Course Schedule and Readings

1/29

Two Kinds of Health Care Ethics. Normative/empirical distinction. Evaluating normative arguments.

Recommended (not required) reading: Metcalf, Thomas. 2018. “Philosophy and Its Contrast with Science.” 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology.

2/5

Moral Theory 1: Moral Non-Realism and Consequentialism

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.

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).

2/22

Moral Theory 2: Duty- and Principle-Based 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).

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

2/26

Building an interdisciplinary case study: Developing an annotated bibliography entry and researching ethics cases

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

*It may be helpful to bring a laptop or tablet. We will practice searching for sources relevant to our case studies.

2/28

Respecting Patient Autonomy, Decision Making Capacity and Competence

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

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

3/4

Surrogate Decision Making and Midterm Review

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.

3/11

MIDTERM

3/18

Medical decision making for children

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.

Schuklenk, Udo. 2015. “Physicians can justifiably euthanize certain severely impaired neonates.” The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 149 (2): 535-537.

3/25

Definitions of Health and Disease

Boorse, C. 1975. On the distinction between disease and illness. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 5(1), 49–68.

Engelhardt, H Tristram. 1974. “The Disease of Masturbation: Values and the Concept of Disease.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 48 (2): 234–48.

4/1

Treatment and Enhancement

Little, Margaret Olivia. 1998. “Cosmetic surgery, suspect norms, and the ethics of complicity.” In Enhancing human traits: Ethical and social implications, edited by Erik Parens, 162-176. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press

Amadio, Jordan. 2010. “Are Cosmetic Surgeons Complicit in Promoting Suspect Norms of Beauty?” Virtual Mentor 12 (5): 401–5.

4/8

Disability

Wendell, S. (1989). Toward a feminist theory of disability. Hypatia, 4(2), 104–124.

Gunther, D. F., & Diekema, D. S. 2006. Attenuating growth in children with profound developmental disability: a new approach to an old dilemma. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 160(10), 1013–1017.

4/15

Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide

Brock, D W. 1992. “Voluntary Active Euthanasia.” The Hastings Center Report 22 (2): 10–22. (You can skip the short independent blurbs on pages 12, 15, and 18).

Nesbitt, Winston. 1995. “Is killing no worse than letting die?” Journal of Applied Philosophy 12 (1): 101-106.

5/6

Group Presentations: Groups 1-4

5/13

Group Presentations: Groups 5-6. Final Review.

5/20

Final Exam