PHI 374 Biomedical Ethics
Biomedical ethics seeks to determine what is right or good with respect to various practices in healthcare, biomedical research and new medical technologies. This course deals philosophically with some of the major issues that confront our society in the medical field: euthanasia, death and dying, reproduction, cloning and genetic testing, animal and human experimentation, and access to healthcare and distribution of limited resources. Our approach to these topics will be theoretical and practical. We begin with an overview of the major ethical theories and learn how to reason critically in ethics. Then we apply the major theories to case studies of real ethical problems and see how they work in practice. The goal is to give those interested in philosophy an understanding of some practical implications it has, and to provide those interested in becoming a practitioner in medicine an understanding of the principles and theories involved in evaluating and determining their own actions in the medical field.
Prerequisite
Junior standing or permission of the instructor.