Upcoming Courses
To see a list of past courses offered, click here
All Courses are held at the Center for Bioethics, 3401 Market Street, 3rd Floor. See a particular course for room number.
Fall 2008
BIOE 550 - Reproductive Ethics - CLOSED TO NON-MATRICULATED STUDENTS
Instructor: Kathy Taylor
Time: Wednesdays, 4:30-7:00pm; September 3 - December 3; Room 321
This course will explore ethical issues raised by reproduction and the use of various reproductive technologies. We will address: 1) the moral and legal status of the embryo and fetus, in the context of embryonic stem cell research and abortion; 2) the ethical features of the maternal-fetal relationship in terms of prenatal testing and the regulation of the behavior of pregnant women; and 3) ethical issues raised by the reproductive technologies such as IVF, gamete donation, preimplantation diagnosis, and surrogacy, including how these practices affect our perceptions of pregnancy, children, and family relationships.
BIOE 552 001 - Diviners, Healers, and Zombies: An Anthropological Look at Traditional Medicine
Instructor: Nora Jones
Time: Thursdays, 4:30-7:00pm; September 4- December 4; Room 321
Diviners, nurses, healers, zombies, doctors, missionaries, international aid workers, priests…. all have a role to play in how individuals around the world make sense of their illnesses and their quests for health. In this course we will read two ethnographies (in-depth anthropological studies) that address the relationship between individual’s health care beliefs and behaviors and the social, cultural, political, and economic contexts in which that individual is embedded.
From the Fat of Our Souls: Social Change, Political Process, and Medical Pluralism in Bolivia by Libbet Crandon-Malamud, centers on how medical choices are made not only to enhance health, but also as a tool to negotiate social identity. We will explore how making medical decisions can be used to achieve non-medical ends, such as land, jobs, and social prestige. Our second ethnography, Witches, Westerners, and HIV: AIDS & Cultures of Blame in Africa, by Alexander Reodlach, helps us to understand how beliefs that appear to be contradictory (AIDS being simultaneously understood as a biomedical condition and a phenomenon of sorcery) make sense in particular socio-historic times and places.
Our emphasis will be on exploring the value of qualitative data in the success of learning about local (be it in the highlands of Bolivia, or Zimbabwe, or Philadelphia) understandings of illness and health, how such knowledge can help interventions and other aid programs, and, finally, to critically reflect on how the current medical establishment in the United States influences our own health beliefs and behaviors.
BIOE 570 - Bioethics Goes to Washington - CLOSED TO NON-MATRICULATED STUDENTS
Instructor: Michael Stebbins
Time: Mondays, 4:30-7:00pm; September 8 - December 1; Room 331
Bioethics issues frequently collide head-on with public policy. The time, location and cause of that collision depends upon a complex web of factors including what branch of government is at the nexus of the controversy as well as political, religious, societal and scientific factors. This highly interactive class will examine the wreckage of previous collisions and explore those that are sure to come. You will hear from experts working in Washington on a wide range of issues involving bioethics including stem cells and cloning, reproductive technology, asbestos, bioterrorism, tobacco, genetic testing, nanotechnology and many more. From extreme cases like Terri Schiavo to less well-known cases involving actions of mercenary scientists working on behalf of big business, we will focus on the techniques used to push public policy and the roll bioethics and science have played.
BIOE 590 - Beyond Quality of Life: Examining Disability in Bioethics
Instructors: Carol Schilling and Teresa Blankmeyer Burke
Time: Mondays, 4:30-7:00pm; September 8 - December 1; Room 321
This course conducts an inquiry into bioethical responses to human variations that become categorized as disability. The interdisciplinary project of disability studies will provide a fresh theoretical and practical lens through which to view bioethics, its philosophical framework and the library of cases that are argued within that frame. For the most part, bioethics discussions about disability have been limited to quality of life analyses, especially regarding decisions about the beginning and the end of life. Disability studies scholarship has, however, taken a more comprehensive look at ethical issues affecting the lived experiences of people with disabilities, including both clinical and broader social ethical concerns. The disability perspective on bioethics also exposes the ways that headline-making instances of what is framed as the right to die, as well as the less visible surrogacy and best interest decisions made daily, are centrally about how disability is understood. At its core, what’s at stake in this inquiry is who is welcome and graciously accommodated in the human community.
Readings will range from theoretical texts to narratives by the disabled and their families that enable us to work at the intersections of bioethics, disability studies, and the medical humanities. We will pause to ask what conditions constitute disability and who decides (hearing loss, mobility loss, chronic illness, cognitive differences...), what additional frameworks for bioethics (narrative ethics, care ethics, rehabilitation ethics, the humanities, and social sciences) can contribute to discussions of bioethics and disability, and what the creative arts can teach about defining disability. As disability theorists and the World Health Organization propose an inclusive conceptualization of disability as a condition of the human life cycle, rather than an unanticipated, alienating, individual event, and as the number of disabled citizens increases, the need to bring disability studies and bioethics into conversation becomes increasingly urgent.
