Ethics and Global Health

Catalog description

This course will be in the intersection between bioethics, global public health, and international biomedical research and practice. It will look at global health issues and their ethical challenge from the perspective of culturally diversity communities and their local experience related to health and health care. This course engages in a debate of the main ethical issues of clinical practices in health care and research institutions and health care actions in global health. It aims to provide students resources and practical skills to handle ethical dilemmas and lead decision making processes in clinical contexts, related to research with human subjects, healthcare delivery, and public health policies. To achieve this goal, this course is divided into two parts: First, it examines the foundational structures of bioethics, letting them to be challenged by pluralistic worldviews. Second, it discusses ethical dilemmas and concrete clinical situations in which students are challenged to lead decision-making processes in order to deal with moral stress and to address ethical dilemmas, at the same time that high ethical standards are considered. In addition, participants will be exposed to firsthand data from ethnographic and participatory action research in global health and challenged to read authors that show especial consideration for the voices and experiences of vulnerable and historical marginalized populations.