A team from Montgomery College in Maryland won the seventh annual Community College Ethics Bowl this year, reports Community College Times. Teams spend months discussing the ethical implications of a list of topics, not knowing which one they’ll draw.
The topics were: punishing teenager “sexting” as child pornography; testing virtue by deception; using cognitive enhancement drugs to get a higher LSAT score; refusing to certify a student teacher based on information found on a social networking site; publicly disclosing identities of those who contribute to support or oppose controversial ballot measures; reporting by the national press of “facts” from fraudulent news sources; using partnerships between charitable organizations and convicted professional athletes to improve and restore their reputations; charging women more for health insurance based on their greater use of and need for medical care; producing meat synthetically; and encouraging physicians to participate in military interrogations that arguably involve torture.
Judges decide based on students’ ability to identify ethical issues (and avoid irrelevancies) and analyze clearly and thoughtfully.
