Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore, Maryland, United States is an independent, interdisciplinary center serving the entire Johns Hopkins University and Health System. It is dedicated to the study of complex moral and policy issues in biomedical science, health care, and health policy. Established in 1995, the Institute seeks answers to ethical questions by promoting research in bioethics and encouraging moral reflection among a broad range of scholars, professionals, students, and citizens. Contributing to its mission are four divisions of the University: the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

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General Information

The goals of the Institute are declared in its mission statement: to prepare the nation’s next generation of leaders in bioethics; to promote research at the intersection of ethics, law, medicine, and science; and to provide policy advice on bioethical issues to government and the private sector.

The Institute is named for Phoebe Rhea Berman, who established an endowment for the Institute, saying, "The work that is being done there has great meaning for me and can make a real difference in society." She and her husband, pioneering surgeon and best-selling author Edgar Berman, most notably went to French Equatorial Africa to work with Albert Schweitzer as extended volunteers. His work inspired her, and her commitment to the need for ethical considerations in medical and scientific decision-making was reaffirmed and strengthened.

The Executive Director of the Institute is Ruth Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H. Dr. Faden is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on biomedical ethics and health policy including Social Justice, the Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy; A History and Theory of Informed Consent; AIDS, Women and the Next Generation; and HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives. She has served on several national advisory committees and commissions, including the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, which she chaired.

Johns Hopkins University president William R. Brody had the following to say about the Berman Institute of Bioethics: “The Berman Institute of Bioethics is the intellectual crossroads of the University and a wonderful resource for the nation. It is at the Institute that our diverse and specialized paths of inquiry intersect. No collective undertaking is more vital to the future of Johns Hopkins.”

Programs

Research and educational programs are the foundations of the Institute’s activities, linking it with the public and public policy.

The Institute’s programs are divided into three main areas of focus: ethics and biomedical discovery; ethics, public health, and health policy; and ethics and clinical care.

The Institute’s Genetics and Public Policy Center serves as an objective source of information on reproductive genetics for policy makers and the public. With support from the Greenwall Foundation, the Institute’s Stem Cell Policy and Ethics (SCoPE) Program, collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, it focuses on ethical issues in the transition from stem cell science to clinical research, and from clinical research to clinical practice. The Program in Research Ethics addresses difficult ethical challenges in research involving human subjects in the U.S. and worldwide. In partnership with faculty of the Brain Sciences Institute, the Bioethics Institute seeks to define ethical questions in the exploration of the structure and function of the brain.

Building on Johns Hopkins’ leadership in public health and health policy, Institute faculty contribute to ethical and public policy questions related to HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases, rationing and the allocation of scarce medical resources, intervention in unhealthy life styles, and disparities in health outcomes among ethnic groups and globally. The Levi Leadership Program seeks to inspire intensive moral discussion about critical issues in health and social policy among those responsible for their resolution. The Institute works with the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies to explore ethical questions in alternative responses to the threat of bioterrorism, with a focus on smallpox vaccine policy.

The Institute also develops and evaluates innovative methods for providing young clinicians with an ethics education, and performs research in clinical ethics. Research in clinical ethics focuses on ethics at the end of life, ethics and palliative care, and improving the process whereby organs are solicited and procured. Faculty also address the ethics of decision-making and informed consent, as well as the meaning and function of trust and respect in relationships between clinicians, patients, and families.

The Institute is also active in educating the next generation of bioethicists, offering educational programs such as the Greenwall Fellowship for young physicians, lawyers, philosophers, and scientists; the Doctoral Program in Bioethics and Health Policy; and the African Fellows Program.

References

• "Astonishing Opportunities, Unprecedented Challenges." Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University.