Principal Investigator: Cheryl MacPherson, Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation and St. George’s University, Grenada

Hastings Center Investigators: Mildred Solomon, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Mercer Gary

Funder: Fogarty International Center and the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health

The Hastings Center, in partnership with the Caribbean Research Ethics Education Initiative (CREEi), is designing and leading a model bioethics educational program for advancing critical thinking and writing skills among professionals in low- and middle-income countries in the Caribbean basin in English and Spanish languages. Trainees will be mentored for several months to develop a bioethics case study on an issue relevant to their work and region; some case studies will be relevant in other regions and countries. The cases and analyses will be compiled into a casebook made publicly accessible as an educational resource in both languages through the websites of CREEi, The Hastings Center, the Bioethics Society of the English-speaking Caribbean, and the Unidad de Bioetica.

The aims are to:

• Improve critical thinking and writing skills among Master of Bioethics students and graduates to enhance their contributions to research ethics scholarship, education, and policy development.
• Create opportunities for trainees to lead and engage in discussion and advancement of ethical issues relevant to low- and middle-income countries through scholarly outputs they will be mentored to produce.