Photography by Caitlin McCullough, University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh Bioethics Bowl team placed second at the National Bioethics Bowl competition on April 11.
“This is a tremendous honor for our students and the University,” said Douglas White, director of the Pitt Institute for Bioethics and associate dean for bioethics and humanism in medicine.
The National Bioethics Bowl is an annual tournament where undergraduate teams debate ethical issues in medicine, biotechnology and health care. Students prepare by studying a set of cases and crafting their own arguments for their positions on each case, which they present in debate rounds.
The Pitt School of Public Health and Institute for Bioethics sponsored this year’s competition, which was the 18th annual event.
Competitors represented 20 schools from around the country, including Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, Rice University, Florida State University, University of Georgia, Loyola University Chicago, Georgetown University, College of William and Mary, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and more.
The Pitt team included Matt Tang, captain, as well as Arushi Bansal, Pushpika Basu, Collin Cummings, Kailin Gao, Sierra Gillis, Renkai Luo, Morgan Marino, Lydia Roberts, Divya Tase and Rosemary Wei.
“We were honored to have past team members Tiffany Lee and Harsh Hiwase act as consultants in our preparation,” said Cindy McCarthy, director, Bioethics Certificate and a core faculty member of the Institute of Bioethics, who served as the faculty lead for the team. “We were also joined by History of Philosophy and Science doctoral student Caitlin Mace who served as a consultant and Mary Angbanzan from the David C. Frederick Honors College.”
The event’s 30 judges were faculty members from Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University, Carlow University, McNeese State University and several UPMC Health Care ethicists. McCarthy, an associate professor of human genetics, School of Public Health, said Pitt was undefeated in all four rounds.
“The event also included a mini grad fair to introduce these high-achieving students from around the country to graduate programs in the School of Public Health,” she said.
The event also included 10 undergraduates who trained as moderators to run the classrooms, 25 student volunteers, and approximately 10 additional faculty and staff members including Provost Joseph McCarthy and Jeanine Buchanich, vice dean, School of Public Health.