana’s life.

The Lilly Library (Bloomington)

The Lilly Library is one of the most famous rare book libraries in the world, holding in addition to 400,000 books more than 6 million manuscripts. The library contains several collections relevant to American philosophy, including the papers of Arthur Fisher Bentley (1870-1957), Nathan Hakman (1921-), Harry Allen Overstreet (1875-1970), and Ralph Barton Perry (1876-1957).

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Chad Carmichael (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2008). Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind.

Michael B. Burke (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 1976). Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: Metaphysics, Informal Logic.

Martin A. Coleman (Ph.D. Southern Illinois University, 2003). Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy; Director and Lead Advisor, American Studies Program; Associate Editor, Santayana Edition. Area of Specialization: American Philosophy.

André De Tienne (Ph.D. Catholic University Louvain-la-Neuve, 1991). Professor, Department of Philosophy; General Editor, Peirce Edition Project. Areas of Specialization: Peirce, American Pragmatism, Pragmatistic Textual Theory.

Cornelis de Waal (Ph.D. University of Miami, 1997). Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: American Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, and Metaphysics.

Jason T. Eberl (Ph.D. Saint Louis University, 2003). Associate Professor and Graduate Director, Department of Philosophy; Affiliate Faculty, IU Center for Bioethics. Areas of Specialization: Bioethics, Metaphysics, Medieval Philosophy.

Richard Gunderman (Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1989; M.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1992). Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy; Vice Chair, Radiology; Director, Pediatric Radiology; Areas of Specialization: Ethics, Medical Ethics, Ethics of Philanthropy, Philosophy of Medicine.

Carl Hausman (Ph.D. Northwestern University, 1960). Adjunct Professor, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: Peirce and Aesthetics.

John L. Hill (J.D. Georgetown Univ., 1988; Ph.D. Georgetown Univ., 1989). Professor, IU School of Law - Indianapolis. Areas of Specialization: Bioethics, Moral Psychology, Political and Legal Theory.

Nathan Houser (Ph.D. University of Waterloo, 1986). Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy; former General Editor, Peirce Edition Project; former Director, Institute for American Thought. Areas of Specialization: Peirce, Pragmatism, Philosophy of Mind.

Laurence Lampert (Ph.D. Northwestern University, 1971). Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: Nietzsche, History of Philosophy.

Timothy D. Lyons (Ph.D. University of Melbourne, 2002). Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy. Area of Specialization: Philosophy of Science.

Eric M. Meslin (Ph.D. Georgetown University, 1989). Professor of Medicine, Medical and Molecular Genetics, and Philosophy; Director, IU Center for Bioethics; Associate Dean for Bioethics, IU School of Medicine. Areas of Specialization: Bioethics, Ethical Theory, Public and Health Policy.

Paul Nagy (Ph.D. Fordham University, 1968). Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: John Dewey, William James, Michael Polanyi, Pragmatism and American Culture.

David Orentlicher (M.D. Harvard, 1981; J.D. Harvard, 1986). Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law; Co-director of the Center for Law and Health. Areas of Specialization: Health Law, Public Policy, Bioethics.

Ursula Niklas Peterson (Ph.D. Warsaw University, 1977). Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: History of Philosophy, Philosophy and Literature.

David Pfeifer (Ph.D. University of Illinois, 1971). Director, Institute for American Thought. Areas of Specialization: Peirce, History of American Philosophy.

Kimberly A. Quaid (Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, 1986). Professor of Clinical Medical and Molecular Genetics and Psychiatry; Faculty Investigator, IU Center for Bioethics. Areas of Specialization: Genetics, Bioethics, Public Policy.

Peter H. Schwartz (M.D., Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1999). Assistant Professor of Medicine, IU School of Medicine; Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy; Faculty Investigator, IU Center for Bioethics. Areas of Specialization: Bioethics, Philosophy of Biology.

John J. Tilley (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 1988). Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy. Areas of Specialization: Ethical Theory, Practical Reason.

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The Department of Philosophy and the IU School of Medicine offer combined degrees in Medicine (M.D.) and Philosophy (M.A.), with a concentration in Bioethics.

The Department of Philosophy and the Department of Public Health in the IU School of Medicine offer dual degrees in Public Health (M.P.H.) and Philosophy (M.A.), with a concentration in either Bioethics or International Research Ethics.

Applicants for the combined/dual degrees must apply separately to both the Philosophy program and either the Law School, Medical School, or Public Health program.

Combined Degrees in Law (J.D.) and Philosophy (M.A.)

