Special Topics in Philosophical Bioethic

This course is designed to afford students significant opportunity to explore fundamental bioethical issues in a philosophically searching way. For example, it is generally thought that health matters. But then what is health? And how does it matter? What is justice in respect to health-care and the other social determinants of health? Do competing theories of justice (e.g., liberal, libertarian, utilitarian) offer incompatible solutions to the question of healthcare justice? Or can a workable “overlapping consensus” at the public policy level nevertheless be achieved?

Should a healthcare professional be permitted, on grounds of conscience, to refuse to provide a healthcare service to which people are lawfully permitted? Indeed, what should count as “conscience”? In the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court decision concerning abortion, some have argued for a right to conscientiously insist on providing reproductive services that have been legally prohibited. How are we to sort through and resolve this complicated set of issues?

Could a meaningful personal understanding of what it means for someone to have died nevertheless not be suitable as the basis for a legal declaration of death? Why not? Should there be a “conscience clause” option whereby someone can specify in advance the conception of death to be applied in that individual’s own case? Would every possible criterion be available or would certain criteria have to be excluded? Which? Why?

The population in this and many other societies is aging and putting increasingly significant demands on the healthcare delivery system. Should healthcare be rationed according to age?  Would it be unfair to young people not to give weight to that factor—lest they lose out on a fair chance to live as long as society’s seniors already have? What is healthcare justice across the generations?

As researchers gain a fuller understanding of the aging process, it may soon be possible to genetically engineer a significant extension (even doubling?) of human life-span. Is this an appropriate objective for healthcare science to be pursuing?  Is the point of healthcare to extend human life as far as possible by whatever means? Is aging a kind of “disease” in its own right? Would life so dramatically extended be beneficial or burdensome?

The topics for this course have been selected in view of (i) how fundamental they are to bioethical thinking (e.g., What is health?