All readings are in the 7th edition of Steinbock, Arras and London (SAL) unless otherwise indicated. Read the assignment before class on the day assigned.

Use the web links for material not in the book.

---

Jump to this week:

---

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO COURSE

• Jan 27    Introduction to this course
• Jan 29    Introduction to community service

---

WEEK 2: MORAL REASONING IN THE MEDICAL CONTEXT

Feb 3    Introduction to ethical thinking
Reading assignment:

• SAL pp. 1-41
• Types of ethical theories

Feb 5   Introduction to case analysis: how to analyze a case

• How to read a case I
• How to read a case II

---

WEEK 3: PATIENT & HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL ROLES

Feb 10    The health care system
Reading assignment:

• The Health Professional-Patient Relationship: SAL pp. 43-60
• The Hippocratic Oath: pp. 61
  
• Four Models of the Physician-Patient Relationship (Emmanuel): pp. 78-86
• The Refutation of Medical Paternalism (Goldman): pp. 62-70
• Why Doctors should intervene (Ackerman): pp. 73-77
• Professional Medical Ethics: 1996 AMA code
• Week 3 and 4 reading notes

Feb 12    The doctor-patient-institution-law complex
Cases:

• Beneficence Today, or Autonomy (maybe) tomorrow? SAL pp. 70-73
• Please don't tell! pp. 123-125

---

WEEK 4: COMMUNICATION, TRUTH AND DISCLOSURE

Feb 17    Privacy and confidentiality
Reading assignment:

• Offering Truth (Freedman): SAL pp. 110-116.
• Informed Consent - Must It Remain A Fairy Tale? (Katz): pp. 89-96
• Bioethics in a Different Tongue (Blackhall): pp. 101-109
• Errors in Medicine (Bayliss): pp. 97-100

Feb 19    Capacity and consent or refusal
Cases:

• Antihypertensives and Impotence (Arras) pp. 87-88
• Tarasoff: pp. 117-121

---

WEEK 5: CAPACITY AND THE CAPABLE PATIENT

Feb 24
Reading assignment:

• SAL Introduction to Part III, pp. 323-337.
• Deciding for Others: Competency (Buchanan and Brock): pp. 368-378
• The Health Care Proxy and the Living Will (Annas): pp. 387-401
  
• Enough: The Failure of the Living Will (Fagerlin/Schneider): pp. 391-401

Feb 26
Cases:

• State of Tennessee Department of Human Services vs. Mary C. Northern and Transcript of Proceedings: Testimony of Mary C. Northern: pp. 361-368
• A Chronicle: Dax's Case As It Happened: pp. 379-385
• Old Enough: Hastings Center Report 37 (6) 15-16

Hand out MIDTERM - paper due next week.

---

WEEK 6: DECIDING FOR OTHERS: THE ONCE-CAPABLE PATIENT

March 3
Reading assignment:

• Testing the Limits of Prospective Autonomy: Five Scenarios (Cantor): SAL pp. 402-404
• The Severely Demented Patient (Arras): pp. 420-428
• Nutrition and Hydration (US Bishops): pp. 429-435

March 5

• Theresa Schiavo (Wolfson): pp. 405-409
• "Human Non-Person" (Smith): pp. 409-410
• In The Matter of Claire C. Conway (N.J. Supreme Court): pp. 411-420

MIDTERM due

---

WEEK 7: THE NEVER-CAPABLE PATIENT

March 10
Reading assignment:

• Quality of Life and Non-Treatment Decisions for Incompetent Patients:
  A Critique of the Orthodox Approach (Dresser and Robertson): SAL pp. 436-446
• The Limits of Legal Objectivity (Rhoden): pp. 447-454

March 12

• Sheila Pouliot (Ouellette): pp. 455-458
• Extreme Prematurity and Parental Rights after Baby Doe (Robertson): pp. 459-466
• Resuscitation of the Preterm Infant (Paris Schreiber and Elias-Jones): pp. 467-472
  
  
• Reading Notes: week 7

---

WEEK 8: ASSISTED DYING

March 17
Reading assignment:

• SAL Introduction to Death: pp.323-6
• President's Commission: pp.339-347
• Bernat: Whole Brain Concept of Death: pp.348-356
• McMahan: Alternative to Brain Death: pp.356-360

March 19

• Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Tragic View (Arras): SAL pp. 477-483
• Assisted Suicide: The Philosophers' Brief (Dworkin): pp. 484-496
• Euthanasia (Battin): pp. 496-511
• Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making (Quill): pp. 473-477
  

---

March 24-26: Spring Break -- NO CLASSES

---

WEEK 9: DEATH AND ORGANS

March 31: Cesar Chavez Day! NO CLASS

April 2
Reading assignment:

