Name: Mike Lensink
Age: 32
PBH cohort: 2015-2017
Bachelor’s program: Philosophy, UvA
2nd master’s program: N/A
Current job/position: Open Data/Data Ethics consultant
But WHY: Why did you choose to follow Philosophy: Bioethics and Health at the VU? How do you look back at your studying time there?
After 3 years of pretty hardcore philosophizing during the bachelor program, I felt a very strong desire to leave the ‘air castles’ and ‘ivory towers’, and instead do something more hands-on to make the world a better place. But with just a bachelor’s in philosophy, the amount of Master’s programs that I was eligible for were shockingly limited. As I was desperately trying to sort out how I should live the rest of my adult life, I stumbled upon PBH by chance. I had always been interested in the more sci-fi, geeky, dystopian themed stuff, so when I came across the field of applied bio(medical)-ethics, I got really excited. It reminded me of some of my favorite books and movies (like Gattaca or Brave New World), and thought: Is thinking about the ethical aspects of those cool topics actually a legitimate career path? Shut up and take my money! What was great about PBH was its diversity and flexibility. The way it is set up as a truly interdisciplinary program in which students from scientific, medical and philosophical backgrounds all sit next to each other in the same classes was fantastic. I gained so much ‘feet in the mud’-type knowledge from neuro/biomedical scientists and aspiring doctors, from external speakers, and from the winter school visiting the Bio-ethics center at Oxford University. And this was in addition to all the great practically oriented ethics courses. And at the same time, students were given lots of space and encouragement to dive deeper into topics that resonated with you as a person, for example with an internship, and with the final research project. Those last two (internship at the Dutch Senate) directly led to my being hired as a PhD researcher after graduating.
Personal favourite: What teacher/theory/course/experience you encountered during Philosophy: Bioethics and Health?
I was really blown away by the ‘moreel beraad’ (moral deliberation) excursion to the Kennemer Gasthuis in Haarlem, during the course “Ethics of Medical Research”. It was both interesting from an educational perspective, but also deeply moving from a human point of view. As a philosophy student completely unfamiliar with the medical world, it was incredible to witness how morally challenging the practical reality is that doctors and medical staff face every day. I vividly remember the details of the case that was being discussed, as it was both interesting from a conceptual perspective, but also because it demonstrated how hard it is to “do ethics”. It has taught me one of the most valuable insights from the program: how important it is to be careful and humble as a detached ethicist when you make moral judgments about the physical, lived world out there. Just because you’ve read your Kant and your Mill doesn’t mean that your perspective on a moral issue is more valuable than those who haven’t.
