Religious and Theological Perspectives in Bioethics

Catalog description

This course addresses the discourses and interplay of secular, religious, and theological perspectives in the field of bioethics. One central goal of this course is to identify the thought and language of secular, immanent bioethics in comparison/contrast with religious, transcendent bioethics without glossing the thick plurality of religious differences and perspectives in the major religions 7070 President's Bioethics Councils G 1½ This course will survey the writings of the various president's bioethics councils beginning in 1974 to the most recent bioethics commission established by President Obama. 7080 Belmont Report G 1½ This course will delve deeply into the text of the Belmont Report, including reading essays in the appendices of the report and additional outside material. 7090 Animal Bioethics G 1½ This course serves as a theory-intensive overview of the major topics of animal bioethics. Students will study the foundations of the field by examining arguments about moral status, normative frameworks, and the metaphysical characteristics of non-human animals. The course emphasizes the application of these motifs in the clinic space, the laboratory, and the larger context of animals in society. This course is graded S/U.