In combining the philosophical study of bioethics with the study of law, students will acquire the perspective, knowledge, and expertise that will equip them to provide leadership concerning the bioethical issues faced by institutions such as state and federal agencies, healthcare organizations, research and educational institutions, corporations (national and multinational), human rights organizations, medical insurers, and religious bodies.

The Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis has a nationally recognized Center for Law and Health and a program in health law that is ranked among the top ten in the nation.

Students completing the program will receive a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in Law and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Philosophy, with a concentration in either Bioethics or International Research Ethics.

Through the combined degrees program, the two degrees can be obtained with a total of 108 earned credits, as compared with the 120 credits required if the degrees are obtained separately.

Up to six credits of health law courses can be counted toward both the 90 credits required for the J.D. in Law and the 30 credits required for the M.A. in Philosophy.

Additionally, if a student successfully petitions to complete a 6 cr. thesis or research project addressing legal and philosophical aspects of a bioethical issue, it may also count for the senior law paper requirement unless one is electing to submit a law review note. Students who complete the combined degrees program will also receive 6 credits toward the 90 credits required for the JD in Law.

For the curricular requirements for each degree, please click J.D., M.A. (Bioethics), or M.A. (International Research Ethics). Below is a sample schedule that shows how the curricular requirements for both degrees can be met in the combined degrees program for the Bioethics concentration:

Sample Schedule

First Year
Law Program: 31 cr.

Civil Procedure I-II
Contracts and Sales I-II
Legal Writing I-II

Property
Torts
Constitutional Law
Criminal Law

Summer
Law Program: 6 cr.

LAW selections

Second Year & Summer
Philosophy MA Program: 14 cr.; Law Program: 13 cr.

PHIL P547 Foundations of Bioethics (3 cr.)

PHIL P540 Contemporary Ethical Theories (3 cr.)

MHHS M504 Introduction to Research Ethics (3 cr.)

LAW Bioethics and Law (2 cr.)

LAW Financing & Regulating Health Care (3 cr.)

LAW Legal Writing III (2 cr.)
LAW Evidence (4 cr.)
LAW Professional Responsibility (2 cr.)

Third Year & Summer
Philosophy MA Program: 11 cr.; Law Program: 18 cr.

PHIL P553 Philosophy of Science (3 cr.)

PHIL P600 Topics in Philosophy (3 cr.)

SOC R515 Sociology of Health and Illness (3 cr.)

LAW Law and Public Health Care (2 cr.)
Other LAW selections (16 cr.)

Fourth Year
Philosophy MA Program: 6 cr.; Law Program: 16 cr.

PHIL P555 Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research (3 cr.)

PHIL P696 Topics in Biomedical Ethics (3 cr.)

LAW selections (16 cr.)

COURSES IN LAW (J.D.) THAT MAY COUNT AS SPECIALIZED ELECTIVES FOR PHILOSOPHY (M.A.)

AIDS: Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues (2 cr.) DN696 examines the social and legal response to the AIDS pandemic, as well as ethical issues raised by various measures implemented to limit the spread of the disease. Among other topics, the course will explore the law and ethics of contact tracing and the potential conflict of health care workers between duties of confidentiality to the patient and duties of disclosure to affected third parties. The course will also survey the potential tort and criminal liability of those who expose others to the disease.

Financing and Regulating Health Care (3 cr.) DN845 covers selected legal issues in financing and regulation of the American health care system. The course emphasizes chief policy issues facing the American health care system today—cost, access, and equality of health care services for all Americans.

Issues in Death and Dying (2 cr.) DN694 examines the ethical, legal and medical issues concerning the refusal, removal and/or withdrawal of life-sustaining medical procedures, and assisted suicide. The course will consider whether there is a morally relevant distinction that should be reflected in our legal norms between passive measures, such as the refusal or removal of life support, and more active measures that bring about death. The course will survey legal issues such as treatment of the unconscious or non-competent patient, including infants, a discussion of living wills and durable powers of attorney, and recent constitutional developments relevant to the patient’s right to refuse medical treatment.

Law and Public Health (2 cr.) DN761 covers the law governing the practice of public health by state, local, and federal agencies, as well as health care professionals and institutions. Topics addressed include legal mandates on public health agencies, physicians, and other health practitioners regarding testing, reporting, and contact tracing with respect to specific diseases, as well as laws for the imposition of quarantine, civil commitment, and mandatory treatment. Also covered are public health aspects of the regulation of health care institutions, legal issues associated with risk assessment and cost benefit analysis, along with the environment.

