Personal Statement:
Applicants are encouraged to pay careful attention to their personal statement. This statement should include:
A brief intellectual autobiography describing the formation of your academic interests and present concerns.
A description of your goals in obtaining an MA in Bioethics: what do you hope to achieve with this degree: personal fulfillment? Insight into clinical care? A job as a clinical bioethicist? Etc.
An explanation of how your past experience, academic training or research experience has prepared you to pursue graduate work in bioethics.
If applicable, the special area of interest or particular problems, theories, movements, periods, etc., upon which your study would focus.
A description of tentative plans for research, either specific problems or general areas in which you hope to work.
A description of relevant research or practice experience, including your role and the extent to which you were independently involved in the projects you mention.
Recommendation Letter:
Emory requires 3 letters of recommendation from people familiar with your work or academic performance. The letter writers should address the skills students have that will make them successful in a program that is humanities focused; specifically in a program that emphasizes clear verbal and written communication, that requires independent critical analysis skills, and that requires participation in discourse with faculty and other students.
Sample Analytical Essay:
Consider the following case*:
Mrs. A is a forty-nine-year-old woman with terminal breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain. Over the past four months, Mrs. A's decision-making capacity has gradually waned, until finally she is no longer able to make decisions for herself. Recently, Mrs. A has also stopped taking adequate hydration and nutrition. She left no living will, and she assigned no healthcare proxy. Her sister (Beth) has been acting as her surrogate decision maker. Beth is confused and distraught over what she views as a "sudden change" in her sister's condition. Beth believes that her sister should be fed, but she does not want to cause her unnecessary suffering. The attending physician tells Beth that her sister could have tube feedings as a supplement. However, the consulting surgeon disagrees. He tells Beth that the fact that her sister has stopped eating is a natural part of the dying process. He also tells Beth that he would not want a tube feeding for himself in this situation. The attending physician is irate. He believes that the decision to use tube feedings in the case of Mrs. A is "Beth's call." An ethics consultation is called.
*Case taken verbatim from Lynn A. Jansen (2008), Ethics Consultation at the End of Life. In Ethics by Committee, edited by D. Micah Hester (New York: Rowman and Littlefield), 168.
YOU are the bioethicist called by the treatment team. In no more than 1000 words, please describe how you would approach the case. What are the questions you would ask and why, what are the points you would raise, and what are the recommendations that you would make?
In preparing your response to the above, please write a short analytical essay (with complete sentences, paragraphs, etc.); that is, please do not simply offer a bulleted list of your thoughts about the case. We do not expect you to do any research on this topic, and we understand that you do not have academic training in bioethics. However, we would like to see your response to this case as part of your admissions packet.