The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network founded the Paul Ramsey Institute in 2012 to build a training program that would uphold and further the great legacy of our namesake, Paul Ramsey (1913-1988). Ramsey anticipated many of the moral challenges we now face in the realms of science and medicine, and pioneered a thorough ethical analysis of these challenges. In this spirit, the Paul Ramsey Institute brings together leading thinkers and scholars in the field of bioethics with current graduate students, medical students, law students, and early-career academics in order to prepare and equip these future leaders with an approach to bioethics that is grounded in moral responsibility. The Paul Ramsey Institute is a two-year program where scholars and fellows gather three times each year to pursue important questions that are facing our world today. Discussion and inquiry include topics such as:
- What does it mean to be human?
- How are we to pursue various techniques and therapies to promote healing while also recognizing and respecting ethical limitations?
- What is the meaning of suffering? Might it serve some greater good?
- What is the proper relationship between patient and physician?
- Can science alone solve our problems
In thoughtful engagement of these questions, we don’t simply speculate about the future, we also consider how past philosophical traditions can shape and improve our present understandings and help us to meet the pressing challenges of our time. In the years since we began our Paul Ramsey Institute, over 40 talented students, physicians, lawyers, academics, writers, theologians and others have completed the fellowship becoming Paul Ramsey Institute Alumni. These alumni have received various tenure track positions at schools and universities throughout the United States as well as a Rhodes Scholarship. Many have been published in prestigious journals and publications throughout the world. Our alumni network is growing and we’d love to add you! Applications for the Paul Ramsey Institute open every two years and can be found on our application page. Among the schools represented in past fellowship cohorts are University of Chicago, Stanford Medical School, Duke Divinity School, Valparaiso University, Rice University, and University of California, Berkeley. Paul Ramsey’s commitment to the dignity of human life, along with his exemplary scholarship and teaching, set a standard for all of us to aspire to today, and we invite you to learn more about Our Mission and Our Values. Thank you for your interest in this program.
We look forward to hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Kallie Fell, CBC, Executive Director
Paul Ramsey Institute, Program Director
