Programs

The Program for Biomedical Ethics and Yale Pediatric Ethics Program host 90-minute sessions typically once per month during each academic year, with dinner provided. Sessions include a didactic talk by a visiting scholar or a member of the Yale faculty, followed by a 45-minute discussion. These sessions provide a rich exposure to a wide variety of topics in bioethics and are open to all members of the Yale community and the public.

See the Events page for upcoming lectures and discussions.

The Ethics Committee at Yale New Haven Hospital provides consultation on individual cases where ethical issues have been raised.

This committee is chaired by Benjamin Tolchin, MD, MS, director of the Yale New Haven Health Center for Clinical Ethics and associate professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine.

Patients and families are offered guidance regarding the right to receive or refuse treatment; patient rights and responsibilities; advance directives; families’ wishes; and privacy concerns.

To request a consultation with the Adult Ethics Committee, patients and families can contact patient relations at 203-688-3430 or patientrelations@ynhh.org.

The Yale Pediatric Ethics Program is led by David Hersh, MD, PhD, and offers academic and clinical services to faculty and staff at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. The program educates clinicians, staff, residents and medical students on issues related to pediatric ethics, and provide consultation services to patients, families and staff.

The Pediatric Ethics Committee of Yale New Haven’s Children’s Hospital provides consultation about ethical issues regarding clinical practice related to pediatrics.

This group, chaired by David Hersh, MD, PhD consists of physicians, nurses, clergy, medical ethicists, community members and others, with considerable experience consulting in such matters.

The committee does not have the authority to determine patient care, and serves in an advisory capacity only, but it can help parents and patients with ethical concerns about medical treatment and patient care issues. Ethics consultations can be requested by the patient, family, friend, clinical staff and research staff at Yale New Haven Hospital. Contact the Pediatric Ethics Committee at 203.785.4651.

The Professional Responsibility course examines many of the moral, legal, economic, social, and structural aspects of the health care system in which students will be immersed during their time at Yale and throughout their career. This course examines the moral and ethical context of the practice of medicine, or what society expects of physicians in addition to our purely technical skills – including how we comport ourselves, how well we communicate, what our obligations to our patients and communities are, and how well we live up to them.

The PR course helps students recognize, confront, and resolve ethical dilemmas that arise during patient care and research, when the proper course of action – what we should do – is not immediately obvious, and there is often disagreement among well-meaning people. The course includes lectures and small group discussion sessions. Students take turns leading the small group discussion sessions under the supervision of faculty facilitators.

Introduction to the Profession (iPro) is the first course in the Yale School of Medicine curriculum. The goal of iPro is to introduce first-year medical students to their professional identity in medicine. iPro also aims to introduce and foster a holistic approach to the learning and practice of medicine.

This student-led gathering of medical, nursing, physician associate, and public health students is held once per month in the evening, September through May. These sessions provide a rare opportunity to discuss issues in bioethics informally with a guest member of the faculty in a multi-disciplinary setting.

Faculty Co-Directors: Benjamin Tolchin, MD, MS, and Sarah C. Hull, MD, MBE

This is a student-led branch of a national organization. The Hippocratic Society is a community of medical students and practitioners together seeking to live up to their healing profession. Their mission is to form and sustain clinicians in the practice and pursuit of good medicine.

Faculty Director: Sarah C. Hull, MD, MBE

This 2-week course is offered in April, Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A small group of students meets daily with different faculty members to strengthen their foundational knowledge of the field, and explore specific areas of bioethics, such as ethical issues in obstetrics, emergency medicine, pediatrics, patient’s rights, public health, policy development, clinical consultations, and many others.

There are twenty 90-minute seminars, all structured as small group discussions, limited to MD and PA students. To receive bioethics concentration (BEC) CV credit, students must take this course in any year after having completed their primary clinical rotations. Course enrollment is limited to provide a small seminar experience, and preference for enrollment will go to students participating in the BEC.

Course Director: Sarah C. Hull, MD, MBE

Ethics consults are an important service provided to the patients and staff at Yale New Haven Hospital by the Adult and Pediatric Ethics Committees. Consults are generally requested when there is a difficult ethical question related to care options, and/or when there is disagreement among patients, families, and healthcare providers regarding the appropriate course of action. The consults may be provided by an individual ethics consultant, a small group, or a larger committee, depending on the specifics of the case at hand.

Students will participate in approximately four clinical ethics consultations, initially shadowing and observing, and later providing input and helping to write up clinical documentation.

Clinical ethics consultations typically address some of the hospital’s most medically, legally, and socially complex cases in which there is uncertainty or disagreement about how to proceed. The ethics consultation service facilitates discussion between patients, family members, and clinicians to identify a consensus around a course of action, and to provide guidance based on ethical principles and healthcare system policies.

Faculty Director: Benjamin Tolchin, MD, MS