Medical Ethics

Catalog description

This course is concerned with the many ethical issues that arise in the field of medicine, issues such as: patient autonomy, informed consent, experimentation on live subjects, confidentiality, truth telling, conflict of interest and the treatment of relatives. We will also study moral issues pertaining to new medical techniques such as online medicine and prenatal genetic screening. These issues will be approached via an understanding of important historical, legal and philosophical foundations of medical ethics. We will study ideas from the Hippocratic Oath and Islamic, Jewish and Christian traditions up to the codes of today's ethics review boards. Important legal issues explored involve the right to healthcare, the obligation of parents to seek proper medical care for their children and euthanasia. Some of the important ethical-philosophical notions studied will be: the law of double effect, the obligation of beneficence and non-malevolence, utilitarianism, and Kantian ethics. While this course is open to all majors, it's specific aim is to prepare the future medical practitioner to understand and deal with the various moral challenges of the profession. | Prerequisite(s): Completion of first year writing requirements. Notes: Satisfies a HuSS Elective.