Rabbi Elliot Dorff (l), co-chair of the bioethics department at the University of Judaism, Joshua Hornstein (c) and Gerald Larue (r), emeritus professor of religion
and adjunct professor of gerontology.
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Introducing Medical Ethics
Philosophy/pre-med student launches series for pre-health students
By Katherine Yungmee Kim
March 2005
It was a surprising standing-room only turnout at the first symposium
in the College’s speaker series, “Becoming a Physician,” which examines
existing and emerging issues in medical ethics. Over 350 pre-health
students—pre-med, pre-nursing and pre-pharmacy—attended the discussion
entitled “Stem Cells: Hope or Hype?”
Program director Joshua Hornstein said effusively, “You know there’s an
incredible outcome when Richard Fliegel (Assistant Dean of Academic
Programs) and Debbie Bernstein (Director of Advisement for the College)
are sitting on the floor!”
The speaker series is the brainchild of Hornstein, a remarkably
productive philosophy/pre-med junior in the College. In a matter of a
few weeks, he got together faculty, student and administrative support,
and ten speakers for four events throughout the spring semester.
Although he always wanted to be in the helping profession, Hornstein
attributes his desire to becoming a physician to his training in
philosophy. “It brought out the moral dimensions in medicine that I
found worth pursuing,” he explains.
Last summer, Hornstein attended the Intensive Bioethics Course at The
Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University with his father, a
practicing physician and head of two ethics committees. The younger
Hornstein was the only undergraduate there.
He met with leading writers in medical ethics and spent a few
“mind-opening” weeks with them, learning the issues and theories of the
field.
Calling the experience, “emotional,” Hornstein said he wanted to bring
those ideas back to the pre-med students at USC. “What are the ends of
medicine?” he asks. “What obligations does it have? What ethical issues
tie the physician to the patient?
“I wanted to create a similar environment at USC to raise an awareness
to the hugely controversial issues in health care,” he says.
Gerald Larue, an emeritus professor of religion and adjunct professor
of gerontology at USC, and one of the speaker series’ advisers, calls
Hornstein a “bright young man with good social skills who is excited
about ethical issues in the developing field of modern medicine.”
Larue spoke in early March at the second symposium on “Physician
Assisted Suicide: Dignity or Desertion.” Again, over 250 students
attended the discussion, between Larue and Rabbi Elliot Dorff, co-chair
of the bioethics department at the University of Judaism.
The next two topics for the semester will be “HMOs: Commercialism Meets
Professionalism” and “Rationing Healthcare: Can We Afford Our Current
System?”
As for next year, Hornstein already has his speaker series outlined.
The topics he wants to address are theoretical: moral dilemma;
autonomy; beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice. But he also wants to
tackle feminism—“not just the paternal ethic in medicine”— and
multicultural medicine.
He says he would love to continue on at USC, to attend the Keck School
of Medicine and carry on his active role there. He has already put
together a proposal to hold a series of lunchtime seminars for medical
students on medical ethics. “USC has amazing potential to offer,” he
says, smiling.
And with the success of his speaker series, it seems vice versa.
For more information on the “Becoming a Physician” speaker series, please contact Joshua Hornstein, Program Director at jhornste@usc.edu.
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