ADVANCED MEDIATION FOR BIOETHICS
ADV MEDIATION FOR BIOETHI
- TWWRF 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jenny Besch
Info - 3 points
SCIENCE FOR BIOETHICISTS
- MW 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
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Instructor:
Linda M Waters
Info - 3 points
Special Topics in Philosophical Bioethic
Advanced Philosophical BI
This course is designed to afford students significant opportunity to explore fundamental bioethical issues in a philosophically searching way. For example, it is generally thought that health matters. But then what is health? And how does it matter? What is justice in respect to health-care and the other social determinants of health? Do competing theories of justice (e.g., liberal, libertarian, utilitarian) offer incompatible solutions to the question of healthcare justice? Or can a workable “overlapping consensus” at the public policy level nevertheless be achieved?
Should a healthcare professional be permitted, on grounds of conscience, to refuse to provide a healthcare service to which people are lawfully permitted? Indeed, what should count as “conscience”? In the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court decision concerning abortion, some have argued for a right to conscientiously insist on providing reproductive services that have been legally prohibited. How are we to sort through and resolve this complicated set of issues?
Could a meaningful personal understanding of what it means for someone to have died nevertheless not be suitable as the basis for a legal declaration of death? Why not? Should there be a “conscience clause” option whereby someone can specify in advance the conception of death to be applied in that individual’s own case? Would every possible criterion be available or would certain criteria have to be excluded? Which? Why?
The population in this and many other societies is aging and putting increasingly significant demands on the healthcare delivery system. Should healthcare be rationed according to age? Would it be unfair to young people not to give weight to that factor—lest they lose out on a fair chance to live as long as society’s seniors already have? What is healthcare justice across the generations?
As researchers gain a fuller understanding of the aging process, it may soon be possible to genetically engineer a significant extension (even doubling?) of human life-span. Is this an appropriate objective for healthcare science to be pursuing? Is the point of healthcare to extend human life as far as possible by whatever means? Is aging a kind of “disease” in its own right? Would life so dramatically extended be beneficial or burdensome?
The topics for this course have been selected in view of (i) how fundamental they are to bioethical thinking (e.g., What is health?
- MW 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Arthur Kuflik
Info - 3 points
CHALLENGES IN ENVIRONMENTAL BIOETHICS
The environment affects human health and well-being, and current health-care technology can impact the environment. Thus, questions about how humans ought to relate both to their own environment and to other living beings on this planet fall squarely within the field of bioethics. While some observers may see bioethics as concerning only the health of human beings defined narrowly, bioethics in fact has many implications for the larger biosphere and vice versa.
This course discusses important issues at the nexus of bioethics and the environment, including climate change, ozone shield depletion, soil erosion, ocean pollution, diminishing biodiversity-all among the environmental factors with adverse consequences for the health of both human and non-human beings. Even the technologies employed in health-
care
have environmental impact harmful
to
health.
Among the challenges to be addressed: How can healthcare be made “green”? What do present generations “owe” to future generations? What is environmental justice in the relations between developed and developing societies? How should humans relate to the other inhabitants of this planet?
- TR 6 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
Arthur Kuflik
Info - 3 points
ST Leadership, Ethics & Drug Development
Special Topics in Leadership, Ethics and Drug Development
In Ethical leadership decisions regarding drug development, regulation and delivery is a multi-dimensional process with varied stakeholders, each having their own objectives. This course will provide students with a look at how leaders in health care faced with real-life decisions utilized ethics to determine an outcome. The course is designed as a one week intensive in-person course, with two guest lecturers per day from industry, government, funding organizations, HCPs and patient organizations to help students gain a greater understanding of all stakeholders involved in health care decision making.
Through posted and classroom discussion, speakers will address and students will be challenged to consider the following questions:
Who are the relevant stakeholders? What are their preferences and do they conflict? If so, how is this conflict best resolved?
How do we apply a bioethical framework – the principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice -- to this problem?
When understanding how a new medicine is developed, how are the long and short term risks, large and small, weighed and evaluated against potential benefits?
Does industry consider justice– such as access and affordability – when deciding what products to develop?
What would you advise if you were an ethics consultant?
What do you think about the actions taken to address the issue?
How are ethical questions handled within organizations? Are consultants used formally or informally to ensure outside perspectives?
This course is for anyone with an interest in learning from leaders in the field and exploring real-life cases of bioethical decisions that impact all of us.
- MTWRF 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
- 3 points