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History

The Bioethics Project at the University of Southern Maine was established in 2000 in conjunction with two new biotechnology research institutes at USM, The Bioscience Research Institute of Southern Maine (BRISM) and the Institute for Research in Information Sciences (IRIS). We are located at Research Initiatives in the new research wing annexed to the Science building on the Portland campus. The Bioethics Project brings perspectives from the humanities and other disciplines to biotechnology and biomedicine.

Objectives

The Project has three goals:

  • Research
  • Community Outreach
  • Education
The Bioethics Project received its first grant in 2002 from the Greenwall Foundation to explore ethical issues in biobanking. We value collaborative research teams for grant research that may include scientists, lawyers, and ethicists from USM, the biomedical Portland community, and other colleges and universities in Maine. The Project sponsors and co-sponsors speakers and events. We also collaborate with a new student organization at USM, The Bioethics Society, established in 2004. The Bioethics Society provides a campus forum for students to discuss controversial issues in science and technology, such as stem cells and cloning. The Bioethics Project is host for the Maine Bioethics Network, a non-profit state-wide organization of over 200 hundred ethicists, physicians, nurses, chaplains, social workers, and others interested in biomedical ethics. An additional outreach activity is the Clinical Ethics Consortium. The Consortium will network clinical ethicists working in Maine hospitals and clinics and provide a forum for discussing clinical cases in informed consent, patient autonomy, genetic privacy, and related issues.

 New Research Wing


Programs

  • Visiting Scholars Program – for faculty on leave from other institutions

  • Undergraduate Internship Program – for undergraduate USM students pursuing work in bioethics

  • Graduate Internship Program – for graduate students in USM health science, health policy, and law who wish to take an active role in research or administrative activities of the Bioethics Project

Please contact us for more information.