PHIL 250F Bioethics
Medical decisions are often very difficult to make. When is it okay to stop treatment for a dying patient? Is it ever justified to genetically alter a child before it is born? If two patients need a heart transplant, but there is only one heart available, how should we decide who gets it? Bioethics is a complex interdisciplinary field (philosophy, medicine, sociology, etc...) that tries to explore these kinds of questions. This course will focus on the philosophical study of ethics as it is applied to questions in the medical field. We will look at major ethical systems and explore how well they tell us what is right and what is wrong when making medical decisions and in settling moral problems in medical debates. We will explore contemporary medical policies and examine if they can be morally justified. We will also consider seemingly futuristic issues such as cloning and genetic modification and determine if they can be practiced in a morally justifiable manner. Along the way, we will practice the philosophical skills of argument analyses, writing, and problem solving. No previous experience with philosophy is required.