Philosophy of Medicine

Catalog description

This course examines critical philosophical questions that arise from the nature and practice of medicine and medical research. Emphasizing how human persons define, understand, experience, and negotiate such states as health, illness, suffering, and death, the course also asks questions such as what does it mean to receive a medical diagnosis, what is the proper aim of medical therapies, what role should medical research and inquiry play in the practice of medicine, how should medical resources be distributed? Specific relevant topics may include: disease ontology, causation, and classification; the roles of informed consent and confidentiality in medicine; the phenomenology of illness and suffering; historical conceptions of medicine; reproductive and end-of-life issues.