Biomedical ethics is a broad term given to the collection of ethical issues and problems that have emerged from professional practice in the fields of medicine, biomedical research, and public health. This course is an introductory survey of the philosophical approach to issues in and around the field of medicine and medical research. We will focus on the methods that philosophers and bioethicists use to explore these issues.
Athena Title
Biomedical Ethics
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in PHIL 3220H
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to explain the following normative concepts: moral status, moral agent, moral patient, beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, consent, and paternalism.
Students will be able to employ the moral concepts above to support and critique ethical assessments of particular practices in medicine, such as the use of reproductive technologies, the use of pharmacological enhancement, and physician-assisted suicide.
Students will be able to assess the soundness of an ethical argument regarding particular practices in medicine.
Topical Outline
Topics covered in this course will typically include several of the following:
1. Ethical Issues in Reproductive Medicine
2. Ethical and Legal Status of Abortion
3. Patient Autonomy
4. Informed Consent
5. Medical Paternalism
6. The Right to Refuse Treatment
7. Treatment vs. Enhancement
8. Models of the Physician-Patient Relationship
9. Ethical and Legal Status of Physician-Assisted Death
10. Experimentation with Human Subjects
11. Health Care Resources and Distributive Justice
12. Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation
