Course Schedule and Readings

8/28

Introductions. Meaning of “ethics,” philosophical and professional

8/30

Syllabus. Normative/empirical distinction. Evaluating normative arguments.

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

9/6

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.

9/11

Consequentialist Ethics

Mill, John Stuart. 1865. “What Utilitarianism Is.” Ch. 2 in Utilitarianism, in the version by Jonathan Bennett* presented at www.earlymoderntexts.com. (Read pp. 4-17).

9/13

Deontological Ethics

Kant, Immanuel. Selection from Chapter 2 of the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, in the version by Jonathan Bennett presented at www.earlymoderntexts.com. (Read from the first full paragraph on page 23 through page 30).

9/18

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.

9/20

Principles of biomedical ethics

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

9/27

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.

10/2

Respecting patient autonomy

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

10/4

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.

10/10 [TUES]

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.

10/11

Midterm Review.

10/16

Midterm

10/18

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.

10/23

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

No reading.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

10/25

Introduction to research ethics

Willowbrook Case.

10/30

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

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

11/1

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.

11/6

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

No reading.

11/8

Justice and the distribution of health, Part I

Narveson, Jan. 2011. “The medical minimum: zero.” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 36 (6): 558-571.

11/13

Guest Lecture. “Sociology of racial & class bias in the health.” Prof. Judith Sedaitis (Sociology)

No reading.

11/15

Justice and the distribution of health, Part II

N. Daniels. “Justice, health, and healthcare.” The American Journal of Bioethics, 1(2):2 – 16, 2001.

11/20

Definition of Death.

Sam D. Shemie, Neil Lazar, and Bernard M. Dickens. 2008. “Brain death.” In The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics, edited by Peter A. Singer and A. M. Viens. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

11/27

Guest Lecture. “Oral Health Disparities.” Prof. Susan Schroeder-Davide (Dental Hygiene).

11/29

Guest Lecture. “Race, ethnicity, technology and health.” Prof. Geoff Zylstra (History)

12/4

Group presentations: Groups 1+2

12/6

Group presentations: Groups 3+4

12/11

Group presentations: Groups 5+6

12/18

Review

12/20

FINAL