PHIL 1035 - Biomedical Ethics

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture 3 Lab 0
Internship hours per week 0
Course Description: Is it ok for your doctor to withhold information from you for you own good? If you are going into the health care field, what kind of character and problem-solving abilities should you possess? How should we weigh the autonomy of a woman against the interests of the unborn. What roles do mercy and autonomy play in end-of-life decisions? This course, intended for all students,helps answer these questions and others by providing background material in basic ethicaltheories, principles, and decision-making guidelines used in health care ethics. It examinesmoral issues confronting both health care practitioners, and patients. Readings are selected from contemporary literature in bioethics.
MnTC Goals
MnTC 6 (Humanities) and 9 (Ethics and Civic Reponsibility

Prerequisite(s): Course placement into college-level English and Reading OR completion of ENGL 0950  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of RDNG 0940  with a grade of C or higher and qualifying English Placement Exam OR completion of RDNG 0950  with a grade of C or higher and ENGL 0090  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of ESOL 0051  with a grade of C or higher and ESOL 0052  with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content
1. Ethical theories and principles including some or all of the following.

1. Utilitarianism
2. Deontology
3. Virtue
4. Natural Law
5. Social Contract

2. Models/guidelines of ethical decision-making

3. Moral issues in biomedical ethics will be determined by individual instructors.

Issues will include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Allocation of medical resources
2. Universal Health Care
3. Doctor/patient confidentiality and truth-telling
4. Abortion
5. Euthanasia
6. HIV/AIDS and Global Pandemics
7. CRISPR/Genetic Engineering

2. articulate the moral issues confronting health care practitioners and patients

3. examine the moral and legal issues regarding difficult health care questions.

4. articulate applications of ethical theory to contemporary moral problems.
Minnesota Transfer Curriculum (MnTC): Goals and Competencies MnTC 6 (Humanities) and 9 (Ethics and Civic Reponsibility
Competency Goals (MnTC Goals 1-6)
06. 01. Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.

06. 02. Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within an historical and social context.

06. 03. Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
Theme Goals (MnTC Goals 7-10)
09. 01. Examine, articulate, and apply their own ethical views.

09. 02. Understand and apply core concepts (e.g. politics, rights and obligations, justice, liberty) to specific issues.

09. 03. Analyze and reflect on the ethical dimensions of legal, social, and scientific issues.

09. 05. Identify ways to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Courses and Registration