Pondering the Meaning of It All

The ethical questions raised by developments in science, politics, and social issues in the past few years emphasize the rapidly increasing importance of responsible professionals. Was Karen Quinlan's doctor right to prolong her life? Should administrators employ affirmative action? How should scientists decide where to limit cloning? In response to questions like these, Harvard, and many other colleges are developing "applied ethics" courses. Enrollment in such courses has increased dramatically in recent years.

The reasons for this upsurge are not entirely clear, but some teachers of ethics might agree with Arthur J. Dyck, Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics, who says, "People are starved for ethics."

"No one reads the great classical discussions anymore, and they're all tired of being put off by a neutral world," he says.

Of the six courses dealing with professional ethics that are offered to Harvard undergraduates, Quincy 107, "Business in American Life," has been around the longest. Instituted in 1973 by Thomas J.C. Raymond, professor of Business Administration at the Business School, the course has more than doubled its original enrollment of 25 students since then, and this year is being taught in two sections.

While Raymond says that his seminar is not a course "specifically in ethics," he adds there are "ethical overtones to every case we study." By evaluating such topics as whether a new business will serve a social need, what to do when original employees in a small firm are no longer needed, and how to maintain legitimate arrangements with financial backers, students are forced to consider the ethical ramifications of business in daily life, he says.

Field work in Cambridge gives students actual experience in applying class material. Last year, each student in the course had to do a project on a restaurant or clothing store in Harvard Square. Each compiled an overall assessment of the business practices of the examined organization and then presented it to the store owner at the end of the course.

This year, after analyzing the businesses in Harvard Square, students will have to decide what kind of business would be best for them to start, taking into account what would be the most beneficial for the community, Raymond says.

When it comes to encouraging a social conscience in business, Raymond says professors can try, but they really "can't pump ethics. We raise the considerations, but I leave the decisions to the students."

While Quincy 107 attracts a predominance of economics majors and pre-business students, Dudley 108 appeals to many students considering law.

William Bruce, vice dean of the Law School, says that in his Dudley seminar, "Thinking Like a Lawyer," he tries to point out that "individual rights are the rights of all of us." Currently in its fourth year, the course has grown in enrollment from 15 students to 100.

Focusing on ethics in the legal context, Bruce says topics of discussion in his course have included whether one should use improperly obtained evidence, as well as the importance of protecting individual rights in controversial cases.

Also in its fourth year and growing in popularity, Leverett 101, "The Government and the Press in America" raises many questions related to journalistic ethics. James C. Thomson Jr., curator of the Nieman Fellowships, estimates that about two-thirds of the students in his course go on to journalism, with the remaining one-third entering government or public policy work. As to whether they will emerge from Leverett 101 more ethically-minded, Thomson says, "I certainly hope so."

"You can't talk about journalism without talking about ethics," Thomson says. "The type of questions that journalists face all the time--privacy of sources, how much one can investigate the government without running counter to patriotism--demand a consideration of ethics,"

Thomson says he teaches Leverett 101 on "grounds of conscience." He adds, "The future of the press in our country and in other countries may depend on many of these students. They should be exposed to discussion of the issues involved."

Although Leverett 101 is limited to 20 places, this year 120 students applied, double the number that applied in 1974. Thomson says that the increase in enrollment is probably due more to the scarcity of journalism courses at Harvard than to any ethical considerations.

Perhaps the newest course relating to professional ethics is Currier 114, "Ethics and Public Policy," taugh by Donald P. Warwick, a fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development and lecturer on Education. Each participant in Currier 114 chooses a topic and analyzes it in depth. Affirmative action, international population policy, illegal immigration, and priorities in cutting back electrical energy use are several problems currently being investigated.

Making students aware of practical ethics is very important, Warwick says, but his course aims "not so much at indoctrination as at analysis, and trying to bring about an understanding of the issues involved."

If enrollment in Warwick's course follows the apparent trend in ethical interest among students, he should expect to at least double enrollment next year. "This is quite a booming field," he says, "and probably more is being done here ar Harvard than at other schools."

The professors that are probably most aware of the apparent ethics boom among undergraduates are Dyck, and Stanley J. Reiser, assistant professor of the History of Medicine. Their course, Hum 130, on "Problems in Medical Ethics," has registered the most phenomenal growth in enrollment, drawing 315 students this year, compared to 180 the last time it was offered, in 1976.

Hum 130, a course begun at the Medical School in 1974, attempts to acquaint students with health care issues such as bereavement, abortion, illness and birth, through readings in philosophy, ethics and medicine, as well as through case discussions.

One of five courses and a seminar subsidized by the Kennedy Interfaculty Program in Medical Ethics, the course is part of an ongoing project begun in 1971 to present biomedical questions in the context of ethics, Dyck says.

Dyck says the popularity of Hum 130 among undergraduates is a result of a "tremendous surge of interest" in medical ethics that has been growing over the past several years.

Reiser says that in Hum 130, "Those who want to go into the medical professions get to see another dimension beyond science requirements. They see the stuff and substance of a doctor's life."

"After learning what it's like to be a doctor and a patient, whether they end up as a doctor or not, they will have a broader understanding of basic life questions," he says.

Students in Hum 130 enroll in the course for a variety of reasons, yet few of those questioned expressed ethical considerations as their primary motivation.

"I wanted to learn about the legal aspects of medicine," Paula A. Johnson '80, one pre-med student in the course, says. "I was more interested in the practical problems facing doctors than in the ethical ones."

Colette Edwards '79 says, "I was interested in seeing the kinds of decisions that doctors are expected to make."