Research on Human and Non-Human Subjects (2 cr.) DN693 surveys issues arising out of experimentation on human subjects and the treatment of animals in research. Topics for discussion will include an exploration of the philosophical nature of informed consent, coercion and exploitation in the human context, to the moral significance of sentience as a consideration in animal research, to an examination of the differences between therapeutic and non-therapeutic research.

Social Regulation of the Body and Its Processes (2 cr.) DN691 examines problems related to the social allocation of the body and its products such as the extent to which individuals have an ethically and legally protectable interest in their bodies and body processes. Topics for consideration will include the legal status of human ova and sperm, frozen embryos, and the products of medical research developed from materials taken from the bodies of interested subjects. The course will also consider the ethics and the legal regulation of organ allocation.

Topics in Health Law (2 or 3 cr.) DN763 examines specialized topics in health law not addressed in depth by other courses. Possible topics include health care fraud and abuse law, the regulation of long term care, the law of payment of health care providers, biotechnology and the law, genetics and the law, reproductive rights, end-of-life decision making, and privacy issues in health law. Prerequisites will vary according to the subject of the course as announced.

Combined Degrees in Medicine (M.D.) and Philosophy (M.A.)

Bioethics, the ethics of the life sciences, is a field of rapidly growing importance, both nationally and internationally. The development, delivery, financing, and regulation of healthcare products and services is a major economic and social endeavor. Bioethical issues - social, legal, and philosophical - confront a diverse array of institutions, including state and federal agencies, healthcare organizations, research and educational institutions, corporations (national and multinational), human rights organizations, medical insurers, and religious bodies. In combining the philosophical study of bioethics with the study of medicine, students will acquire the perspective, knowledge, and expertise that will equip them to provide leadership concerning the bioethical issues faced by such institutions, as well as to implement ethical principles in their own practice.

IUPUI is home to one of the nation’s largest health-profession complexes, one that boasts the nation’s second largest school of medicine. The IU School of Medicine is the only medical school in the nation’s thirteenth largest state, and is home to the state’s only residency programs in a variety of medical specialties.

Students completing the program will receive a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Philosophy, with a concentration in bioethics.

Through the combined degrees program, the two degrees can be obtained with a total of 181 credits of coursework rather than the 194 credits required if the two degrees are obtained independently. Furthermore, the IU School of Medicine requires students to achieve a level 3 (the mastery level of competence) in three of the nine competencies that comprise the IUSM curriculum in order to be eligible for graduation. The combined degrees program provides participating students with the opportunity to achieve a level 3 in the Moral Reasoning and Ethical Judgment competency.

During their fifth year of study, students will choose two electives from a list of courses in Medicine (see below). While completion of these electives will earn the students 8 cr. towards the 164 cr. required for the M.D. degree, they may also count up to 6 of these credits towards the 30 cr. required for the M.A. in philosophy. Furthermore, students who successfully petition to complete a thesis/research project (P803) will be able to count 6 cr. for both degrees; however, students who elect the non-thesis option for the M.A. will still be able to receive a 6 cr. deduction for the total number of credits required for the M.D. degree

For the curricular requirements for each degree, please click M.D. or M.A. (Bioethics). Below is a sample schedule that shows how the curricular requirements for both degrees can be met in the combined degrees program:

Sample Schedule

First Year
Medicine Program: 40 cr.

Fall: Fall semester of MS1 year.

Spring: Spring semester of MS1 year.

Summer
Philosophy Program: 3 cr.

Students will be offered one 3 cr. course from the list of courses in the M.A. (Bioethics) curriculum.

Second Year
Medicine Program: 40 cr.

Fall: Fall semester of MS2 year.

Spring: Spring semester of MS2 year.

Third Year
Philosophy Program: 21 cr.

Fall: Students will choose three or four 3 cr. courses from the list of courses in the M.A. (Bioethics) curriculum (9-12 cr. total).

Spring: Students will choose three or four 3 cr. courses from the list of courses in the M.A. (Bioethics) curriculum (9-12 cr. total).

Fourth Year
Medicine Program: 44 cr.

MS3 year: Students may choose one course from the list below as an elective; up to 6 cr. from this list may be counted towards the M.A.

Fifth Year
Medicine Program: 40 cr.; Philosophy Program: 12 cr.

MS4 year: Students will have three required clinical rotations, a minimum of seven elective rotations (four of which must be established electives from Elective Program Catalog, and the required capstone course).

