Lecture (LEC)

This course aims to position students to think and write critically and carefully about moral issues that arise in medical contexts. Among the central units will be: I. Moral Status and Abortion, II. Harm, Disability, and the Ethics of Creating Persons, III. Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, and IV. Information and Autonomy. We will explore such questions as: What gives something moral status? Does the ethics of abortion essentially depend upon whether/when a fetus is a person, or can one advance arguments for/against abortion while setting aside whether a fetus is a person? Can we harm persons by creating them? Is selecting traits for one's future child permissible? Under which circumstances, if any, should patients be able to request aid in dying from physicians? Are there important moral differences between letting someone die, aiding someone to die, and causing someone to die? What information are patients owed, and why? What makes for informed consent? Throughout, the emphasis will be on disentangling complex networks of problems, locating and alleviating theoretical tensions, informing our own moral outlooks, and on analyzing and evaluating lines of reasoning.

Discussion (DIS)

This course aims to position students to think and write critically and carefully about moral issues that arise in medical contexts. Among the central units will be: I. Moral Status and Abortion, II. Harm, Disability, and the Ethics of Creating Persons, III. Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, and IV. Information and Autonomy. We will explore such questions as: What gives something moral status? Does the ethics of abortion essentially depend upon whether/when a fetus is a person, or can one advance arguments for/against abortion while setting aside whether a fetus is a person? Can we harm persons by creating them? Is selecting traits for one's future child permissible? Under which circumstances, if any, should patients be able to request aid in dying from physicians? Are there important moral differences between letting someone die, aiding someone to die, and causing someone to die? What information are patients owed, and why? What makes for informed consent? Throughout, the emphasis will be on disentangling complex networks of problems, locating and alleviating theoretical tensions, informing our own moral outlooks, and on analyzing and evaluating lines of reasoning.

Discussion (DIS)

This course aims to position students to think and write critically and carefully about moral issues that arise in medical contexts. Among the central units will be: I. Moral Status and Abortion, II. Harm, Disability, and the Ethics of Creating Persons, III. Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, and IV. Information and Autonomy. We will explore such questions as: What gives something moral status? Does the ethics of abortion essentially depend upon whether/when a fetus is a person, or can one advance arguments for/against abortion while setting aside whether a fetus is a person? Can we harm persons by creating them? Is selecting traits for one's future child permissible? Under which circumstances, if any, should patients be able to request aid in dying from physicians? Are there important moral differences between letting someone die, aiding someone to die, and causing someone to die? What information are patients owed, and why? What makes for informed consent? Throughout, the emphasis will be on disentangling complex networks of problems, locating and alleviating theoretical tensions, informing our own moral outlooks, and on analyzing and evaluating lines of reasoning.

Discussion (DIS)

This course aims to position students to think and write critically and carefully about moral issues that arise in medical contexts. Among the central units will be: I. Moral Status and Abortion, II. Harm, Disability, and the Ethics of Creating Persons, III. Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, and IV. Information and Autonomy. We will explore such questions as: What gives something moral status? Does the ethics of abortion essentially depend upon whether/when a fetus is a person, or can one advance arguments for/against abortion while setting aside whether a fetus is a person? Can we harm persons by creating them? Is selecting traits for one's future child permissible? Under which circumstances, if any, should patients be able to request aid in dying from physicians? Are there important moral differences between letting someone die, aiding someone to die, and causing someone to die? What information are patients owed, and why? What makes for informed consent? Throughout, the emphasis will be on disentangling complex networks of problems, locating and alleviating theoretical tensions, informing our own moral outlooks, and on analyzing and evaluating lines of reasoning.

Discussion (DIS)

This course aims to position students to think and write critically and carefully about moral issues that arise in medical contexts. Among the central units will be: I. Moral Status and Abortion, II. Harm, Disability, and the Ethics of Creating Persons, III. Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, and IV. Information and Autonomy. We will explore such questions as: What gives something moral status? Does the ethics of abortion essentially depend upon whether/when a fetus is a person, or can one advance arguments for/against abortion while setting aside whether a fetus is a person? Can we harm persons by creating them? Is selecting traits for one's future child permissible? Under which circumstances, if any, should patients be able to request aid in dying from physicians? Are there important moral differences between letting someone die, aiding someone to die, and causing someone to die? What information are patients owed, and why? What makes for informed consent? Throughout, the emphasis will be on disentangling complex networks of problems, locating and alleviating theoretical tensions, informing our own moral outlooks, and on analyzing and evaluating lines of reasoning.