Curriculum & Courses
Curriculum
Required Courses for Advanced Certificate
- MHB 482 – Clinical Ethics & the Law
- MHB 472 – Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics
- MHB 410 – Clinical Bioethics
Courses
MHB 482 Clinical Ethics & the Law
This is a course about laws relating to clinical bioethics with a focus on New York State. The course introduces the language and concerns of the laws that impact patient care, including the United States Constitution, the New York State Constitution, and legal rules (legislation and case law) that govern relationships between hospitals and individuals, specifically hospital employees caring for patients. The course will focus on the topics that most frequently arise in the setting of patient care, including the history and evolution of these laws. While this course does not directly address legal authority or political philosophy, an important theme of this course is restrictions of individual autonomy and the justifications.
MHB 472 Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics
This course addresses a range of ethical and philosophical questions arising in the context of human health. This course introduces the foundational ethical principles of clinical bioethics – patient autonomy, patient benefit and justice between patients – and orients students to the practice of philosophical reasoning. We will discuss the philosophical questions most relevant to medical practice, with a major focus on the concept (and limits) of patient autonomy. Questions such as: What conceptions of autonomy are involved in respecting a patient’s refusal of life-saving treatment? What is the distinction between killing and letting die? Does the quality of a person’s life matter when allocating scarce resources? The second half of the course addresses the ethics of healthcare organizations, with a major focus the theories of justice in distributing health. We will discuss questions such as: What is “health”? What is it to be disabled? Do we have a right to health? Who should pay for our healthcare?
Through the sustained study of philosophical texts, this course will examine fundamental ethical principles that guide the practice of clinical bioethics. Students will complete readings and writing assignments in order to prepare for classroom discussion that practice the development and critique of philosophical arguments in the context of bioethics.
MHB 410 Clinical Bioethics
Most ethical dilemmas in medicine arise at the bedside. Wrestling with these challenging conflicts is a core task of the clinical application of bioethics in the healthcare field. Structured around real clinical cases, this course will examine fundamental of bioethics that arise in clinical practice. Students will complete readings, writing assignments, and reflections to guide discussions around clinical cases. Students will participate in classroom activities to practice the application of knowledge and skills learned.