RE LOG Spring '25

20 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2025 The conversation was the fourth in a series of Medical Ethics Roundtables that have been running this year under the umbrella of RE’s Holzman Center of Applied Ethics. The Holzman Center has been around since 2021, when it was funded by RE parent- of-alumni Steve Holzman. But it has come a long way since, according to Associate Head of School John A. King Jr., who directs the center, and its evolution is particularly visible in the degree to which its programs are sparking student engagement. What started out as an exciting speaker series with notable figures such as Home Depot Co-founder Ken Langone and City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has grown into a web of interconnected initiatives that are much more student-driven. “One thing I hope people have noticed this year is that I haven’t made any announcements about [the Holzman Center] at assembly,” said King. Instead, the faces of the program have been Ana Gonzalez ’26, Sophia Linfield ’26 and Alex Russoniello ’26 , three students who became Student Advisors after doing ethical leadership projects around the world through RE’s partnership with the organization Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder. In Gonzalez’s case, exploring ethical questions inspired her to reexamine RE’s backyard. Her project focused on the effects of gentrification in Coconut Grove, and her understanding of the topic transformed profoundly after extensive interviews with local residents. Finding Ethics in the Everyday During a midday break in January, 16 RE students gathered around a Harkness table in the Ransom Cottage, home to the Holzman Center of Applied Ethics, to discuss an ethical dilemma: Is it OK to use genetic engineering to design the kind of child you want? At the table were two physicians, Dr. Ken Zide and Dr. Joanna Bedell ’05 , and Taliya Golzar ’11 , the Chief Operating Officer at Nodal, a company specializing in surrogacy, who provided essential context from the professional world. But for the most part, the students themselves came up with the answers – or at least formulated tentative approaches to the deceptively thorny question. Most agreed that using genetic engineering to weed out certain diseases was a good idea, but we’d be on a slippery slope if the practice moved from considerations of health to matters of aesthetics. “What would we miss out on as a society if everyone were homogeneous?” Zide asked the table. “It makes us a more empathetic society when we have to adapt to people with different needs,” replied Nina Rivera ’25 . “My goal is to help students see ethical dilemmas where they didn’t see them before.” – Associate Head of School John A. King Jr. Students in AP English Literature classes present scenes from Antigone in togas.