Ethics Café
Ethics Café
Introduction
Ethics Café is an initiative started by the undergraduate education team to provide a safe, open, and informal platform upon which undergraduate medical students can meet and chat about contemporary issues in bioethics. Students are welcome to bring anything of their own bioethical interest. For example, students are welcome to bring cases they have seen or are thinking about, things they have read, or even their feelings as medical professionals in training!
Supported by the Centre, Ethics Café will provide light refreshments at every session. CBmE academics will also bring their wide range of expertise, interests, and views to Ethics Café sessions to inspire enriching conversations.
Ethics Café is free to attend and is open to all Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine undergraduates. It is conducted outside of the undergraduate core curriculum.
Do I Need to have Research or Professional Interests in Bioethics?
Not at all! Ethics Café is meant only to serve as an extra-curricular, informal gathering of like-minded individuals interested in bioethics. Students at any stage of professional development are encouraged to join, even if it’s just to listen in on conversations.
But I have a Research Interest in Bioethics!
For students who have specific research or professional interests, Ethics Café also serves as a springboard to help. Some ways Ethics Café can help you develop your research interests:
1) Discuss your interests with relevant CBmE staff over coffee or tea.
a. Write to us to let us know which session you intend to attend, and we’ll try our best to get you in touch with an academic who shares your interest.
b. Else, you’re welcome to attend and talk to anyone – free and easy!
2) Develop your interest into projects, or even publications.
a. After attending an Ethics Café session, you might be inspired to develop your idea or interest into something more tangible.
b. If so, we’re happy to put you in touch with someone who could potentially supervise or provide advice (formally or informally) on your work.
c. Avenues for publication, conference travel, essay prize submissions, etc. may also be discussed at later stages of development.
Rules of Engagement
What do I need to prepare?
Absolutely nothing! There won’t be speeches, seminars, tutorials, lectures, or anything of the sort.
Come ready to chat with CBmE bioethicists about anything you’d like to about ethics. Here are some examples of things you might be interested to chat about:
1) Things you’ve seen, heard, or experienced during your time in clinics or wards of bioethical interest to you.
2) Thoughts you might have had in response to matters of bioethical interest, irrespective of whether these matters have been covered in your core curriculum.
3) If you have a research interest, please chat with any of us about it! We are very happy to link you up with a member of the CBmE team to help you get your research off the ground.
If you like, you are most welcome to bring a friend!
What do we ask of you?
Firstly, come with an open mind. Be ready to speak or debate about any topic that interests you. Ethics Café is a safe and inclusive space where students and faculty alike are free to discuss anything. So naturally, different points of views may arise especially when it comes to contentious topics. Safety is our number 1 priority, and we will do everything we can to uphold a suitable space for discussion.
The Café is committed to being respectful to everyone irrespective of the views they hold. We ask that attendees come ready to engage in respectful, active listening. This means being ready to listen carefully to all viewpoints — even (or especially) to those that contradict yours. If you are keen to debate, you are most welcome to do so. We ask only that you engage fairly and respectfully with those you are debating with.
Debate etiquette: For instance, in a debate, please allow your interlocutors the opportunity to express their views in full. Avoid interrupting each other when talking, and always assume that your interlocutor is intelligent enough to bring to the table a defensible view. When questioned, take care to respond appropriately to the question, and take care not to shrug or wave questions off. If there are several people involved in the conversation, ensure that everyone has an opportunity to add to the conversation.
In any case, all attendees (including students and CBmE staff) are granted, unequivocally, the right to disengage from conversation if discomfort arises.
We will not tolerate violence, physical or otherwise.
Photos and videos may be taken at the event for future publicity. Although we will take your attendance at the event as implicit consent to being photographed, your confidentiality and comfort is important to us. Also, as you are likely aware, active consent trumps implicit/passive consent.
If you would like to opt out of being captured on photo or video, kindly reply to your invitation email to let us know. If you opt out, we will take every reasonable effort to remove your likeness from our photos and videos. If you do not opt out, then we take it as understood that you consent to being photographed.
Where do I Sign up?
If this sounds enticing to you, come on down! Register your interest here
Key Contact Members
Marcus TL Teo
Dr Ann Toh
Phase 3 HeLP Co-Director
mdctyp@nus.edu.sg