Training More Doctors Should Be Our First Priority, Says Ethicist

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hi. I’m Art Caplan. I'm at the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine.

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the use of affirmative action in admissions to colleges, universities, medical schools, and nursing schools. This has led to an enormous amount of worry and concern, particularly in medical school admissions in the world I'm in, where people start to say that diversity matters. Diversity is important.

I know many deans of medical schools immediately sent out messages of reassurance to their students, saying NYU or Stanford or Harvard or Minnesota or Case Western is still deeply concerned about diversity, and we're going to do what we can to preserve attention to diversity.

I've served on admissions at a number of schools over the years for med school. I understand — and have been told — that diversity is important. and according to the Supreme Court, not explicitly by race. There are obviously many variables to take into account when trying to keep diversity at the forefront of admissions.

At the schools I've been at, including Columbia, NYU, University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), University of Minnesota, and University of Pennsylvania (Penn), there are plenty of qualified students.