Students will choose two elective courses from the list shown below, one if they have already taken an elective from this list the previous year (8 cr. towards M.D. and 6 cr. towards M.A.).

COURSES IN MEDICINE (M.D.) THAT MAY COUNT AS SPECIALIZED ELECTIVES FOR PHILOSOPHY (M.A.)

93ZP700 Medicinal Ethics & Professionalism (4 cr.) Students will be assigned readings in important current topics and discuss these in seminars with faculty. They will also participate in ethics consultations and have opportunities to participate in research.

93ZP710 Leadership in Medicine (4 cr.) The curricula of most U.S. medical schools provide little or no opportunity for medical students to study leadership. Physicians are trained to view medicine in terms of the physician-patient relationship, yet many of the greatest opportunities to treat disease and promote health lie in the organizational and social contexts of healthcare. The future of medicine and the patients we serve depends on cultivating responsible and effective physician leaders. This course introduces medical students to the key traits and skills of effective leaders and provides them an opportunity to study these broader contexts of healthcare.

93MI697 Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care (4 cr.) A pulmonary medicine rotation with some critical care, including long-term acute care involvement with good exposure to ventilator management. Experience with good history taking, physical diagnosis, cardiopulmonary disease, diagnostic pulmonary laboratory testing, critical care, problem-oriented medical records and care and treatment. Emphasis also on moral reasoning and ethical judgment. Also: 49MP714, 49MP716, 49MP726, 49MP708, 93MP710, 93MP730, 02MP711

93MI860 Palliative Medicine (4 cr.) This course will offer an exposure to end of life care in a palliative care setting. The student will learn interdisciplinary approach to patient care, the value of expert emotional, social, and spiritual support, and the importance of bio-psycho-social factors in patient care. The student will be expected to make rounds with the palliative care team (social worker, chaplain, nurses, and physicians) and will also make home visits. The student will be exposed to ethical scenarios related to end of life care. Also: 49MI746, 49MI756

93PS890 Forensic Psychiatry (4 cr.) This elective is designed to give students exposure to forensic psychiatric evaluations of defendants in jail and office settings, the management and assessment of long-term forensic inpatients, and custody evaluations of families as part of divorce proceedings, with a background of readings on forensic psychiatry topics. Consideration of forensic psychiatry issues from moral/ethical perspectives will be emphasized, as will the social and policy implications of the practice of forensic psychiatry.

Dual Degrees in Public Health (M.P.H.) and Philosophy (M.A.)

The many advances in health sciences have resulted in new, complex ethical considerations for individuals, health care professionals, institutions and other relevant decision makers. Professionals in public health, prevention sciences, health sciences, the life sciences, and the social sciences have relied on the field of bioethics when dealing with controversial issues related to (1) individual vs. community rights, (2) analysis of benefits, harms, risks and costs, and (3) ethical issues in global health research.

Students will learn about ethical issues in population health practice, research and policy. For example, they will examine questions related to individual and community responsibilities during infectious disease outbreaks and man-made or natural disasters. They will consider the ethical implications of various public health practices related to human rights, domestic and international research, resource allocations, security, and genetic/health screenings, as well as other relevant areas.

Students completing the program will receive a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Philosophy, with a concentration in either Bioethics or International Research Ethics.

Through the dual degrees program, the two degrees can be obtained with a total of 60 earned credits, as compared with the 75 cr. required if the degrees are obtained separately.

For students enrolled in the M.A. concentration in Bioethics:

• P602: Public Health Internship (3 cr.) will be counted in place of PHIL P548: Clinical Ethics Practicum (3 cr.).
• Students must complete a capstone research project which will be counted for both degrees by receiving 3 cr. under P702/704/705 and 3 cr. under PHIL P803; the 6 cr. total will be counted toward both degrees.

For students enrolled in theM.A. concentration in International Research Ethics:

• Students must complete an 8 cr. practicum and capstone research project which will be counted for both degrees by receiving 3 cr. under P602, 3 cr. under P6702/704/705, and 2 cr. under P554; 6 cr. will be counted toward both degrees.
• Students may also select upto 6 cr. of the following electives from either the M.A. or the M.P.H.curricula (no more than 3 cr. from each) which will be counted for both degrees:

M.A. Electives

• LAW DN761: Law and Public Health
• LAW DN838: Bioethics and Law
• SOC R515: Sociology of Health and Illness (Cross-listed course)
• PHIL P548: Bioethics and Pragmatism
• PHIL P555: Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research
• PHIL P696: Topics in Biomedical Ethics

