Course Schedule and Readings

8/26

Introductions. Meaning of “ethics,” philosophical and professional

8/31

Syllabus. Normative/empirical distinction. Evaluating normative arguments.

Metcalf, Thomas. 2018. “Philosophy and Its Contrast with Science.” 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology.

9/2

Moral Skepticism, Individual and Cultural Moral Relativism

Westacott, Emrys. n.d. “Moral Relativism.” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Please read sections 2 g, 3 a, b, c, d, and 4 b, c, d, e.

9/9

Consequentialist Ethics

Nathanson. Stephen. n.d. “Act and Rule Utilitarianism.” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Please read all of sections 1 and 2.

9/14

Deontological Ethics

Bowie, Norman E. “Kantian Ethics.” Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society, edited by Robert W. Kolb, vol. 3, SAGE Publications, 2008, pp. 1240-1244.

9/21

Building an interdisciplinary case study, Part IA: Developing an annotated bibliography entry

Le Morvan, P., & Stock, B. 2005. Medical learning curves and the Kantian ideal.Journal of Medical Ethics, 31(9), 513–518.

9/23

Principles of biomedical ethics

McCormick, Thomas R. 2013. “Principles of Bioethics.”

9/28

Building an interdisciplinary case study, Part IB: Researching ethics cases.

Mazor, K. M., Reed, G. W., Yood, R. A., Fischer, M. A., Baril, J., & Gurwitz, J. H. (2006). Disclosure of medical errors. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(7), 704–710.

9/30

Respecting patient autonomy

Macklin, R. (1977). Consent, Coercion, and Conflicts of Rights. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 20(3), 360–371.

10/5

Decision Making Capacity and Competence

Appelbaum, P. S. (2007). Assessment of patients’ competence to consent to treatment. The New England Journal of Medicine 357(18), 1834–1840.

10/7

Surrogate Decision Making

Brock, Dan W. 2004. “Surrogate Decision-Making.” In Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 3rd ed., edited by Stephen G. Post, 2483-2486. Vol. 4. New York, NY: Macmillan Reference USA. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

10/12

Midterm Review.

10/14

Midterm

10/19

Pediatric decision making

Navin, Mark Christopher, and Jason Adam Wasserman. 2017. “Reasons to Amplify the Role of Parental Permission in Pediatric Treatment.” The American Journal of Bioethics 17 (11): 6–14.

10/21

Guest Lecture. “Sociology and Environmental Justice.” Prof. Diana Mincyte, Sociology.

No reading.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

10/26

Justice and the distribution of health

Sterba, James P. “Justice.” In Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 3rd ed., edited by Stephen G. Post, 1354-1361. Vol. 3. New York, NY: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

10/28

Guest Lecture—Statistical Reasoning and Comparing Health Care Systems, Prof. Gulgun Bayaz-Ozturk (Economics).

No reading.

11/2

Building an interdisciplinary case study Part II: Thesis and argument workshop

*Homework assignment due: see “Homework” page on OpenLab.

11/4

Guest Lecture—“Medical authority, autonomy and reactance.” Prof. David H. Lee (Communication/Humanities)

No reading.

11/9

Guest Lecture—“Further reflections on ethics in health communication.” Prof. David H. Lee (Communication/Humanities)

No reading.

11/11

Guest Lecture. “Ethical Concerns for Conducting Survey Research in Health Psychology”—Prof. Amanda Almond (Psychology)

Maxwell, Scott E., and Ken Kelley. “Ethics and Sample Size Planning.” In Handbook of Ethics in Quantitative Methodology, edited by A. T. Panter and Sonya K. Sterba. New York: Routledge, 2011. Pages 159-184.  **Please note: this link downloads the whole book. Please read only pages 159-184.

11/16

Introduction to research ethics

Willowbrook Case.

WRITTEN REPORT DUE

11/18

Guest Lecture—“Self-care and health behaviors of health care providers,” Prof. Amanda Almond (Psychology)

Barnett, J. E., Baker, E. K., Elman, N. S., & Schoener, G. R. (2007). In pursuit of wellness: The self-care imperative. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 38(6), 603–612.

11/23

Race in research

Cho, Mildred K. 2006. “Racial and Ethnic Categories in Biomedical Research: There Is No Baby in the Bathwater.” The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 34 (3): 497–99.

11/30

Lockdowns and Justice

Savulescu, Julian, and James Cameron. “Why Lockdown of the Elderly Is Not Ageist and Why Levelling Down Equality Is Wrong.” Journal of Medical Ethics 46, no. 11 (2020): 717-21.

12/2

Group presentations: Groups 1+2

12/7

Group presentations: Groups 3+4

12/9

Group presentations: Groups 5+6

12/14

Review

12/16

FINAL