The program promotes a broad conception of Bioethics encompassing both medical and environmental ethics through conferences, workshops, public lectures, and graduate courses. Based in Arts and Science, it draws as well on faculty affiliates and programs in the schools of Medicine, Law, Education, and Public Service, among others.

Although still taught separately in most universities, Medical Ethics and Environmental Ethics have in recent years grown closer in concerns and concepts. Initially focused on doctors, patients, and research subjects, medical ethicists have increasingly taken up social issues of access to healthcare, drug testing and distribution, and spread of disease on both local and transnational scales. Once focused on preservation of wilderness, natural resources, and biodiversity, environmental ethicists are more and more concerned with the “built environment” and its impacts on human health and wellbeing. more...