M.P.H. Electives

• PBHL R515: Sociology of Health and Illness (Cross-listed course)
• PBHL P611: Policy Development, Implementation and Management
• PBHL P613: Public Health and Emergency Preparedness
• PBHL P631: Maternal, Child, and Family Health
• PBHL P632: History of Public Health

For the curricular requirements for each degree, please click M.P.H., M.A. (Bioethics), or M.A. (International Research Ethics). Below is a sample schedule that shows how the curricular requirements for both degrees can be met in the dual degrees program for concentrations in Health Policy & Management (M.P.H.) and Bioethics (M.A.):

Sample Schedule

(Italicized courses are counted toward both degrees)

Semester 1 (12 cr.)

PBHL P500 Social & Behavioral in Public Health (3 cr.)

PBHL P504 U.S. Health Care Systems & Health Policy (3 cr.)

PBHL P517 Fund. of Epidemiology (3 cr.)

PHIL P540 Contemporary Ethical Theories (3 cr.)  

Semester 2 (12 cr.)

PBHL P519 Environmental Science in PH (3 cr.)

PBHL P551 Biostatistics for PH I (3 cr.)

PHIL P547 Foundations of Bioethics (3 cr.)

PHIL P553 Philosophy of Science (3 cr.)

Semester 3 (12 cr.)

PBHL P611 Policy Development, Implementation, Management (3 cr.)

PBHL P616 Strategic Planning for Health Services Orgs. (3 cr.)       

PBHL P658 Methods of Health Service & Policy Research (3 cr.)

MHHS M504 Intro. to Research Ethics (3 cr.)

Semester 4 (9 cr.)

PBHL P602 Public Health Internship (3 cr.)

PHIL P555 Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research (3 cr.)

PHIL P696 Topics in Biomedical Ethics (3 cr.)

Semester 5 (9 cr.)

PBHL P619 Health Econ. for PH Professionals (3 cr.)

PBHL P609 Infectious Disease Epidemiology (3 cr.)

PBHL P612 Health Outcomes Research (3 cr.)

Semester 6 (6 cr.)

PBHL P705 Health Policy/Management Concentration Project (3 cr.)

PHIL P803 Research Project (3 cr.)

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1. Required foundational course:

PHIL P540 Contemporary Ethical Theories (3 cr.)

2. Core electives:

PHIL P525 Topics in the History of Philosophy (3 cr.)
PHIL P543 Contemporary Social and Political Philosophy (3 cr.)
PHIL P553 Philosophy of Science (3 cr.)
PHIL P560 Metaphysics (3 cr.)
PHIL P562 Theory of Knowledge (3 cr.)

Module 2: Concentration specific courses (18 cr. required)

1. Required foundational course:

PHIL P547 Foundations of Bioethics (3 cr.)

2. Concentration specific electives:

2a. Areas of central importance (5 cr. required):

PHIL P548 Clinical Ethics Practicum (3 cr.)
LAW DN838 Bioethics and Law (2 cr.)
MHHS M504 Introduction to Research Ethics (3 cr.)

2b. Specialized electives:

ANTH E445 Medical Anthropology (3 cr.)
COMM C510 Health Provider-Consumer Communication (3 cr.)
HIST H546 History of Medicine (3 cr.)
*LAW DN761 Law and Public Health (2 cr.)
*LAW DN845 Financing and Regulating Health Care (3 cr.)
NURS N534 Ethical/Legal Perspectives in Advanced Nursing Practice (2cr.)
PHIL P549 Bioethics and Pragmatism (3 cr.)
PHIL P555 Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research (3 cr.)
PHIL P590 Intensive Reading (1-3 cr.) [Only with track specific content]
PHIL P600 Topics in Philosophy (3 cr.) [When content is track specific]
PHIL P696 Topics in Biomedical Ethics (3 cr.)
PHIL P730 Seminar in Contemporary Philosophy (3 cr.) [When content is track specific]
SOC R515 Sociology of Health and Illness (3 cr.)
SOC S560 Topics: Death and Dying (3 cr.)

Module 3: Thesis/Research Project or Non-Thesis Option (6 cr. required)

For students writing a thesis or research project:

PHIL P803 Master’s Thesis in Philosophy

Non-thesis option: In lieu of a 6 cr. thesis or research project, students may take 6 credits of additional courses selected from any of the graduate courses offered in the IUPUI Department of Philosophy.

* Students not in the JD/MA combined-degrees program must take LAW DN838 Bioethics and Law prior to enrolling in any other LAW electives.