BIOE 601 001 - Introduction to Bioethics
Instructor: Autumn Fiester
Time: Tuesdays, 4:30-7:00pm; September 9 - December 2; Room 331
This course is intended to serve as a broad introduction to the field of bioethics. The course will focus on three of the most important areas in bioethics: Genetics & Reproduction, Human Experimentation, and End-of-Life. Each module of the course will cover essential bioethics concepts, relevant legal cases, and classical readings on the themes.
BIOE 601 002 - Introduction to Bioethics
Instructor: Autumn Fiester
Time: Thursdays, 4:30-7:00pm; September 4 - December 4; Room 331
This course is intended to serve as a broad introduction to the field of bioethics. The course will focus on three of the most important areas in bioethics: Genetics & Reproduction, Human Experimentation, and End-of-Life. Each module of the course will cover essential bioethics concepts, relevant legal cases, and classical readings on the themes.
Spring 2009
Information as of April 2008
BIOE 550 001 - Professionalism, Ethics, and Regulation
Instructor: Charles Bosk
Time: Tuesdays, 4:30-7:00; Room 321
Description to come!
BIOE 603 001 - Ethics at the Bedside
Instructor: Jill Baren
Time: Thursdays, 4:30-7:00; Room 321
Basic concepts in clinical ethics include autonomy, beneficence, decisional-capacity, and substituted judgment. But how are these concepts actually applied on a day-to-day basis? This course will provide the student with a deeper understanding of applied clinical ethics by exploring how real clinical dilemmas are approached, solved, and implemented in the everyday practice of medicine. Students will learn how to perform a detailed ethical case analysis which serves as a springboard for discussion and as a valuable mechanism to alert others to similar issues encountered elsewhere. Cases will cover dilemmas from a wide spectrum of clinical environments -- ambulatory care, hospital-based care, emergency care, ICU care -- and involve patients of all ages with a variety of illnesses and injuries. Case analysis will be supplemented by readings from the clinical ethics and medical literature covering relevant topics: the doctor-patient relationship, advance directives, privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, refusal of care, end-of-life. Some class time will be devoted to exploring the roles and activities of ethics consultants and committees culminating in a “mock” ethics committee session.
BIOE 580 001 - Research Ethics
Instructor: Jon Merz
Time: Mondays, 4:30-7:00; Room 321
This seminar is intended to give students a broad overview of research ethics and regulation. The students will come out of the class with an understanding of the moral bases of scientific ethics and the historical evolution of biomedical research ethics. Students will be fully conversant with the development, implementation, and limitations of US human subjects regulations. The course includes reading assignments, lectures, discussions, student-led case-based and topical discussions addressing the following topics: ethics and morality in science; science in society; scientific integrity; misconduct; whistleblowing; conflicts of interest; collegiality, publication and authorship; peer review; human experimentation and regulations (HHS, FDA), Institutional Review Boards; informed consent, waivers, vulnerable populations; privacy and the confidentiality of records; epidemiology; and, finally, research on animals. Grade will be based on: an article peer review task 20%; consent form writing task 30%; weekly quizzes 10%; class discussion and participation 10%; and final exam, 30%.
BIOE 590 001 - Genetics
Instructor: Sheri Alpert
Time: Wednesdays, 4:30-7:00
Description to come!
BIOE 602 001 - Conceptual Foundations
Instructor: Autumn Fiester
Time: Tuesdays, 4:30 - 7pm; Room 331
This course examines the various theoretical approaches to bioethics and critically assesses their underpinnings. Topics to be covered include an examination of various versions of utilitarianism; deonotological theories; virtue ethics; ethics of care; the fundamental principles of bioethics (autonomy, beneficence, distributive justice, non-maleficence); casuistry; and pragmatism. The course will include the application of the more theoretical ideas to particular topics, such as informed consent, confidentiality, and end of life issues.
BIOE 602 002 - Conceptual Foundations
Instructor: Autumn Fiester
Time: Thursdays, 4:30-7pm; Room 331
This course examines the various theoretical approaches to bioethics and critically assesses their underpinnings. Topics to be covered include an examination of various versions of utilitarianism; deonotological theories; virtue ethics; ethics of care; the fundamental principles of bioethics (autonomy, beneficence, distributive justice, non-maleficence); casuistry; and pragmatism. The course will include the application of the more theoretical ideas to particular topics, such as informed consent, confidentiality, and end of life issues.
Summer 2009
Sheri Alpert will be offering a course on Neuroethics
Autumn Fiester will be offering a course on Ethical Issues at the End of Life
And Jon Merz will be offering a course, to be determined.