37469 - Applied Ethics: Bioethics and Professional Ethics

Learning outcomes

The course offers an introduction to applied ethics covering the moral approaches to the discipline, its guiding principles, and the normative criteria that may be used in working out specific problems in bioethics and professional ethics.

The course is divided in two modules.

The teacher of the first module (Bioethics) is Prof. Carla Faralli and lectures will be devoted to the main moral and legal issues currently debated in bioethics. We will thus consider, on the one hand, the public moral dilemmas posed by technological innovation in medicine, and on the other hand the normative implications that can be extracted from a bioethical discussion of such dilemmas. Our focus will be on the most emblematic questions in medical bioethics: When does life begin? How should the patient-physician relationship be framed? How should medical genetics be used and what protections should be in place in connection with these uses? When does life end?

The teacher of the second module (Professional Ethics) is Prof. Stefania Pellegrini and lectures will be devoted to the current debate on the relation between ethics and the world of work and the professions. This is a relation that owes its importance to the increasing complexity of the world and to the accompanying knowledge required to deal with such complexity. In fact, this need has brought forth a greater and greater functional specialization of work, so much so that we stand witness today to a hyper-specialization in each department of culture, with an army of professionals whom the layperson relies on for access to culture, and this magnifies out of proportion the responsibility associated with such professional roles. The question will thus initially be approached by exploring the idea of a social role, and we will then develop this into the idea of social-role responsibility, with a focus on the legal professions and looking in particular at the roles of judge and lawyer.

Course contents

Bioethics

-The fundamentals of applied ethics

-Norms and ethical principles

-Introduction to bioethics

-Bioethics and law

-Sources of biolaw

-The beginning of life (abortion and medically assisted procreation)

-The patient-physician relationship (informed consent, the right to health and the refusal of treatment, advance directives)

-The end of life (physician-assisted suicide, permanent vegetative states, palliative care)

 

Professional Ethics

- The concept of role

- Social responsibility

- Professionals and social responsibility

- Historical models for the judiciary

- The evolution of moral principles in the judiciary

- The judiciary and the mass media

- The lawyer's role: balancing the functional perspective with the adversarial one

- Lawyering and the trial

- Lawyering and the "gray area": Ethics as a tool of containment

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

Bioethics

 

1) Textbook Part

The student must choose one of the following: (I), (II) or (III):

 

(I)

The beginning of life

 

- C. Casonato, Introduzione al biodiritto, Torino, Giappichelli, 2012. 

 

- C. Faralli, Bioetica e biodiritto. Problemi, casi e materiali,  Ediz. aggiornata, Giappichelli, Torino 2014 (available in PDF e-book format at http://www.giappichelli.it/bioetica-e-biodiritto,3484973), pp. 6-91.

 

(II)

The relationship  between the physician and the patient

 

- C. Casonato, Introduzione al biodiritto, Torino, Giappichelli, 2012. 

 

- C. Faralli, Bioetica e biodiritto. Problemi, casi e materiali,  Ediz. aggiornata, Giappichelli, Torino 2014 (available in PDF e-book format at http://www.giappichelli.it/bioetica-e-biodiritto,3484973), pp. 92-170.

 

 (III)

The end of life

 

- C. Casonato, Introduzione al biodiritto, Torino, Giappichelli, 2012. 

 

- C. Faralli, Bioetica e biodiritto. Problemi, casi e materiali,  Ediz. aggiornata, Giappichelli, Torino 2014 (available in PDF e-book format at http://www.giappichelli.it/bioetica-e-biodiritto,3484973), pp. 172-249.

 

 

2) Focus Part

Students needing material for further study of specific subjects covered in class are recommended to consult F. Poggi (ed. by), Diritto e Bioetica, Carocci, Roma 2013; P. Borsellino, Bioetica tra " morali" e diritto, Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2009; E. Lecaldano, Dizionario di bioetica (Laterza, 2007).

 

Professional Ethics

The student must choose one of the following: (I) or (II).

(I) 

- S. Pellegrini, Professione giustizia. Giuristi tra etica professionale e responsabilita'  di ruolo, CEDAM, 2013, chaps. 1, 2, 3

- In addition chap. 4

 

 

 

 (II)

 

- S. Pellegrini, Professione giustizia. Giuristi tra etica professionale e responsabilita'  di ruolo, CEDAM, 2013, chaps. 1, 2, 3

- In addition chap. 5

 

The course is open to psychology students enrolled in the course on applied cognitive psychology offered by the School of Psychology and Education, for whom it will count 6 credits. These students are only responsible for the part of the syllabus in the bioethics section, and should only select one of the three options I, II, and III (see the webpage of the "Applied Ethics" course offered by the Scuola di Psicologia e Scienze della Formazione - Laurea Magistrale in Psicologia cognitiva applicata).

Teaching methods

The course will be taught as a series of lectures, and part of the activities will consist in selecting readings and court rulings for study and comment.

The course will take place during the first semester, (from October to December 2017, on V. Zamboni 22). Please check the website www.giuri.unibo.it for the room and the weekly schedule of the lectures.

Assessment methods

The final exam will be exclusively oral and is aimed at evaluating the extent to which the student has achieved the learning objectives, specifically as concerns (under part one of the syllabus) the topic the student has chosen to focus on in the current debate on medical bioethics (in part one of the syllabus), and the roles and social responsibility of those in the legal profession, especially the lawyer and the judge (in part two).

 

THESIS

A dissertation will be available only to students who have included this Applied Ethics course in their curriculum, so as to gain the skills and critical grounding necessary to that end.

Teaching tools

All information relative to the course, along with any notice the instructors may give, as well as any supplemental course material, will be available online at http://campus.unibo.it or at https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/carla.faralli

Office hours

See the website of Carla Faralli

See the website of Stefania Pellegrini