B0404 - BIOETHICS AND LAW

Learning outcomes

The second module provides an overview of the most relevant issues  in the current bioethical debate, analyzed both by a philosophical-normative and legal perspective.

Course contents

The module, aimed to promote knowledge and skills essential for developing awareness and critical capacity to understand the complexity of moral and legal issues raised in the field of life sciences, care and health, will cover the following topics:

- Normative ethics, rules and principles applied in bioethics
- Bioethics and law
- Practical conflicts, dilemmas and disagreements: reasons for science, ethics and law
- Ethics and rights: the beginning of life issues
- Right to self-determination and right to healthcare
- Ethics and rights: the end-of-life issues

Readings/Bibliography

The slides used during the lessons will be available on Virtuale and will form the exam material for attending/non attending students.

The course book is:

Ruth F. Chadwick, Udo Schüklenk (2021), This Is Bioethics: An Introduction, pp. 30-41; pp.69-72 e pp. 75-85; pp.91-110.

Here is a list of suggested readings to explore the course topics in more depth:

-McMillan, J. (2018). What is bioethics,  The methods of bioethics: an essay in meta-bioethics. Oxford University Press, pp.7-27.

-Craig Stanbury et al. (2024). What moral weight should patient-led demand have in clinical decisions about assisted reproductive technologies?, Bioethics, 1, pp. 69-77.

-Glover, J. (2019). The Role of Physicians in the Allocation of Health Care: Is Some Justice Better than None? Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 29(1), pp. 1-31.

-Saunders, B. (2017). First, do no harm: Generalized procreative non‐maleficence. Bioethics, 31(7), pp. 552-558.

- Griffiths J. (2013). Euthanasia and assisted suicide should, when properly performed by a doctor in an appropriate case, be decriminalised. In: Alghrani A, Bennett R, Ost S eds. Bioethics, Medicine and the Criminal Law. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 15-29.

-Rachels, J. (1975). Active and passive euthanasia. Bioethics: An Introduction to the History, Methods, and Practice, pp. 77-82.

 

Teaching methods

Lectures with slides and use of supplementary scientific articles.

Discussions will be held with analysis of students' opinions and arguments presented in order to enhance the capacity of students to form and justify an autonomous and informed judgment.

At the end of each lecture a pdf with the powerpoint presentation will be available on Virtuale platform.

Power Point presentations of the lectures and supplementary scientific articles will be the material to be reviewed for the written exam at the end of the course.

Assessment methods

For both attending and non-attending students, the exam takes place in written and oral form. The written exam takes place only in the first useful exam session after the end of classes; the oral exam takes place in one of the useful exam session scheduled on Almaesami.

The written test consists of multiple choice covering the whole course content.

Students who accept the written test grade do not have to take the oral exam.

In case of failure to pass the written test or refusal to accept the grade, students will be required to take the regular oral exam in one of the exam dates scheduled after the end of the course.

 

Teaching tools

Slides and articles on the main topics examined during the class.
All course information and supplementary teaching materials will be available on the course site on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Zullo