Bioethics (269-DL-20)
Instructors
Mark P Sheldon
847/491-8918
Kresge 3-439
Dr. Sheldon is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department and the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program in the Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his AB from Shimer College, was a Sachar Scholar at Oxford University, and received his PhD from Brandeis University. He served as a senior policy analyst at the American Medical Association and as a member of the Task Force on Genetics for the Illinois Humanities Council. He was appointed to a three-year term as a member of the Committee on Philosophy and Medicine of the American Philosophical Association and is currently co-editor of the APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine. He performs ethics consultations at Rush University Medical Center, and the focus of his research is the point where the interests of children, the prerogatives of parents, and the obligations of the state often come into conflict in relation to medical decisions for children.
Meeting Info
Online: TBA
Overview of class
This course will consist of an analysis of the ethical issues that arise as a result of the developments in medicine and biotechnology. Topics considered will include the physician/patient relationship, the researcher/human subject relationship, issues at the beginning and end of life, children's issues, the right to health care, and the allocation of scarce medical resources.
The course is conducted completely online. A technology fee will be added to tuition.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course you should be able to:
Orally demonstrate ability to resolve ethical dilemmas by utilizing principles based on moral theories.
Explain the complexities of the physician/patient relationship.
Illustrate the importance of social changes that led to the birth of the field of Bioethics.
Develop an argument containing a thesis statement that addresses contentious social and political topics in Bioethics.
Distinguish an ethical issue from a legal issue in order to address appropriately the normative dimensions of a problem.
Teaching Method
Brief video presentation of topic, discussion board participation, case study analysis, and final paper. Students will also develop brief video presentation on weekly assigned cases or topics.
Discussion Boards: You will be expected to engage in a conversation with your classmates and the instructor about questions that are raised during the week.
Case Analysis: You will be given a case, and a format that you must follow in the analysis of the case. The case analysis is limited to 5 pages.
Term Paper: You will write a 10-12 page research paper. You can choose the topic of your paper. In the paper, you will raise questions about the topic, make suggestions on how to move conversation about the topic forward, and summarize some of the literature related to that topic.
Weekly Assignments: You will create 2-3 minute videos in which you respond to a prompt related to topic of the week.
Class Materials (Required)
All readings will be available in Canvas.
Class Notes
I will be available directly at sheldon@northwestern.edu and will respond to emails promptly.
Class Attributes
Asynchronous:Remote class-no scheduled mtg time