Bioethics

Bioethics (257 - 16432)
Study: Bachelor in Biomedical Engineering
Semester 2/Spring Semester
4th Year Course/Upper Division

Compentences and Skills that will be Acquired and Learning Results:

Within this course students will be provided with a foundation in understanding and solving problems related to bioethics. In this course, each student will:

- acquire legal and ethical criteria to face social issues of life sciences and medicine in a multidisciplinary way.
- be acquainted with bioethical aspects of professional and societal activities.
- develop their abilities think and to argue from an ethical point of view.
- develop their critical sense on bioethical issues
- know the basic contents of academic bioethical developments
- raise awareness of minorities and vulnerable groups in the field of bioethics.

Description of Contents: Course Description

Lesson 1: Ethics, morality and law. Public and private reasons.
Lesson 2: Justification in ethics. Metaethics and normative ethics.
Lesson 3. The foundations of Bioethics. The origins of Bioethics. Basic principles on bioethics. Bioethics, Rule of Law and Democracy.
Lesson 4. Medical ethics. Informed consent. Organ transplantation. Clinical essays.
Lesson 5. Bioethics and Vulnerable Groups. Bioethics and gender: feminist bioethics. Bioethics and Children. Bioethics and the elder. Bioethics and disability.
Lesson 6. Birth and death. The beginning of life: assisted reproduction, abortions. End of life: on dying.
Lesson 7. Bioethics and genetics. Genetic information. Genetic interventions on human beings.

Learning Activities and Methodology:

LECTURES:
It is imperative that the student reads the recommended chapters or articles before the class. These will be provided in advance.
1) Lectures: During the lectures the proposed topic will be presented, always encouraging discussion.
2) Discussion Sessions: When the topic allows it, groups of 3-5 will be formed for discussion sessions to solve particular problems related to the current topic with the main idea of understanding the system and developing different strategies to solve it, underlining the fact that there are almost always different approaches to the same problem.
3) Oral Presentations: At least once during the course each student will have the chance to do a short oral presentation on a topic related to the course. These oral presentations will be prepared either individually or in groups.

HOMEWORK:
Homework will be assigned frequently throughout the course and will count for the assessment.

Assessment System:

- Composition of three essays (700-1000 words) and a final essay (3000-4000 words)
- Oral presentation.

Basic Bibliography:

Beauchamp, T., J. F. Childress. Principles of biomedical ethics. Oxford University Press. 2013
Buchanan, A., et al. From Chance to Choice. Genetics and Justice. Cambridge Universtity . 2001
Dworkin, R. Life¿s dominion. An argument about Abortion, Euthanasia and Individual Freedom. Vintage Books. 2003
Habermas, J., . The future of human nature. Polity Press. 2003
Kuse, H., Singer, P. Bioethics. An anthology. Blackwell Publishing. 2006
Shafer-Landau, R. The Ethical life: fundamental readings in ethics and moral problems. Oxford University Press. 2011
Singer, P. Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press. 2011