The emerging ethical problems that our world faces at the intersection of science, technology, and society are urgent, evolving, and interconnected. The sustainability of our planet, the use and proliferation of data and information technology, and the choices we make concerning healthcare and biomedical research are all marked by complex ethical questions. These intersecting problems, and their solutions, are not the province of a single discipline; instead, they require interdisciplinary insight and expertise.
We use the word emergent in two senses that will guide our mission: first, because we will focus on cutting-edge issues that have emerged due to rapid advances in technology and second, because we are convinced that answers to those questions will only emerge through the collaborative efforts of ethicists, scientists, translational research, and practitioners.
Dan Sulmasy, MD, PhD, Director, Emergent Ethics Network
As a Catholic and Jesuit university with a breadth of resources in academic ethics and scientific expertise on the same campus, Georgetown is establishing a new and transformative approach to ethics, one defined by robust engagement and collaboration across disciplines in pursuit of solutions to pressing problems. Organized in a new collaborative structure, Georgetown’s four leading academic ethics centers will work together to address—and prepare our students to tackle—the ethical challenges raised by critical issues of our age.
Established in 1971 with a founding interest in what came to be known as bioethics, the KIE is one of the oldest academic ethics centers in the world. Today it is a place where ethicists educate the next generation and engage in rigorous, sustained conversation to respond directly and meaningfully to the pressing ethical issues of our time.
Visit the KIE websiteThe Center provides university-based ethics resources for those who shape and give health care. Committed to the dynamic interplay between theory and practice, experience, and reflection, Center scholars bring expertise in theology, philosophy, basic science, and clinical practice to today’s ethical challenges and promote serious ethical reflection and discourse in pursuit of a just society and health care that affirms the dignity and social nature of all persons.
Visit the PCCB websiteThe Environmental Justice initiative was started in 2019 at Georgetown. Now part of Earth Commons, the Environmental Justice Commons seeks to enhance and elevate multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary initiatives that prioritize diverse perspectives to advance environmental justice scholarship and culture throughout the university—and beyond.
Visit the EJC page at the Earth Commons websiteDeveloping cutting edge digital ethics research, teaching, and policy solutions at the intersection of computer science, philosophy, and public policy. We have in place some of the world’s leading experts—in computer science, cybersecurity, law, philosophy, and technology policy—to help construct the field of digital ethics by advancing theory, producing interdisciplinary research, building educational content, and influencing policy and practice.
Visit the CDE websiteIndividually, each of our centers is doing groundbreaking work. Together, we can provide the scholarship needed to understand complex new ethical issues and the leadership required to help guide the world through daunting ethical dilemmas.
