Voices in Bioethics, a publication led by M.S. in Bioethics students, recently partnered with Columbia University Libraries and launched its new website with a renewed emphasis on editing and peer review, as well as a mission to encourage students to engage in the research process.
"With renewed focus on academic strength, we aim to contribute to the array of bioethics literature by continuing to publish op-eds and research essays that challenge the reader to explore novel viewpoints," wrote the editors.
Voices in Bioethics is a publication that analyzes domestic and global ethical issues found throughout the intersection of medicine, law, philosophy, public health, and technology. Its contributors are a diverse group of alumni of the Bioethics program, graduate students, health professionals, researchers, philosophers, and professors.
Many of the recently published articles address the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis.
In "Global Health Equity," Awele Utomi, '20SPS, a Columbia HBCU Fellow, discusses how the pandemic exposes the urgent need for ethical improvements. "Even in the absence of vaccines and antiviral medications, a pandemic has the potential to produce profound inequalities in burdens, both within and across countries. These burdens affect morbidity and mortality which are dependent on the socio-economic status of the individual or community."
Camille Castelyn, '20SPS, examines the healthcare industry's utilization of ethical frameworks to navigate decision-making, and how these choices lead to implications in resource allocation and human life in "Non-COVID-19 Patients Left Out in the Cold."
In "Monitoring Human Waste," Sarah Messina, '21SPS, dives into the innovative topic of how excretion analysis could advance governmental responses. "Viral infections detected in sewage systems could be the key to monitoring and addressing potential global pandemics."
The most popular articles in 2020 thus far are "Utilitarianism in Crisis," by Sam Dale; "This Crisis Is Not a War," by Hector Ramos; and "At the Intersection of Public and Private Morality" and "Vigilante Grocers" by Anne Zimmerman.
Read the current issue, and learn more about the M.S. in Bioethics program.
