This course strengthens students' and practitioners' knowledge on foundational and current issues in law and ethics that impact the policies and practice of various sectors in healthcare. It allows students to identify and appropriately assess legal, ethical, and human rights issues that underlie the healthcare industry.
Athena Title
Healthcare Law and Ethics
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HPAM 7760E
Non-Traditional Format
Classes will consist of lectures and student-led discussions.
Using case studies, students will recognize and integrate legal,
ethical, and human rights concepts into public health policy
development and practice.
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will understand how to evaluate the constitutional underpinnings of health prevention and interventions.
Students will understand how to discuss the limitations of the legal system to address and resolve conflict and the role of ethical analysis.
Students will understand how to examine the differences between legal and ethical issues in healthcare.
Students will understand how to compare and contrast the respective roles of local, state, tribal, and federal governments with respect to healthcare inequities and disparities.
Students will understand how to interpret the balance between individual rights and governmental interests in protecting the human health.
Students will understand how to develop system-level interventions that utilize the application of legal and ethical principles to the interests in clinical and population health.
Topical Outline
Introduction to health law and the legal system
Healthcare ethics
Healthcare ethics and decision-making
Foundations of health law
Duties, powers, and responsibilities
Protection of individual rights
Direct regulation for human health and safety
Tort law: Indirect regulation
Health in a global community
Surveillance and healthcare research: Privacy and the 'Right to Know'
Health communication and behavior
Law, ethics, and emergency management and response
Strategies for epidemic disease: Association, travel, and liberty
Practical intersections of law, leadership, and policy development
