Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Through partnerships with area hospitals and hospices, Bioethics focuses on clinical ethics to develop policies on issues such as organ donation after cardiac death and artificial nutrition and hydration.[2][3] Partner hospitals also provide internship opportunities in health care for undergraduates. The center's bioethics research has focused on "Medical Decision Making for Un-befriended and Unrepresented Patients," "Culturally Competent Care," and "Pandemic Ethics."

The Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership brings together business executives and business ethics scholars from Santa Clara University and other Bay Area institutions. The partnership is a forum to develop the creation of ethical organizational cultures.[4] It has sponsored research on issues such as "Encouraging Internal Whistle blowing" and "Corporate Moral Responsibility and the Ethics of Product Usage." The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics also offers programs on assessing the ethical culture of their organization for boards of directors.

More than 70 members of the Santa Clara University faculty are scholars of the Campus Ethics, and have expertise in a fields ranging from literature to engineering. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics offers Hackworth Grants to both faculty and students for research on applied ethics and a Hackworth Fellowships for students interested in creating programs on ethics for their peers. The Campus Ethics program also organizes presentations on ethics in applied fields such as technology, diversity, immigration, law, and other topics.[5]

The focus on Government Ethics includes conflicts of interest, gifts and bribes, cronyism, lobbying, transparency, and the personal lives of public officials.[6] The Center's Ethics Roundtable enables locally elected officials such as mayors, council people, county supervisors, and members of special districts to meet quarterly to discuss how these issues play out in their work.

With a special focus on privacy, Internet Ethics focus offers presentations and teaching modules on such topics as data, social media, the 'right to be forgotten,' cybersecurity, ethics in video games, search engines, and privacy by design.

The Journalism & Media Ethics focus area addresses the ethical implications of how journalistic 'gatekeeping' has changed in a digital era. It collaborates with journalists, editors, and technologists to help members of the public engage with journalists andjournalists equip themselves with in-depth knowledge on complex issues they cover. It also assists stakeholders across the digital ecosystem defuse the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation that frequently disguises itself as news.

The Leadership Ethics focus of the center works with businesses, nonprofits, governments, and other organizations to analyze real-world issues in leadership ethics and to develop programs and tools to address them.

As an ethics center in a Jesuit university, there is a special interest in the role of religion in ethics and the formation of moral character. The Religious and Catholic Ethics focus offers dialogue, research, and curriculum across a wide range of religious traditions.

The Technology Ethics focus area examines issues in the ethics of emerging technologies, providing teaching resources for universities and corporations, and working with organizations such as the Partnership on AI.[7] Particular areas of focus include AI ethics, space ethics, ethics of human enhancement and transhumanism, and global catastrophic and existential risk.