PHIL 250E TIP: Healthcare Ethics
The aim of this course is to explore some of the complex ethical and political issues surrounding healthcare in the 21st-century. After a quick introduction to ethical theory, the course is organized into three broad areas of inquiry: (1) issues concerning individuals (euthanasia, cloning technology, genetic engineering); (2) issues concerning medical organizations (ethical issues in emergency medicine, the use of ethics consultation, the place of spiritual beliefs in treatment); and (3) issues concerning healthcare policy and public health (healthcare inequality, the ethics of disaster relief, the ethics of universal health care). Students will also have the opportunity to discuss topics of their own choosing in the final week of the course. Course assignments: participation in discussion boards, weekly exams, and a final paper. Textbook: Health Care Ethics: Critical Issues for the 21st-century, ed. Eileen Morrison and Beth Furlong, Jones and Bartlett Learning.