Bioethics and Social Justice
PHIL 217
Fall 2019 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 217 |
"Health has replaced salvation," wrote the 19th-century philosopher of medicine José Miguel Guardia. This course will examine the increasing importance that health, medicine, biotechnology, and health care systems have taken in contemporary societies. Dramatic changes in medicine allow us to prolong life and treat disease in previously unimaginable ways, even as these same changes open the door to new forms of exploitation, violence, racism, and oppression in the name of medicine itself. Our goal will be to grasp the ethical and philosophical significance of these contradictions. We will begin by examining some of the most prominent medical abuses of the 20th-century, including the Tuskegee syphilis trials and the lingering effects of eugenics and Social Darwinism. Then we will consider the mainstream response in U.S. ethics to these abuses--the creation and institutionalization of the discipline of bioethics--and the critics of this response. From there, we will reflect on the limits of the bioethics approach in light of the current global crises of health, life, and medicine. Readings will include selections from philosophical bioethics (including continental approaches, such as Canguilhem, Foucault, and Fanon), the history of medicine, the social sciences, and current journalism. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS PHIL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (PHIL)(PHIL-Philosophy)(PHIL-Social Jus) |
Major Readings:
World Health Organization, PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION
National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, THE BELMONT REPORT
Solomon Benatar and Gillian Brock, eds., GLOBAL HEALTH AND GLOBAL HEALTH ETHICS
Georges Canguilhem, THE NORMAL AND THE PATHOLOGICAL
Michel Foucault, THE BIRTH OF THE CLINIC
Frantz Fanon, "MEDICINE AND COLONIALISM"
Ron Amundson and Shari Tresky, "BIOETHICS AND DISABILITY RIGHTS: CONFLICTING VALUES AND PERSPECTIVES"
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Examinations and Assignments:
The assignments will include:
(a) 2-3 short argumentative papers on the class readings (3-4 pages)
(b) 1 class presentation
(c) discussion questions (participation)
(d) 1 longer independent research paper applying course concepts to a current event or current bioethical discussion (7-10 pages). |
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