Sample Curriculum

First Semester
PHIL P547 Foundations of Bioethics (3 cr.)
MHHS M504 Introduction to Research Ethics (3 cr.)
PHIL P540 Contemporary Ethical Theories (3 cr.)

Second Semester
SOC R515 Sociology of Health and Illness (3 cr.)
PHIL P553 Philosophy of Science (3 cr.)

PHIL P555 Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research (3 cr.)

Third Semester
HIST H546 History of Medicine (3 cr.)
PHIL P548 Clinical Ethics Practicum (3 cr.)

Fourth Semester
PHIL P803 Master’s Thesis in Philosophy (6 cr.)
... OR ...
PHIL P560 Metaphysics (3 cr.) & PHIL P600 Topics in Philosophy (3 cr.)

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Students must complete a minimum of thirty (30) credit hours, of which at least eighteen (18) must be in philosophy.

Grade Requirements

No course with a grade lower than a B (3.0) will count toward this degree.

Residency Requirement

Students must attend and complete the courses at IUPUI, excepting those courses accepted for transfer. At least fifteen (15) credit hours must be taken at IUPUI.

Transfer Credits

Candidates may transfer up to eight (8) hours of graduate credit for courses taken at other accredited institutions, provided the grades received were B (3.0) or higher and the courses were completed within the time limit prescribed by the Graduate School. The transfer is not automatic and must be approved in writing by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Dean of the Graduate School. For time restrictions on transfer credits, see the section on time limits below. In addition to these eight (8) hours, graduate courses taken at other Indiana University campuses may be counted toward the M.A. if pre-approved in writing by the director.

Time Limits for Completion of Degree

The normal course load each semester for full-time students is a minimum of eight (8) credit hours. Part-time students take only one or two courses per semester. The minimum full-time equivalency for students holding an assistantship or internship is six (6) credit hours per semester. International students must take at least eight (8) credit hours each fall and spring semester to meet visa requirements. Students who carry a full academic load can complete the program in two calendar years.

The requirements for the degree must be completed within five consecutive years. Transfer credits also fall within this five-year limit.

Any courses that have been completed more than five (5) years before the degree is completed must be revalidated if they are to count toward the M.A. Revalidation requires the administration of an oral exam.

Students in the combined/dual degrees programs (J.D./M.A., M.D./M.A., M.P.H./M.A.) must complete both degrees within six (6) consecutive years and both degrees must be awarded simultaneously.

Curriculum

Module 1 – Philosophy Core (15 cr.)

History (at least 6 cr.)

P5xx Ancient Philosophy (3 cr.) [new course] 

P515 Medieval Philosophy (3 cr.)

P522 Topics in the History of Modern Philosophy (3 cr.)

P5xx Contemporary Philosophy (3 cr.) [new course]

P558 Classical American Philosophy (3 cr.)

Topics (at least 6 cr.)

P514 Pragmatism (3 cr.)

P540 Ethical Theories (3 cr.)

P543 Social and Political Philosophy (3 cr.)

P553 Philosophy of Science (3 cr.)

P560 Metaphysics (3 cr.)

P562 Theory of Knowledge (3 cr.)

Module 2 – Electives (15 cr.)

P503 Semiotics of C.S. Peirce (3 cr.)

P520 Philosophy of Language (3 cr.)

P525 Topics in the History of Philosophy (3 cr.)

            E.g., Niccolò Machiavelli, Francis Bacon, Thomas Aquinas

P542 Ethics and Values of Philanthropy (3 cr.)

P545 Legal Philosophy (3 cr.)

P552 Philosophy of Logic (3 cr.)

P561 Philosophy of Mind (3 cr.)

P572 Philosophy of Religion (3 cr.)

P600 Topics in Philosophy (3 cr.)

            E.g., Philosophy of Text, Philosophy of Literature, Philosophy of Medicine, Philosophy of Biology,

            Feminism and Art, Persons and Personal Identity, Scientific Inference and Scientific Realism

P701 Peirce Seminar (3 cr.)

P730 Seminar in Contemporary Philosophy (3 cr.)

P748 Seminar in American Philosophy (3 cr.)

            E.g., Josiah Royce, John Dewey, George Santayana, William James on Religious Experience

Plus any PHIL course offered in the Bioethics concentration.

Thesis option: Students may petition to write a thesis (P803, 6 cr.) under certain circumstances. They must secure permission from their graduate director and three faculty members who are willing to constitute a thesis committee. Students who receive permission to write a thesis need only take 9 cr. of coursework in Module 2. 

