November 17, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will compete for the first time in the national Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl.

The seven-member UAB team placed second in the Southeastern regional competition in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Nov. 15. The UAB team outscored 18 other teams, including Emory, the U.S. Naval Academy and West Point, to advance to the national competition on March 5 in Cincinnati. Thirty-two teams from 10 regions across the United States will compete for the national title.

For the competition, the students mastered 12 cases involving ethical problems and defended or attacked a position on cases chosen at random. A moderator posed questions to the teams. The topics ranged from medical outsourcing and surreptitious DNA gathering to the ethics of allowing babies to live behind bars with their incarcerated mothers. The panel of judges included physicians, lawyers, professors and city judges.

UAB philosopher and medical ethicist Gregory Pence, Ph.D., the team coach, said he is especially proud of the team's performance because freshmen compose four of the team members.

The UAB team includes Riley Carpenter of Butler, Daniel Sandlin and Jennifer Ghandhi of Huntsville, Chris Graves of Southside, Khushboo Jhala of Vestavia Hills, John Bouldin of Reform and Helen Lin of Hoover. All seven belong to UAB's Early Health Professions Acceptance Program, which Pence directs.  The Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences co-sponsored the trip to the regional competition.