More than 500 guests visited Kent Place School’s campus for its fourth annual Bioethics Project Symposium on Friday, February 12. The Symposium was a culminating event which marked the end of an intensive program developed through a partnership with The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School and The Hastings Center in Garrison, NY. The event was planned and hosted by the 10 Upper School students whose work was presented through a series of workshops. The scholars designed highly engaging, thought-provoking sessions that included case studies presented for audience members to discuss and analyze.

The 10 students were selected last spring after an extensive application process. Their work began with a three-week summer internship, where faculty from both The Ethics Institute and The Hastings Center gathered for 25 hours per week to provide the students with intensive introductions to ethics, bioethics and advanced study of the ethics of medical decision-making.

When the school year began, the students worked on their individual research projects through collaboration with Kent Place faculty and Hastings Center researchers, who served as mentors. These projects were presented at the Symposium and included topics relevant to medical ethics, such as patient rights, mental illness, bioprinting in medicine, religious freedom, prenatal health and planetary sustainability.

Congratulations to all of the Bioethics Project participants: Neha Bhardwaj ’18, Lauren Burr ’16, Anjolie Charlot ’18, Elyse DeCesare ’18, Sophie Huttner ’18, Alexa Kolakoski ’18, Veda Kumar ’18, Ruthie Laurence ’18, Reagan McRae ’17 and Priyanka Ray ’16.

The Hastings Center has for more than 40 years led the field of bioethics, conducting interdisciplinary research on some of the most contested topics in medicine and science. The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School was founded in 2007, and fosters the study of ethics in schools and the broader community.