Emory University is closely monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit Emory's COVID-19 page for the latest updates.
Center for Ethics faculty are hard at work, weighing in on ethics guidance, providing comments on moral and ethical issues, and speaking to leaders around the country. Visit our COVID-19 ethics resources page for more info.
Welcome!
The Emory Center for Ethics is an international leader in the exploration of ethics and is dedicated to exploring how ethical issues underlie the decisions that shape our minds, lives, and society. As the Ethics Center celebrates its 30th anniversary, the faculty and staff are positioning the center strategically to pursue its mission and vision in the most creative and effective way possible. Ensuring its financial sustainability and focusing on smart growth is essential to the center in achieving these goals. With a clear commitment to exemplary scholarship, innovative curricula, engaged teaching, collaboration with the community, and creative programming, the Ethics Center will continue to teach and inspire preeminent thought leaders in ethics as we enter the next phase of development and growth.
What We Do
Programs
Ethics is crucial to every professional field, and the Center for Ethics has programs in many disciplines.
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The center’s faculty engage in a wide range of scholarship. Learn more about our current projects and recent publications.
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The center can provide the services your organization requires to create, enhance, and maintain an ethical culture.
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Stay up-to-date on Center for Ethics news
Co-created by Ethics & the Arts director Carlton Mackey, the new Emory Arts and Social Justice Fellows program partners six Emory faculty with six Atlanta artists whose work advances racial and social justice.
Learn More
Paul Root Wolpe speaks to WABE's Sam Whitehead on his podcast, Did You Wash Your Hands. Paul speaks to Sam about the medical ethics issues being raised by the pandemic. July 23 episode.
Listen Now
We are working to create and maintain a just and equitable world - and we know a statement is not enough. Follow us here for our actions and updates.
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Center Events
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
“Post”-COVID-19 & Ethics webinar series
Racial Health Disparities and COVID-19: Two Pandemics?
Wednesday, August 12, 4:00 to 5:30
Register here
Longstanding inequity in healthcare access and the influence of social determinants of health have become increasingly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Particular racial and ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and the emerging racial disparity in rates of diagnosis and dying is startling. In this continually evolving pandemic, what steps can we take now to deeply recognize and address disparity and to sustain action in the future?
We hope you will join the discussion!
Speakers:
- James “Eddie” Black, MD, Medical Director of Emergency Services, Phoebe Putney Health System, Albany, Georgia
- Nicole Franks, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Emory and Chief Quality Officer, Emory University Hospital Midtown
- Shivani Patel, MPH, PhD, Assistant Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory
- Nneka O. Sederstrom, PhD, MPH, MA, FCCP, FCCM, Director, Clinical Ethics Department, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
July 7
“Post”-COVID-19 & Ethics webinar series
Ethics as a Resource During a Continually Evolving Public Health Emergency
Register
The last few months have presented many challenges as transmission of COVID-19 affected individual patients, families, healthcare providers, healthcare systems, and our communities at large. Healthcare providers have many stories to share addressing provision of care for increasing numbers of extremely ill patients, limitations on visitors, expansion of ICU bed availability, PPE access, an ever-evolving understanding of the virus, dedicated and weary staff, critical care resources, and more. Ethics has been, and continues to be, a resource in decision making around resource allocation processes, effective and transparent communication, provider safety in providing treatment, healthcare equity, and more.
- Mary Ann Bowman, MTS, Vice President, Corporate Ethics, Memorial University Medical Center
- Jason Lesandrini, FACHE, LPEC, HEC-C, Assistant Vice President Ethics, Advance Care Planning and Spiritual Health
- Anna Skold, MD, MPH, FACP, Palliative Care Chief, The Southeast Permanente Medical Group; KP-GA Physician Lead for Medical Ethics
- Kevin Wack, JD, MA, MTS, HEC-C, Clinical Ethicist, Emory Healthcare
- Facilitator, Kathy Kinlaw, MDiv, HEC-C, Associate Director, Emory University Center for Ethics; Director, Healthcare Ethics Consortium; Lead Ethicist, Emory Healthcare
April 15
When Resources are Limited, What Would an Ethicist Do?
Exclusive Webinar
Dr. Paul Root Wolpe, Director of the Center for Ethics and President of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors, and Kathy Kinlaw, Associate Director of the Center for Ethics and Chief Clinical Ethicist at Emory, will discuss the unique ethical challenges of triage, ventilator allocation, DNR orders, and other difficult decisions related to treatment of COVID-19, and how hospitals locally and across the nation are handling these challenges.
In an exclusive interview, Wolpe and Kinlaw will share information that is important to all of us as we negotiate the difficult decisions of this ongoing pandemic.
Moderated by John Banja, Medical Ethicist, Center for Ethics and Professor, Dept of Rehabilitation Medicine.