Audience
This Saturday the SMCM Ethics Bowl team competes in the 2025 Chesapeake Regional Ethics Bowl, hosted this year by UMBC. (From 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.!)
The Ethics Bowl wizards shown above: Bechorah Aguoru, Mason Lipczenko, Argyrios Tasikas, Michael Taber (coach), Philip Eisenstein, Lainey Shankle, and Ella Skidmore.
These Seahawks have spent the semester researching and preparing positions on the 15 cases posted by the sponsors of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. SMCM has fielded a team since 2010 and four times has qualified for Nationals (held each February).
Cases this semester include topics like:
- Would it be morally OK for states to allow prisoners to donate organs and tissues, and thereby earn a reduction in their sentences?
- When, if ever, should a role be cast with an actor who matches the character demographically?
- How, if at all, should gestational surrogacy play a role in addressing population declines in some countries?
- Should SNAP (food stamps) benefits be usable for purchasing unhealthy food and drinks?
Ethics Bowl isn’t really a debate between teams, because teams can agree with each other on their positions on a given issue. (They can point out how the other team’s reasoning or examples could have been improved.) So no one need say anything that they don’t believe in.
The team has been doing run-throughs, recently with the aid of the Writing and Speaking Center. Our thanks to Mandy Taylor, its director, and to the tutors, who provided valuable advice.
With lots of hard work, with practice, and with camaraderie, these Seahawks' ethical fluency and just plain niceness are ready to do St. Mary’s proud on Saturday!