Name: Tessa Bergman
Age: 24
PBH cohort: 2019-2021
Bachelor’s program: Health Sciences, VU
2nd master’s program: Health Sciences (track Health Policy), VU
Current job/position: PhD-student at the department of Public and Occupational Health – Amsterdam UMC
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?
In Health Sciences, we learn to find solutions in order to tackle big health problems. However for some health problems, the first question might not be how to fix the problem, but whether it is desirable to do so. What are possible pros and cons? What can be learned from different perspectives? Consensus may be lacking or the solution might not be obvious. PBH teaches you to think critically and discuss arguments from different perspectives. The combination of Health Sciences and PBH offered me a hands-on problems solving attitude while remaining interested in different perspectives and asking critical questions.
Life changer: What is the most informative or enlightening (bio)ethical or philosophical theory/experience/subject/dilemma that you learned about during Philosophy: Bioethics and Health?
One of the most enlightening experiences I had during PBH is that ethics is a part of everything. I chose to combine Health policy and ethics because I was interested in both disciplines, although it initially did not seem to be the most obvious combination. During courses such as “Normative ethics” and “Ethics, public policy and politics”, I discovered that health policy is implicitly underlain by certain ethical principles. For example, policy makers often want to maximize health, corresponding with consequentialist/ utilitarian philosophy. And again, the skill of thinking critical and discussing arguments extensively in an interdisciplinary group of students is useful in any field of expertise. How do we deal with problems for which there is no obvious solution?
In or out of (bio)ethics: Are you currently working in the field of (bio)ethics? Why (not)?
I work as a PhD-student at the Amsterdam UMC in the field of Public health at the end of life. Although I am currently not ‘directly’ applying ethical theories in my work, end-of-life topics are often experienced as complex and hold several ethical dilemmas. The way of thinking I learned during PBH is really useful in my work and provides me with another dimension/perspective.