For the curricula of the program’s two specialized concentrations, please click one of the following: Bioethics; International Research Ethics

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Welcome to the homepage for the M.A. in Philosophy program at IUPUI. The program covers both core and specialized areas in the field. Students may pursue a general masters-level education in philosophy, or concentrate in either Bioethics or International Research Ethics. We appreciate your interest in the program and invite you to review the information in the following pages. We also invite you to contact the graduate director if you have further questions about the program, its curriculum, opportunities for financial support, or application requirements.

Admission Requirements
Financial Support
Learning Resources
Objectives and Features
Program Faculty

Program Curriculum
Course Descriptions
Thesis and Research Project
Combined Degrees
Graduates and Current Students

Bioethics
Clinical Ethics Practicum
International Research Ethics

Students may petition to write a thesis (P803, 6 cr.) under certain circumstances. They must secure permission from the graduate director and three faculty members who are willing to constitute a thesis committee.

For the Bioethics concentration a thesis equivalent research project may take the place of a thesis (see below). For the International Research Ethics concentration, a capstone research project in conjunction with the practicum is required.

Depending on a range of factors—non-academic time commitments, the amount of relevant research completed as part of previous coursework, and so forth—the thesis should take from six months to a year to complete. Students will work under the supervision of a Thesis Committee; the committee chair will serve as the Thesis Advisor. The thesis advisor and at least one other member of the thesis committee must be member of the Philosophy Department’s graduate faculty.

While our program offers a great deal of flexibility, there are two important constraints on the choice of a thesis topic:

1. The student must choose a topic that a member of the Philosophy Department’s graduate faculty is qualified to direct. No graduate program can offer its students unlimited choice of courses and thesis topics; part of the commitment ones makes when entering a program is to recognize the parameters of what it can offer. The thesis advisor should be the faculty member best qualified to direct each student’s thesis. After consulting with the student, the thesis advisor will form a committee consisting of at least two other faculty members, which may include a member from other departments or schools at IUPUI.

2. The student must choose a topic that grows out of and reflects the rest of their work in the M.A. program. The thesis is an opportunity for the student to demonstrate the skills and knowledge acquired in the course of their graduate studies by engaging in an extended research project.

With the assistance of the thesis committee, the student will first narrow their general area of interest to a specific thesis topic; in this stage, the student may be advised to do preliminary research on two or more possible topics before making a final decision.

Once the student has chosen a specific topic and has done sufficient research to determine that it will allow them to make an original contribution to the scholarly and/or professional dialogue in the field, a thesis proposal will be submitted. The proposal consists of a cover form, to be signed by the student and all the members of the thesis committee, a narrative description of the thesis project, a timetable for completion, and an annotated bibliography. (A more detailed description of the thesis proposal and the proposal cover sheet are included in this guide.) After the committee has approved the proposal, the student will be authorized to register for thesis hours (P803).

Please see the most recent "Guide to the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations," published by the IUPUI Graduate Office. Students save themselves a lot of time by knowing in advance what are the specific formatting requirements for the thesis.

No precise guidelines can be given for the length of a thesis other than that it should include a clear development of the issue that is being discussed, a thorough survey of the relevant literature, and a clear account of how the conclusions are reached. Though the great majority of the theses written at IUPUI fall between 80 and 130 pages, there is nonetheless a great variety in thesis length. For instance, over the 2003-04 period thesis length at IUPUI varied from 37 to 621 pages. Be aware, though, that brevity is not a sure sign of brilliance, nor length a sure indicator of thoroughness.

Upon completion of the thesis, the student and thesis committee will set a date for an oral defense. The Graduate School’s deadline for completion of degree requirements and submission of bound copies of the thesis is the 10th of the month in which a student intends to graduate. Therefore, the Philosophy Department requires that the defense takes place before the 10th of the preceding month, and that the thesis be submitted to the committee members at least four weeks before the defense date. The thesis, then, should be completed at least two months prior to the 10th of the month in which the student intends to graduate: e.g., if a student intends to graduate in May, the defense should be scheduled for April 10th at the latest, and the thesis submitted to the committee by early March.

