The 2022 UBRP Ethics Retreat: A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives

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Science is an extremely complex thing on its own, and when we think about it, what might come to mind are the hard skills like math, physics, biology, and so on. However, one of the most crucial parts of science is ethics. Science and ethics are more related than we might think, and regardless of how much or little this is talked about in our classrooms, as scientists, we must make an effort to be as updated and exposed to these topics as possible, as one can’t be a good scientist without care for others and their communities. Which is why kicking off the UBRP field trips of summer with the ethics retreat was ideal. This event took place on June 9^th and 10^th of 2022 at the Biosphere 2. During this event, 24 students from very different backgrounds and interests shared the common goal of becoming more educated about different controversial topics in science, but also learning and getting educated about how they could contribute to practicing science while doing no harm to others and the considerations that needed to be taken while doing research.

Throughout the two days we had a number of guest speakers that shared their knowledge and experience in different subjects by leading organized discussions, make up scenarios, and different activities that promoted reflection. Among the controversial topics, we had a session about the usage of opioids for chronic pain by Mohab Ibrahim, MD, PhD. During this session we had the opportunity to learn about different points of view, secondhand experiences, and the relevant data and context needed to understand the crisis the healthcare system faces due to these drugs. It was really interesting to see how regardless of the position and ideas each individual participant had at the beginning, the more the topic was discussed, the richer the perspectives got, and the better “treatments” were designed and the more prepared we were to face a situation that involved these types of medicaments.

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Another extremely hard and eye-opening session was the one of cancer treatment and the dilemmas from pediatric cases by Clinton Owner. A lot of the UBRP participants shared the idea that this was the hardest session in the entire retreat. During the discussions we had we were struggling to balance and identifying the priority of advocating for your patient, doing no harm, parental rights, giving your patient autonomy, and getting their consent, which is extremely complicated when talking about pediatric cases overall. Angel Pimentel, PhD, talked to us about the treatment of students with disabilities in STEM fields. For this session we were assigned to read the introduction of “Disability in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach,” before the retreat. This passage talked about the different perspectives about disabilities, terminology and its origin, and how different movements and communities preferred to be addressed. During the session we were assigned different conditions and made teams to discuss how our opportunities and daily life would be impacted. One extremely relevant, helpful, and useful session was Research with Tribal Nations and Cultural Sensitivity by Jennifer Bea, PhD. Here we learned about the history of abuse to marginalized communities and minorities by the science community in the past, as understanding historic trauma is key to building up new and healthy relationships. We got tips from Dr. Bea about how to establish and maintain a good and collaborative relationship with Tribal Nations in order to maximize the benefits they get from the research, but also to help our research be as complete as it can.

During the event there were many take-aways about how important it is to have DEI as a main pillar in STEM, and the importance and benefit of looking at a single thing from different perspectives and considering more than just one approach. This retreat gave the students the opportunity to be exposed to topics that promote critical thinking and challenge their current points of view; making them more aware of the different strategies they need to apply when designing a project and implementing it, as well when making a decision, and getting involved with people and communities.

“Humanity without science is fragile, science without humanity is lethal.” ― Abhijit Naskar, The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work. Thank you to UBRP and its supporters for making it possible for students to bring a piece of humanity into their work.