Course Description: In this course, we will explore several hotly debated issues in biomedical ethics. We will begin with a set of questions concerning moral agency and autonomy that arise with the creation of advance directives and research subject’s consent. We will then turn to moral issues that concern the beginning of life, focusing on the ethics of abortion, stem cell research, and cloning, paying close attention to recent development in research methods. Our next topic will be genetic screening, performance enhancement, and perfection, and we will ask questions such as “to what extent, if at all, should we choose the traits of future children?” Finally, we will examine the challenging topic of justice in health care, both local and global.
Throughout the course, we will aim to focus on the practical issues before us, and also on the larger moral and political frameworks from which we can best approach our particular questions. Certain larger issues will emerge from the various more specific ones, including the role of autonomy in morality and the value and meaning of life. Our aims will be two-fold: (i) to gain an understanding of a variety of positions on each of the pressing ethical issues at hand, and to come to reasoned and well-informed views about them, and (ii) to hone our reasoning skills and knowledge of fundamental moral and political positions so that we will be in a good position to adjudicate all sorts of other debates within, and even beyond, bioethics.
LINKS
CMA Advance Health Care Directive Kit
President’s Council on Bioethics Report: Monitoring Stem Cell Research (see chapter 2)
NIH Official Resource for Stem Cell Research: Stem Cell Basics
Presidential Candidates on Abortion and Stem Cell Research
In the News
Stem Cell Research--Playing God (Times Online)
Panel Backs Amputee Sprinter’s Olympic Quest (New York Times)
Tasmanian Tiger DNA Comes Alive in Mouse (ABC News Australia)
Congress Votes to Ban Genetic Discrimination (Reuters)
Turmoil at College for Deaf Reflects Broader Debate (New York Times)
Clips of Candidates Speaking on Abortion:
Clinton (Compassion Forum 2008)
McCain (Republican Presidential Debate 2000)
Clips of Candidates on Health Care
Obama and Clinton Debate in Ohio (2008)
McCain Talks to the Portsmouth Herald (2007)
ASSIGNMENTS
