Ethics Certificate students publish research on drugs and addiction

Each year, the aim of the Capstone course, a final requirement for the Ethics Certificate Program, has been to bring all of the different ethical perspectives and experiences students gain through the program to focus on a single theme. Past themes have included Crime and Punishment; Mental Illness and Ethical Responsibility; Moral and Political Disagreement; and the Ethics of the War on Terrorism.

This year, the Capstone course focused on “Drugs and Addiction.” In the first half of the semester, students read and discussed different aspects of the topic, and began to narrow attention to forms of drug treatment and prevention. In the second half, students researched these different approaches, including fear-based prevention as “health terrorism,” Big Tobacco’s corporate responsibility, and outreach programs through organizations such as Durham’s TROSA. Their essays have been bound together in a publication edited by Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and graduate student Jesse Summers. Copies of the book are available at the Kenan Institute for Ethics main office.