Foundations in Clinical Health Care Ethics

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the ethical dimensions of clinical medicine and offers them the basic language and methodology with which to critically examine them. The course format integrates lecture and active case discussion to provide the necessary philosophical grounding and the real-world skills sought by students. The course will provide an introduction to basic ethical theory and various approaches to clinical ethical decision-making. In addition, students will engage particular ethical issues, including truth-telling, informed consent, killing and letting die, conscientious objection and physician-assisted suicide. Students will investigate these issues through weekly in-class case discussion and periodically through written case-analysis.