Cedars, April 2016

IN-DEPTH: SCHOOL OF PHARMACY

from Hippocrates to the modern era. Lastly, Sullivan touches on specific areas of ethics, such as end-of-life ethics, beginning-of-life ethics and genetic ethics. Ethics today and tomorrow Sullivan said the major ethical issues of today are abortion and assisted suicide, but more recently, the issue of profession- al right of conscience has gained attention. This refers to health professionals’ right to not be complicit with a moral evil, he said. For example, while both physicians and nurses are allowed by Ohio law to choose not to refer a patient to an abortion clinic, pharmacists are not protected in this way. Yet Sullivan cautions that pharmacy stu- dents should exercise their rights with care and caution. “If you’re going to exercise your right of conscience, you’re going to have to be thoughtful, careful and reason through it,” Sullivan said, “because otherwise you could really hurt the cause of Christ.” Lewis said pharmacy students should be prepared to face future ethical issues, as well as those that are current. “We’re trying to prepare (students) to address those dilemmas that don’t yet exist by giving them a solid foundation of princi- ples and processes for evaluating a dilem- ma,” Lewis said. Sullivan said he sees four coming eth- ical challenges in pharmacy and general healthcare. First, he said as abortion be- comes easier, it will come with fewer conse- quences. Second, Sullivan said, healthcare will become more limited or rationed, based on utilitarian principles. For example, the elderly could become deprived of medical care based on their decreased “use” to so- ciety. Third, he said medicine will become more dehumanized and impersonal, es- pecially as health professionals are pres- sured to see more patients in less time. And fourth, he said that as new technologies are developed, new challenges will arise, espe- cially for beginning-of-life ethics and end- of-life ethics. While Sullivan said he incorporates Christian principles into his ethics class- es, he said his goal is to teach his students multiple ethical theories and to equip them to use each theory well. These theories, he

said, are sources outside of Christianity that students can rely on when making ethical decisions. “We have to recognize that although Scripture is our primary source of ethical guidance, Scripture is not comprehensive. It doesn’t cover every possibly contingency,” he said. “We have other sources of wisdom.” Students should use God’s gift of rea- son when making ethical decisions, he said. Jeb Ballentine, associate professor of pharmacy practice, said the School of Phar- macy works to prepare students for future issues by equipping them with principles and processes. “(We are) giving you the tools to ap- proach that problem the same way every time,” he said. “The variables will change a little bit, but the ultimate formula won’t.” Ballentine, who has been a professor at Cedarville for five years, said pharmacy is by nature a profession filled with ethical dilemmas. “We’ve all entered this profession be- cause we want to help people and heal peo- ple, but at the same time, because we are dealing with drugs, it’s a very regulated pro- fession,” he said. “Almost daily your desire to heal is going to come into conflict with the laws you are bound to follow.” Regarding right of conscience, Ballen- tine said a pharmacist’s current right in al- most every state to choose which prescrip- tions to fill may change in coming years. However, he said that even though ethical issues will continue to fluctuate, students should make it a priority to learn about eth- ical issues and develop their own stance. “The issues keep changing, but your values don’t and your approach to the issues shouldn’t,” he said. Pharmaceutical sciences Those more focused on pharmaceutical sciences also have their fair share of ethical dilemmas with which to grapple. Elisha Injeti, vice chair and associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, began working at Cedarville in 2009. Injeti said he became interested in the field of bioethics during his graduate studies when he be- gan teaching a laboratory course on animal experimentation and research. He said he started asking questions such as, “What is

the right way to treat animals, and who de- cides that?” Injeti pursued further studies in bio- ethics, and when he arrived at Cedarville, he joined the Center for Bioethics. Injeti said it is important for pharmacy students to know how to conduct research in an ethical manner. “There are ethical principles that you follow when you are working with human research and when you are working with animal research,” he said. Injeti said ethical issues, such as stem cell research, synthetic biology and research methods, face those in the field of pharma- ceutical science. Injeti said that, ultimately, students must make ethics a priority in order to serve and glorify God. “We are called to do everything for his glory,” he said. “So, how can you do every- thing for God’s glory if you don’t even un- derstand how God expects you to treat your research subjects?” The Christian component Cedarville students have a distinct opportunity to engage in meaningful dis- cussions about ethics because of the struc- ture of the university, Lewis said. He said that while other universities have similar approaches for teaching ethics, Cedarville uniquely combines Christian principles and Christian students. “This is the only school of pharma- cy where we not only have … Scripture as our guiding principles, but we also have a student body who professes a relationship with Christ,” he said. “It does offer a unique opportunity to train in a fashion that is not available anywhere else.” WEBSCLUSIVE: The School of Pharmacy began a patient call center in March 2016. Watch a video about CedarCare at ReadCedars.com Kjersti Fry is a sophomore pharmacy ma- jor and campus news editor for Cedars. She enjoys playing piano and ultimate frisbee and spending time with friends and family.

dents to be exposed to ethical discussions at the beginning of the professional program. Teaching ethics in the classroom Sullivan said his approach to teaching ethics has two distinctive features. First, he strives to teach normative ethics rather than Christian ethics. He said normative ethics is the set of ethical standards that applies to all people, not just Christians. To explain the concept, he used the ex- ample of abortion. Christians believe that abortion is wrong not just for other Chris- tians, but for all people, he said. This is a case in which individuals use normative ethics, he said. In normative ethics, Sulli- van said he teaches the general principles that have been accepted by the medical community for thousands of years. He said he teaches this way so his students are pre- pared to face ethical issues in secular envi- ronments. “When I train my students, I train them to enter the pluralistic marketplace of healthcare,” he said. “I’m training them to understand normative ethics so that they can work in a setting where their faith posi- tion may be the minority … yet they can still take a stand based on generally accepted secular principles.” Second, Sullivan promises a safe learn- ing environment. While ethical discussions are often controversial, he said, students’ ethical convictions never affect their grade in the class. “I have some very strong ethics opin- ions. But I have a safe classroom. Students agreeing with me on their particular conclu- sions has nothing to do with their grade,” Sullivan said. “I want them to arrive at their convictions because they’ve been convinced by the arguments and the evidence them- selves.” Sullivan said his bioethics class has four main components. First, he incorpo- rates ethical theory, which is the study of the different approaches to ethics. Second, he includes human personhood, which is unique to Cedarville’s curriculum. Human personhood teaches students the founda- tion of the inherent value of humans, from theological, philosophical and scientific ar- guments. Third, Sullivan teaches historical ethics, or the history of the study of ethics,

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April 2016