HSOC 101 Bioethics
Cross-listed as SOCI 101, PHIL 072
Offered:Fall 2008
Martin MW 11-12 + rec
This course will introduce students to the complex and tough issues that confront medicine and biotechnology in this time of rapid advances in the life sciences. We will begin with a comprehensive analysis of the history of bioethics and of leading bioethics theories, complemented by often provocative videos and Web-based materials. We will introduce the great topics in the bioethical debate, such as reproductive technologies, euthanasia, abortion, genetic manipulation, gamete donation, reproductive surrogacy and innovative treatments. Ethical challenges posed by new technologies such as cloning, stem cell research, assisted reproductive technology, nanotechnology and neurotechnology, will be discussed. We will also look at how new treatments are developed, and address controversial issues about the ways we are born, receive medical care, and die in the United States. After completion of this course, students will comeaway with a thorough understanding of the history of modern bioethics and of its major schools of thought. Students will have a robust knowledge of what the traditional and current topics of debate in biomedical ethics are, and how physicians, philosophers, policymakers and other stakeholders discuss and attempt to resolve these issues.
