The Bioethics Bowl is an intercollegiate, academic competition among undergraduate students at accredited four-year institutions of higher education. It takes place each April on a college campus. Unlike the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, which debates cases across the curriculum from agricultural and engineering ethics to issues of grade inflation and communications, the Bioethics Bowl focuses exclusively on ethical issues in the health and biological sciences.

Format

In late January or early February, the competing teams, judges, and moderators receive 15 case studies which represent controversial bioethical issues. The goals for each team is both to do research on the cases and to formulate well-structured, logical analyses pertaining to 3 questions posed (in advance) about each case. In each round, the first team gets one of the 12-15 cases randomly assigned plus one of the 3 questions from the moderator. The first team then has 10 minutes to present: (1) the central moral issues of the cases, and (2) alternative points of view. The responding team then comments for 5 minutes on the first team's analysis, and the first team then responds for 5 more minutes to these comments. Finally, a panel of 3 judges asks questions for 10 minutes to the presenting team. The judges then pause to evaluate the first teams' response and the second team's comments. The round then repeats this format with the second team receiving a question about a different case.

History

It began in 2008 at

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

in Schenectady, New York in connection with the 11th National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference, (which consisted of outside speakers for students’ and poster presentations by students). Michael Mathias, who coached Union’s Ethics Bowl team from 2003 to 2007, organized the first Bioethics Bowl at Union College, with the help of Bob Baker. It had 11 cases and six teams. Bob Ladenson and Patrick Croskery, founders of the Ethics Bowl, enthusiastically supported this new Bowl. The following year, Harvard University hosted in Cambridge, MA. Bioethicist

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...

then gave the keynote address and 12 teams participated. By 2017, the burden of supporting NUBC as a conference organized by undergraduates grew too much, when the Bioethics Bowl also almost collapsed. In 2017, to keep something going, Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene of

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy and earned its current name in 1991. As of fall 2023, the student population reached 30,536 students, cons ...

in Ogden, UT, agreed to keep the Bioethics Bowl alone going. Fifteen teams participated that year. Ann Jeffrey of the

University of South Alabama The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May 1963 and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alaba ...

then stepped forward and kept the Bowl going for two more years there. Since 2017, the Bioethics Bowl has existed on its own and is governed by a small executive committee. In 2019, the Prindle Institute for Ethics in Greencastle, IN became an official sponsor of the Bioethics Bowl, hosting its web site, registration and other administrative details.

History of Competitions

References

{{Reflist Bioethics Debating competitions Philosophy events