This is the University of Chicago Hospital, one of the top rated in the country. It's also a teaching hospital, which explains why so many of these worn out, preoccupied faces with doctor smocks look so young, almost too young, it seems, to be saving lives. So, are they mature enough to make decisions laden with such important moral consequences? SEVERSON: Dr. Mark Siegler is a pioneer in the field of ethics and medicine and the founding director of the University's MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics
Dr. MARK SIEGLER (Founding Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics): If we teach one thing about clinical ethics, it is that the patient is the center of the universe of concern.
SEVERSON: Dr. Lainie Ross is on the ethics faculty.
Dr. LAINIE ROSS (Ethics Faculty, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics): You can't necessarily train someone to act ethically. What you can train is to think about the ethics involved in their decisions, so they become conscious of it. I think one of the most important things about ethics training is to be aware of your biases, of your own values, so that you realize when you're talking facts, when you're talking values.
SEVERSON: The clinical ethics program here at the University of Chicago Hospital is the first of its kind in the U.S., and a model for medical schools all around the country. What they are trying to do here is integrate ethics and medicine, so the doctor is prepared to treat the patient, not just the disease.
ERIC WEIL (Student, University of Chicago Hospital): What stuck out the most was a physician who said the thing he had to do when residency was over was relearn how to be humane.SEVERSON: Eric Weil is a third year student who hopes he can survive the grueling schedule and 100-hour-work-weeks with his humanity intact. Soldrea Roberts and Elizabeth Kieff are in their fourth year.
SOLDREA ROBERTS (Student, University of Chicago Hospital): There are frameworks of ethics in how you think about an issue. But there are also your own morals, your own emotions that are in this. And I think there are times where you have to separate your morals, you have to separate your emotions.
ELIZABETH KIEFF (Student, University of Chicago Hospital); How do you help patients arrive at the best decisions for them when it goes against your own morals? And that's something for which the ethics training we've had has been invaluable.
SEVERSON: All the medical students and the doctors here are taught, counseled, tutored and constantly reminded that medicine is more than science. Dr. David Rubin.
Dr. DAVID RUBIN (Faculty member, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics): I think that very often ethics is struggling to keep up with the advancements of science. What we've tried to do here is reverse that by saying, "Before the science goes any further, let's take a step back and look at where the ethical issues are." SEVERSON: Consider the ethical issues that have not been confronted before, like genetic testing. With some diseases, knowing you're going to get it, when there is nothing you can do about it, only prolongs the agony.
This panel is considering a new test for Crohn's disease which could tell whether an individual has a gene that makes him or her susceptible to Crohn's. Susceptible, but not certain that they'll get the painful digestive tract disease.
Dr. RUBIN: What will happen, if they know they have a susceptibility gene, to their quality of life? Every time they sneeze do they think they have developed Crohn's disease now? Do they think that perhaps it would be be harder to get married or have children? Do they fear insurance discrimination?
Dr. ROSS: It's about using technology. It's about withholding technology -- it's one of the big ones. It's about the death and dying process and how families deal with that. It's about ambiguity and uncertainty. SEVERSON: It's about the patient in intensive care, with a terminal illness who has lost three limbs so far because of a degenerative cardiovascular condition. Should the doctor advise the family to remove life support?
Ms. KIEFF: We have been taught to pay attention to the patient's religious beliefs. I have participated in prayer circles, and made sure to get pastors, ministers, or rabbis to patient's bedsides -- because for them the religious component of their ethics or their decision making is really fundamental. 
Dr. JEREMY MARKS (Founding Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics): The kids look normal. They look very small, but they look normal. And, they are on the ventilator but they look pink. And to tell a mother that there is a very bad bleed in the brain or the lungs -- that despite our maximum therapy, this baby won't do well -- is very difficult. 
Dr. TRACY KOOGLER (Founding Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics): She told the children that she did not want any heroic efforts taken to keep her alive. 
Mr. WEIL: We don't always have to use every single technique we have before we start thinking, "How is this going to affect this person's long term life, their enjoyment of life, and their relationships?" So, thus far, I have not felt like any of my humanity has decreased. It has probably increased with some of these encounters with patients. 
