Bioethics

Bioethics—representing the intellectual and scientific intersection of medicine, law, nursing, social work, public policy, and theology—is making increasingly significant contributions to the design and delivery of health care.

The discipline provides reasoned analysis of ethical issues arising in the health care setting, including issues of patient care, treatment and end-of-life decision making, as well as broader issues of social and health care policy. The academic medical center is an especially fertile setting for these endeavors because it provides opportunities for clinical intervention, teaching, interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and publication.

The Division’s goals are:

• The pursuit of basic scholarship that identifies and explores new analytic areas in bioethics.
• The increased understanding of health care dilemmas and the development of skills to resolve them.
• The integration of scholarly, legal, and philosophical arguments into the teaching and service programs at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
• The advancement of new projects that explore, expand, and protect the rights of patients in general and vulnerable, underserved patient populations, in particular.
• The examination of ethical issues that arise in the organizational structure and the ethical obligations of the institution as health care provider.