• Rethinking the Ethics of Vital Organ Donation (Miller et al)
• When is Dead Really Dead? (Whetstine et al)
• Fatal Flaw: The current definition of Death (Boston Globe)

Paper II: Due: April 16
Topics for second paper

---

WEEK 10: TRANSPLANTATION

April 7
Reading assignment:

• UNOS Allocation Policy
• Fairness in Allocation and Delivery (Childress) Equality, Justice and Rightness (Veatch)
• The Case for Allowing Kidney Sales (Radcliffe-Richards et al): pp. 279-299
• An Ethical Market in Human Organs (Erin and Harris): p. 300
• Body Values (Joralemon & Cox): pp. 301-308
• Sandra Jensen
  
  
• Reading notes: Week 10

April 9: NO CLASS

---

WEEK 11: ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

April 14
Reading assignment:

• SAL Introduction to Part II: pp. 173-190
• Ethical Framework for Access to HC (President's Commission): 191-202
• Freedom and Moral Diversity (Engelhardt): pp. 203-212
• Social Determinants of HC: pp. 213-221

April 16

• Justice, Health, and Health Care (Daniels): pp. 231-234
• Opportunity is Not the Key (Sreenivasan): pp. 235-236
• International Health Inequalities (Daniels)
• Euthanasia and Katrina (Kipnis)
  
  
• Reading notes: Week 11

PAPER II DUE

---

WEEK 12: NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND CLONING

April 21
Reading assignment:

• SAL Introduction to part IV: pp. 535-545
• APA's description of IVF services
• Presumptive Primacy of Procreative Liberty (Robertson): pp. 599-609
• Instruction on Respect for Human Life (Vatican): pp. 609-617
• Dignitas Personae (Benedict VI, 2008)
• What are Families For? (Murray): pp. 618-622
• Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman's Eggs (Cohen): pp. 623-626
• Payment for Egg Donation (Steinbock): pp. 627-636

April 23

• The Case Against Cloning-to-Produce-Children
  (President's Council on Bioethics): pp. 637-650
• Reproductive Cloning: Another Look (Steinbock): pp.651-660
• Kass: Making Babies (1972) (Kass)
• The Wisdom of Repugnance (Kass)
• Preventing a Brave New World (Kass)
• Using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis to Save a Sibling:
  The Story of Molly and Adam Nash (Steinbock): pp. 704-706
  
  
• Reading notes: Week 12

Paper III: due May 7
Topic for paper III: Enhancement

---

WEEK 13: ENHANCEMENT

April 28
Reading assignment:

• The Designer Baby Myth (Pinker): pp. 845-847
• Genetic Intervention and the Ethics of Enhancement of Human Beings
  (Savelescu): pp. 879-889
• The Case Against Perfection: What's Wrong with Designer Children, Bionic Athletes, and Genetic Engineering (Sandel): pp. 890-899
• Anyone for Tennis, at the Age of 150? (Bailey): pp. 900-902
• Responsible Use of Cognition Enhancing Drugs (Greely)

April 30

Eugenics as a Case Study (Buchanan) Rules for the Human Zoo (Sloterdijk)


• Reading notes: Week 13

---

WEEK 14: MEDICAL GENETICS

May 5: CLASS CANCELLED (but do the reading anyway!)
Reading assignment:

• Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion (Asch): pp. 675-686
• Disability, Prenatal Testing, and Selective Abortion (Steinbock): pp. 686-693
• Ethical Issues and Practical Problems in PID (Botkin): pp. 694-703
• Genome Project, Individual Differences, and Just Health Care (Daniels): pp. 874-878

May 7

• Embroyo Ethics: Moral Logic of Stem Cell Research (Sandel): pp.707-708
• Acorns and Embroyos (George & Lee): pp. 709-715
• Surplus Embroyos, Non-productive Cloning, and Intend/Forsee (Fitzpatrick): pp. 716-723

PAPER III Due

---

WEEK 15: JUSTICE AND HEALTH CARE II

May 12
Reading assignment:

• Imposing Personal Responsibility for Health (Steinbrook): pp. 251-254
• Responsibility in Health Care (Cappelen and Norheim): pp. 255-261
• Illegal Immigrants, Healthcare and Social Responsibility (Dwyer): pp. 273-281
• Rationing Vaccine: Why It Won't Be Easy (Arras): pp. 281-290
• Who Should Get Influenza Vaccine (Emanuel and Wertheimer): pp. 292-295
  
  
• Reading notes: Week 15

May 14
LAST DAY OF CLASS
FINAL JOURNAL DUE

---

Return to Main page