|  The
Division of Medical Ethics of Harvard Medical School is dedicated to
improving medical care and medical education by building greater awareness
and understanding of the critical moral, ethical and social dimensions
of medicine through a broad education and research agenda. The Division
is committed to forging links among the medical school, Harvard's affiliated
hospitals, other Harvard schools and related programs and the larger
community.
The Division applies
a broad interdisciplinary approach to investigate how social, cultural
and political forces shape ethical considerations in the sciences and
medicine. Based in the Department of Social Medicine and surrounded
by Harvard's affiliated hospitals, the Division is deeply rooted in
an approach that brings together the social sciences and humanities
with research science and clinical medicine to explore critical moral
elements of the social determinants of health and disease, the nature
and meaning of illness, and the organization and delivery of health
care. These efforts are extended through the Division's close ties to
the University-wide Center for Ethics and the Professions.
As part of the Division's
commitment to broad public involvement and perspective, it conducts
intensive empirical and theoretical investigations into how medical
care is organized and delivered, both on a clinical and a policy level,
and to sharing those discussions in open public forums. In all of its
teaching and research, the Division emphasizes the importance of understanding
complex ethical dilemmas in their social, cultural, economic and political
contexts.
By examining the
essential moral questions at stake in medicine and science and by bringing
a wide range of clinical, social science and humanistic disciplines
to their investigation, the Division of Medical Ethics seeks to enhance
our collective ability to conduct science with integrity and deliver
effective care with compassion.
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