Although Hum 130 is being offered to undergraduates for only the third time this year, it has been available to medical students since 1972. The Medical School version of Hum 130, "Ethics in Medicine," is also sponsored by the Kennedy Interfaculty Program in Medical Ethics.

Taught in alternate years by the Reiser-Dyck team, or Sissela Bok, lecturer on Medical Ethics, "Ethics in Medicine" covers the same material as Hum 130, but includes "ethics rounds" in addition to the class material. Held every other week at the Children's Hospital, these rounds bring students in contact with patients through informal groups led by nurses, doctors, or the students themselves.

For the past several years, enrollment in "Ethics in Medicine" has remained relatively steady at about 30 students a year, Reiser says. But next year, for the first time, two sections will be offered concurrently, a move which he says is prompted by "popular demand, and desire on the part of the professors involved."

Bok, who will be leading one of next year's sections, says she has long been interested in encouraging ethical awareness among students. Quoting Samuel Johnson, she says the foundation of a "moral philosophy applied to the use of life" should be an integral part of the liberal arts education.

As a member of the board of directors of the Hastings Center, Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences, Bok joins Paul Freund, Loeb University Professor Emeritus and 19 other advisers in lending support to the center's goal of establishing a national information center on ethics.

The Hastings Center, which is based in New York, provides information on biomedical ethics to universities and congressional legislators, sponsors lectures, and runs programs in ethical research and development. Bok is currently co-directing a two-year Project on the Teaching of Ethics for the center. The project committee will present a report in a year-and-a-half on what universities are offering in the way of ethics courses in undergraduate and pre-professional curricula. Freund and President Bok are among the advisers to the project.

Harvard's own professional schools display an inconsistency in their ethics curricula that would make an interesting study in itself. Within the past four years, several new courses on professional ethics have been started at the Medical School. Dorothy Rackemann, administrative assistant to the dean of the Med School, says she has noticed an increased interest in ethics by students in the last few years, although she hasn't seen any over-whelming demand for courses.

At the Law School, this year's graduates will be the first to have completed the school under a new academic regulation requiring every student to take at least one course in legal ethics before being given a degree. Instituted in the fall of 1975, the requirement was started because "it was felt that our graduates should have some sense of practical and professional problems as practicing lawyers," Andrew L. Kaufman '51, professor of Law, says.

Law students taking the ethics requirement may choose between 11 different sections, each with a slightly different orientation. Topics offered include professional responsibility, legal ethics and the criminal lawyer, public interest and the private lawyer, and tax practice.

Instead of the lecture ethics course, students may elect to take "Introduction to Advocacy," an intensive field course in which they receive on-the-job training in applied ethics.

Most students questioned say they feel it is a good idea to require ethics in the Law School, but few feel they have become more ethically oriented as a result of completing the requirement.

"By this point in life, people either have or haven't developed a sense of ethics," Donald K. Schott, a first-year student, says.

Christopher L. Goff, a third-year student, says, "People generally agree that the requirement is a failure. It's very boring. All it does is teach the Canon of Ethics, a set of rules required for the bar exam, Theoretically, it's a good idea to teach ethics, but I don't think the course was worth two credits."

Across the river at the Business School, only one course, offered jointly with the Divinity School, is designed specifically for fostering an awareness of business ethics. Donald Roberts '70, director of the office of MBA program administration, does not feel that the Business School is deficient in ethics, however. He says that many ethical questions are raised in the required curriculum, by virtue of the fact that "one can't divorce ethical issues from the rest of business."

The one ethics course that is offered, "Ethical Aspects of Corporation Policy," was begun this year, in response to student interest in business ethics seminars offered by Preston N. Williams, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change, over the past several years.

John B. Matthews, Wilson Professor of Business Administration and Williams' co-lecturer, says the current enrollment of 30 students does not indicate "tremendous popularity" but says he anticipates more interest next year.

For the serious seeker of ethics, there is no better place at Harvard than the Divinity School. A separate "Ethics" section in the catalogue list a total of 18 courses, with about two-thirds focusing on "applied ethics," rather than ethical theory.

Ranging from Ethics 110, "Ethics for the Professional" to Ethics 180, "Patterns of Moral Advice in Contemporary Popular American Culture," ethics courses at the Divinity School are far from being exclusively religious.

But what does all this indicate about the future of ethics at Harvard? Is there really an increasing demand for ethical instruction?

On the undergraduate level, John H. Harvey, assistant director of General Education, says no new course proposals have been submitted this year for classes in ethics, professional or otherwise. But Harvey adds that there are fewer course proposals this year in all departments because of the core curriculum proposal.

Over the last several years, the number of ethically-oriented catalogue offerings has remained relatively constant, Harvey says. "If there is a growing interest in professional ethics, I haven't seen it in the way of course proposals to Gen Ed."

Nevertheless, enrollment in ethics courses is increasing, and enough new ethics courses have been developed in the past five years to exceed the bounds of coincidence.

It is impossible to tell yet whether Harvard is turning out a new generation of altruistic professionals. It is equally possible that the apparent trend toward more courses in career ethics and higher enrollment is simply a response to an increasing student body or a search for more pre-professional courses.

Ethics courses may not make any difference in students' lives anyway. As Ralph B. Potter, professor of Social Ethics at the Div School, says, it is difficult to judge whether ethics can be taught at all. "Courses are great for disseminating ideas, he says, "but ethics must be assimilated through reflection. We cannot suggest to the public that we are going to turn out better people, for there is a mystery to what makes the ideas happen in people's lives."

Perhaps Potter is right, and ethics cannot be taught, but Harvard seems to have accepted that challenge nonetheless.