ETHICS AND U.S. HEALTH CARE POLICY

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/SURGERY 984

Understand and analyze the ethics of transplantation practice and policy in the U.S. health care system, especially considering ethical criticisms made by and on behalf of the diverse populations it serves. Gain an understanding of philosophical debates over important issues in transplant ethics. Hone the craft of constructing ethical arguments, and foreseeing and responding to potential objections.

MEDHIST 559

A survey of ethical and social issues in medical ethics and history of medicine. Cooperating faculty may be drawn from philosophy, law, medical ethics, history, political science, public health, economics, education, and communication, as well as medicine and the biological sciences.

MEDHIST/PHILOS 515

Focuses on ethical issues implicated in a population-level approach to disease prevention and health promotion. Explores prominent theoretical approaches to public health ethics and engages with several ethical tensions. Example issues include: the use of coercive or intrusive public health; the justification of patemalistic measures in societies; the extent to which societies should hold individuals responsible for their health conditions; the need to decide who receives life-saving treatment or vaccination; and climate changes and intergenerational justice; ethical issues in international pharmaceutical research.

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.