What did you do before coming to Rice?
Before coming to Rice, I was an assistant professor in the ethics department of a medical school, Albany Medical College. In addition to teaching medical students there, I was a clinical ethics consultant at Albany Medical Center, and I wrote guidelines for the hospital’s allocation of scarce resources.
What is a quirky aspect of Rice that you enjoy?
I love the tradition of cheering for new students as their parents drop them off at their residential colleges. I’ve never seen anything like it!
What is your current research project?
I’m interested in conflicts between care and respect in doctor-patient interactions. How should we conceive of these central medical values, exactly, and what should we do when they clash? My own position is that respect for human dignity is (and should be) the primary bioethical value. Physicians owe their patients respect, and respect is the baseline from which good doctor-patient interactions must begin. Caring is wonderful, of course, but taking up an attitude of care without first establishing a baseline of respect can be presumptuous and patronizing. (All of this requires elaboration and argument, of course.)
Why do you think medical humanities is important?
So much of the everyday practice of medical care has nothing to do with bioscience. All interpersonal interactions raise irreducibly ethical questions, medical interactions included. In fact, the ethical questions that arise in medicine are famously challenging. All medical providers (and patients) must confront them at some point; why not take time to reflect on them systematically?
What is a favorite moment from one of your medical humanities classes?
Last spring, I asked my students about the images they associated with metaphor of “burnout.” As it turned out, almost everyone had a different answer with a different set of implications. It was a fun reminder of the way words and images structure our ethical thinking.
What is something surprising about you that our readers might not know?
I won seven intramural basketball championships as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina.