Law, Medicine and Bioethics

Catalog description

This course explores real-world medical-legal dilemmas at the heart of modern health care. Students will examine how law and bioethics shape responses to critical issues in the health field. Topics include the legal and ethical dimensions of end-of-life decision-making, reproductive rights and technologies, genetic testing and editing, organ transplantation, disability law, health disparities, the allocation of scarce medical resources, and others. Through case studies, legal analysis, and ethical theory, the course investigates how decisions are made in moments of medical and moral complexity. Emphasis is placed on how the legal system impacts and influences the roles of patients, families, and health care providers. The course, designed for students interested in law, medicine, public policy, public health, and ethics, encourages engagement with the question of how legal frameworks intersect with ethical principles in health care.