As one works on their thesis, they should be aware of the Graduate School’s deadlines for completion of degree requirements and submission of the bound copies of the thesis. For the latter, see "A Guide to the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations" for details. One should also note that an "Application for Advanced Degree" must be submitted to the IUPUI Graduate Office at least 60 days prior to the 10th of the month in which one intends to graduate. The graduate director will submit a "Recommendation for Advanced Degree" 30 days prior to the 10th of the month in which the student intends to graduate. The IUPUI Graduate Office has additional deadlines for notifying them if one intends to participate in the May commencement ceremonies. If enrolled in the Bioethics or International Research Ethics concentrations, students are required to submit one bound copy of their thesis to the library of the IU Center for Bioethics, in addition to the two copies required by the Graduate School. All three copies must be on 100 percent cotton rag bond paper, bound in a regular, sewn library binding. It is conventional to give one’s thesis advisor a bound copy as well.

Thesis Proposal Guidelines

An M.A. thesis in Philosophy makes an original contribution to the field. The thesis proposal should therefore include the following:

1. A narrative description of the project including:

a. a brief statement of the topic of the thesis

b. a statement of the project’s originality

c. a narrative outlining the project’s methodology and/or the major issues involved.

The narrative should include a survey of the relevant professional literature, identifying the major trends in the development and current state of professional thought on the proposal’s main issues with direct references to entries in the annotated bibliography (see below). Because the contextual description provides the support of one’s claim of originality, this context is necessary no matter what the project.

2. A contextual survey of the relevant literature, both in narrative form and in an expanded annotated bibliography. The bibliography entries should be written in complete sentences. They should not only summarize the writer’s main points of view but also explain the relevance of the source to the thesis. There is no "sufficient number" of sources for the annotated bibliography. One should make certain not to miss landmark books and articles by using the bibliographic reference tools appropriate to the field (such as, but not limited to, the Philosopher’s Index). If the number of sources is too overwhelming, this is an indication that the topic may need to be narrowed.

3. A timeline for completing the stages of the project, with proper attention to when theses must be filed for particular graduation dates.

Research Project in Bioethics or International Research Ethics

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of these concentrations, and particularly for students in the combined-degrees programs (J.D./M.A., M.D./M.A., or M.P.H./M.A.), a research project may be a more appropriate capstone for the M.A. than a traditional thesis. All students in the International Research Ethics concentration will complete a capstone research project in place of a thesis in conjunction with their practicum. Students in the Bioethics concentration may petition either to write a thesis, to conduct a research project, or to complete their M.A. through coursework alone.

The following guidelines apply to the completion of research projects:

1. Though distinct in format, the research project must be equivalent to a thesis. As with a thesis, the research project must make an original contribution to the field, include a clear development of the issue that is being discussed, a thorough survey of the relevant literature, and a clear account of how the conclusions are reached.

2. Research projects are subject to all the same restrictions, guidelines, and deadlines given above for theses.

3. If the research project involves animal or human subjects, students must receive approval or exemption from one of IUPUI’s Institutional Review Boards prior to beginning that portion of the project. A copy of the application for IRB approval or exemption must be submitted with the project proposal.

Research Project Proposal Guidelines

The M.A. research project makes an original contribution to the field. The project proposal should therefore include the following:

1. A narrative description of the project including:

a. a brief statement of the topic of the project

b. a statement of the project’s originality

c. a narrative outlining the project’s methodology and the major issues involved

d. an explanation of why the thesis format is not well-suited for the proposed research.

The narrative should include a survey of the relevant professional literature, identifying the major trends in the development and current state of professional thought on the proposal’s main issues with direct references to entries in the annotated bibliography (see below). Because the contextual description provides the support of one’s claim of originality, this context is necessary no matter what the project.

2. A contextual survey of the relevant literature, both in narrative form and in an expanded annotated bibliography. The bibliography entries should be written in complete sentences. They should not only summarize the writer’s main points of view but also explain the relevance of the source to the project. There is no "sufficient number" of sources for the annotated bibliography. One should make certain not to miss landmark books and articles by using the bibliographic reference tools appropriate to the field (such as, but not limited to, the Philosopher’s Index). If the number of sources is too overwhelming, this is an indication that the topic may need to be narrowed.

3. If there are multiple researchers on the project, the student’s degree of contribution must be explained in the proposal and shown to be equivalent to a thesis. If the research project is conducted in collaboration with one or more IU faculty members, at least one but no more than two of them should serve on the student’s committee.

4. If the project involves research with animal or human subjects, the proposal should note whether IRB approval or exemption has been secured or is pending. An application for IRB approval or exemption must be filed prior to the proposal’s submission and a copy included with the proposal.

5. A timeline for completing the stages of the project, with proper attention to when project must be filed for particular graduation dates.

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