PSU Magazine Fall 2004

Bob Suhanek was a senior at Thurston High School in Springfield when a multiple murder rocked the school, the community, and– ultimately-the entire stale of Oregon. One spring day in 1998, a Thurston High freshman , Kip Kinkel, killed his mother and father. The next day he Look a rifle and two pistols Lo school, killing two students and wounding 24 when he opened fire in the school cafeteria. There was a feeling in the shocked community, Suhanek says, that Kinkel should be "locked away and given the death sentence." But a presentation by Kip Kinkel's current treating psychiatrist, William Sack, Lo a Portland State Biomedical Ethics class made Suhanek realize that he had not understood enough about this tragedy. After the presentation and class discussion, he approached the course professor, Patricia Backlar, with tears in his eyes. "l had never taken into consideration before that Kinkel could be suffering from a mental illness. " How responsible was Kip Kinkel for his crimes7 What, if anything, could have been done LO help him before he became delusional and psychotic? These are the kind of questions stu– dents examine in the three-term class. 12 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2004 The students-future physicians, dentists, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and administrators-grapple with the complex and often emotion– ally wrenching issues that crop up daily for those who are involved in the health professions. Sack told the class that if Kinkel had been under treatment with appropriate medication for paranoid schizophrenia, he would not have committed the mur– derous acts. The voices that for years told him to kill could have been qui– eted. The class not only introduces students to the issues and decision– making processes of biomedical ethics, but also offers a Certificate of Comple– tion granted jointly by the PSU Depart– ment of Philosophy; the Program for Ethics, Science and the Environment al Oregon State University; and Kaiser Permanente, Center for Health Research, Northwest/Hawaii. The Cen– ter for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University provides a practicum on the hill for designated profound impact on many lives. Because practical experience is essential for doing the actual work of bioethics, Backlar combines her lec– tures with case-based class discussions. She asks students to work together in small groups to present case analyses as if they were members of a hospital ethics consulting service or an institu– tional review board that must evaluate the risks and benefits of human partici– pant research. Backlar urges her stu– dents to use the classroom as a safe harbor in which they may examine their own opinions and unpack the thorny issues and dilemmas that they may someday have to face . I n Backlars spring term seminar, stu– dent Weiyi Zhao, a physics researcher whose goal is to become a public health administrator, led the presentation of a clinical case, Ferguson vs. City of Charleston (N.C.), which had reached the courts. Zhao described the case Lo her fe llow students: "ln 1989, the medical Students look at the human side of medical decisions. ode of professionals who have completed the course; and Oregon Health Forum, a health policy publication , offers intern– ships to students enrolled in the course. 8 acklar developed the program and has taught the class since its inception in 1997. The course reflects her interest in identifying and examining the signif– icant, and often controversial, ethical and public policy issues relevant to bio– medical and behavioral research, health care, and public health. Students in Backlar's classes learn the methodolo– gies (and the art) involved in address– ing and resolving biomedical dilemmas, whose outcomes have the potential for personnel and hospital administrators at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), working in collabo– ration with the police and prosecutors office, instituted a policy of searching certain pregnant women and new mothers for evidence of cocaine. Urine tests, normally used by health care pro– fessionals to aid medical decision-mak– ing, were turned over to the police and used as criminal evidence when the tests suggested cocaine use. Patients who tested positive for cocaine were then arrested." Zhao explained that most of the women who used the free clinic were typically impoverished African Ameri-