Surgical Ethics in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society provides the collaborative infrastructure for normative and empirical investigations into topics important to surgical patient care. We educate on these topics at Vanderbilt, disseminate our knowledge through publications and presentations internationally, and train students, residents, and faculty in surgical ethics research. Our mission is to enhance the quality and impact of surgical ethics in practice and scholarship.
Current Initiatives
- Supporting scholarship by surgical and anesthesia trainees and medical students on surgical ethics topics (see sidebar)
- Developing and maintaining a Surgical Ethics Clearinghouse of topic-specific research and articles (see sidebar).
- Building a database of surgical ethics consults and cases for training and research.
- Identifying competencies in ethics for surgical trainees
Education
We hold quarterly surgical ethics research seminars as part of the Center for Biomedical Ethics faculty research program. Dr. Allan Peetz also leads a General Surgery Ethics M&M on months with fifth Wednesdays at 6am in Light Hall.