For those who want to use their tuition benefit in a (bio)ethical way, please consider taking a course in bioethics! Spring course listings are below:
BIOE 6020 – 4010/4020 – Foundations of Bioethics
Instructor: Autumn Fiester
Time: Tuesdays OR Thursdays, Jan 12 – Apr 25, 5:15p – 7:30p
Location: BRB 252, Biomedical Research Bldg II/III, 421 Curie Blvd In this course, students examine the two moral frameworks – deontology and consequentialism – that individuals use to make decisions about right and wrong both in their personal life and in their professional life. These two moral frameworks provide the foundation for bioethical analysis. Understanding these two moral frameworks not only enables one to understand one’s own moral perspective, but also provides the tools to be able to understand ethical arguments made by others. The theory of deontology and consequentialism are supplemented by applications of these frameworks in the bioethical literature. Additionally, students are introduced to the three theoretical contributions to moral analysis created internally in the field of bioethics: casuistry; narrative theory, and principlism.
BIOE 5540 – Bioethics and the Law
Instructor: Holly Fernandez Lynch
Time: Wednesdays, Jan 18 – Apr 26, 5:15p – 7:30p
Location: BRB 251, Biomedical Research Bldg II/III, 421 Curie Blvd
This course will present a broad survey of topics at the intersection of law and bioethics. Much of bioethics deals with topics of public policy, and law is the tool of policy. Areas to be covered will range from an overview of American law making to enforcement mechanisms, topics including FDA regulations, state interventions into beginning and end of life issues, privacy, malpractice, healthcare reform, and international issues, including those related to innovation and access to medicines.
BIOE 5600 – Pediatric Ethics
Instructor: Steven Joffe and Jennifer Walter
Time: Mondays, Jan 11 – Apr 24, 5:15p – 7:30p
Location: BRB 251, Biomedical Research Bldg II/III, 421 Curie Blvd
In this course, we will explore the history, conceptual frameworks, and landmark debates of bioethics related to children. We will examine common ethical challenges (e.g., transplantation, critical illness, end of life) when the patient is a child. We will also examine issues unique to children, such as newborn screening, consent vs. assent, the rights and responsibilities of parents, and the role of the courts and the state. We will draw upon theories from moral philosophy, clinical cases, and seminal legal decisions to demonstrate the breadth and complexity of pediatric ethics.
BIOE 5900 – Ethics in Mental Healthcare
Instructor: Dominic Sisti
Time: Tuesdays, Jan 17 – Apr 25, 5:15p – 7:30p
Location: BLOC 1311, Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive Mental healthcare—which includes, but is not limited to, psychiatry, psychology, and clinical social work—is an especially ethically fraught subdiscipline of the larger medical enterprise. Issues range from garden-variety problems related to informed consent, patient capacity, and clinical professionalism to novel issues related to involuntary treatment, research on mentally ill persons, racism in psychiatry, and nosological categories. This course will present a survey of these ethical issues by first introducing foundational concepts from ethical theory and the philosophy of psychiatry. Students will be expected to become conversant in several bioethical approaches and methods and be able to use them to critically examine both historical and contemporary questions in mental healthcare and research.
BIOE 5530 – Medicine on the Fringes: the Ethics of Alternative, Experimental, and Do-It-Yourself Treatments
Instructor: Anna Wexler
Time: Thursdays, Jan 12 – Apr 20, 5:15p – 7:30p
Location: BLOC 1311, Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive Much bioethics literature focuses on issues in mainstream, established medicine — but what are the ethics of therapies, treatments and techniques utilized outside of common practice? This course begins with a historical exploration of “quack medicine” and medical professionalization. We then explore ethical and regulatory issues regarding complementary and alternative medicine, as well as the ethics of providing experimental, off-label, and placebo treatments. Finally, we will examine how individuals are accessing therapeutic techniques outside of the physician’s office, via do-it-yourself medical movements, direct-to-consumer health technologies, and medical tourism.
BIOE 5450/5470 – MEDIATION INTENSIVE I/III
Instructors: Edward Bergman and Autumn Fiester
Time: Friday, January 13 – Monday, January 16, 9am – 5pm
Location: Blockley Hall, 14th Floor, 423 Guardian Dr. Given the emotionally charged nature of bedside conflicts, interactions among the stakeholders in ethical and clinical disputes can sometimes turn hostile or acrimonious, making it impossible to have constructive dialogue. Conventional clinical and ethics training often fails to teach providers how to de-escalate conflicts that have become heated and intense. In this hands-on workshop, we will learn the skills of clinical conflict management. Students will
-Learn how to navigate and improve challenging clinical relationships (patient-provider, family-provider, inter-staff conflicts)
-Learn the techniques of facilitation among a diverse set of stakeholders
-Learn to effectively manage clinical disputes among and between caregivers, patients and surrogates through mediation
-Discover to how to define problems and assess underlying interests to generate mutually acceptable options
-Role-play in variety of clinical situations as both disputants and mediators
-Practice mediation with professional actors
-Use video-tapes of simulations to improve mediation techniques and strengthen interpersonal skills
-Receive constructive feedback in a supportive environment