GPH-GU 1006: Advanced Introduction to Bioethics (3 credits)
This seminar is intended to introduce students to the central methods and concerns of contemporary bioethics. We will consider topics including the grounds for respecting human (and other) life, the concepts of well-being and autonomy, decisions about future people, and justice in distribution of scarce medical resources. Students will develop familiarity with these concepts as well as the conventions and standards of bioethical debate.
GPH-GU 1165: Research Ethics: Human Subjects (3 credits)
This course will begin by examining the historical scandals that launched the field of human subjects research ethics and the principles and regulations that have emerged in reaction. The next part of the course will focus on the interpretation, justification, and especially the critical evaluation of these principles and regulations, both in domestic contexts and international contexts. In the final part of the course we will examine the use of animals in research and evaluate several moral critiques of our current practices. Among the questions to be addressed in the course: is it permissible to deceive subjects when necessary to obtain valid results; is it permissible to use a placebo control when proven effective care for the condition exists; should we be more liberal about enrolling children, the cognitively impaired, and pregnant women in risky research; are there any reasons to limit payment for participation in risky research; is there an obligation to participate in research; are animals models useful; how much weight if any should be assigned to the interests of non-human animals relative to the interests of humans.
GPH-GU 1210: Justice in Health and Healthcare (3 credits)
This course surveys philosophical theories of justice, applying them to population bioethics with a particular focus on environmental health justice. Case studies will include environmental racism and injustice in the United States as well as environmental and global justice dimensions of climate change, food systems, pollution, and infectious disease.
GPH-GU 2025: Reproductive Ethics (4 credits)
This course surveys central issues in the ethics of human reproduction. Topics include whether (and when) procreation is permissible; the nature and extent of parental responsibility; the morality of abortion; the ethics of gamete donation; whether we can harm people by bringing them into existence; commercial surrogacy; genetic selection and disability; the impact of our reproductive choices on future generations; genetic engineering and enhancement. The course will introduce students to fundamental moral notions (e.g., harm, interests, rights, autonomy, respect), philosophical conceptions of personal identity, and the standards of bioethical debate.
GPH-GU 2027: Moral Indeterminacy
Moral intuitions play a key role both in ethical reflection and in everyday practice such as deciding whether one should withdraw aid to a patient in persistent vegetative state. In recent years, questions about the nature and epistemic status of moral intuitions have received much attention not only in philosophy but also in social psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary theory. In this course, we shall examine and discuss key, new and work‐in‐progress, articles from this growing literature. We shall critically review some of the most influential philosophical and empirical research in the field and consider its potential philosophical, ethical and practical significance. The topics we shall discuss include: the evidentiary status of moral intuitions; the role of emotion and cognition in intuition; evolutionary and neuroscientific ‘debunking’ arguments; the relation between ethical theory and moral psychology; whether intuitions are heuristics; whether intuitions are biased; and whether and how we can improve our intuitions so that we can make better practical judgments.
GPH-GU 2105: Thinking Critically & Ethically (1.5 credits)
This course is an introduction to critical thinking, ethics, and writing for public health professionals, who need to communicate public health content and identify communication strategies for different audiences. At the heart of such communications is persuasive writing. The first module introduces students to core reasoning skills such as what counts as a good reason for one’s belief, what is an argument, the difference between a deductive argument and an inductive argument, and so on. Public health professionals are also often involved in devising policies that should be guided by sound ethical principles. The second module introduces students to key ethical theories and ethical issues that illustrate how the promotion of public health can conflict with autonomy, privacy, and social justice.
