TOPICS IN ETHICS AND HISTORY OF MEDICINE

MEDHIST/PHILOS 505

Examines ethical issues in the distribution, financing, and delivery of health care (primarily in the United States). Explores key issues in U.S. health policy and forms the empirical foundation for the rest of the class. Engages is ongoing debates in moral and political philosophy over putative entitlements to health and health care. Investigates the nature, justifiability, and methods of health care rationing (including bedside rationing by doctors) and the myriad issues implicated by the near-universally shared goal of health care cost containment.

MEDHIST 742

Understand and analyze the U.S. health care system through the lens of ethical criticisms made by and on behalf of the diverse populations it serves. Gain understanding of philosophical debates over universal health insurance coverage, fair health care financing, effective cost-containment, and rationing. Hone the craft of constructing ethical arguments, and foreseeing and responding to potential objections.

MEDHIST/PHILOS 558

Ethical issues apparently created by new biomedical technologies, such as genetic screening, prenatal diagnosis, prolongation of life, treatment of severe birth defects, in vitro fertilization, behavior modification, psychosurgery, and transplantation.

MEDHIST 741

Analyze ethical dimensions of population-level efforts to protect and promote health. Gain understanding of different ethical frameworks, their theoretical underpinnings, and their prospects for resolving real-world policy dilemmas in the context of medicine and public health. Hone the craft of constructing ethical arguments, and foreseeing and responding to potential objections.

MEDHIST 730

Survey in bioethics aimed at students in the health sciences. Topics to include a mix of important perennial issues and emerging problems.