Philosophy Department


1200 Academy St. Kalamazoo, MI 49006

PHI 495

Biomedical

Ethics

Professor Ken Richman

Humphrey House 201
tel: 616/337-7077

Course Description and Requirements





Required Text:
Munson, Ronald.  Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics.  Fifth Edition.  New York: Wadsworth, 1996.

Course Goals:
This course is designed to introduce you to some of the central issues of medical ethics.  Ethics addresses questions such as ‘How should I act?,’ ‘How do I decide whether one way I could act is morally better than some other way?,’ and ‘Are different ethical systems equally acceptable, or are some people's values just wrong?’  Medical ethics addresses these questions in the context of patient care and the distribution of medical attention, and seeks to determine which actions or options in medical practice are obligatory, which permissible, and which impermissible.  By the end of the course you should be familiar with the major ethical theories relevant to medical practice, and be able to apply these theories to ethical issues.

We will address several topics specific to medical ethics, including terminating impaired infants, the distribution of limited medical resources, and genetic engineering.  Special attention will be paid to the ethical aspects of the most common interactions between patients and healthcare providers.

Required work:

Grading:
The midterm exam will count for 30% of your grade.  The final exam will count for 40% of your grade.  The in-class presentation will be graded as a group project, not individually, and will count for 15% of your grade.  Your position paper will count for 15% of your grade.  The frequency and quality of your class participation can also affect your final grade for the course, especially if your average for the course falls between two grades.

Readings:
The following list of readings is subject to change.  I will announce the assignments each class for the next class.  All of the readings listed below are in the required textbook except for those on concepts of health.
 
First week Ethical Theory: Munson, pp. 2-37, Treating or Terminating Impaired Infants: Munson, pp. 108-122, Engelhardt, pp. 129-135
Second Week Treating or Terminating Impaired Infants: Weir, pp. 135-141, Robertson, pp. 123-129, 
Third Week  Treating or Terminating Impaired Infants: Rachels, pp. 171-175
Research and Informed Consent: Munson, pp. 334-356, Principles of the Nuremberg Code, p. 412, Lasagna, pp. 356-362 
Fourth Week Research and Informed Consent: Jonas, pp. 362-371, Drane, pp. 385-389, Munson, pp. 265-278
Fifth Week Treatment and Informed Consent: G. Dworkin, pp. 278-288, Bok, pp. 290-298, Review for Midterm
Midterm examination
Sixth Week Genetic Engineering: Munson, pp. 434 – 455,  Purdy, pp. 455-460, Kass, pp. 461 – 469,  Kevles, pp. 469-473
Seventh Week AIDS and Its Issues: Munson, pp. 216 – 230, Mohr, pp. 230 – 234, Steinbock, pp. 234 – 241
Eighth Week Allocating Scarce Resources: Munson, pp. 559 - 573,  Rescher, pp. 573 – 582, Annas, pp. 582 – 586, Alcoholics and Transplantation, pp. 593 – 597
Ninth Week National Health Care Systems: Munson, pp. 610 – 631, An Ethical Framework for Access…, pp. 631 - 639, Nielsen, pp. 640 – 645
Tenth Week Concepts of Health and Disease: Caplan, Arthur. “The Concepts of Health, Illness and Disease,” and Pörn, Ingmar.  “An Equilibrium Model of Health”,  Boorse, Christopher.  “On the Distinction between Disease and Illness” and Richman and Budson. “Health of Organisms and Health of Persons” [Course members only may access these readings by clicking on the authors' names.]
Review for final exam (Exam will be 8-11 am on Monday 11 June)

 

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Updated 19 July 1999