PHIL 386

PHIL 386: Healthcare Ethics
Instructor: Jennifer Welchman

Course Description

This course examines ethical problems that arise in health care. Topics will include the moral and legal status of professional ethical codes, the nature and purpose of informed consent, and the roles of substitute decision-making and evaluations of patients’ best interests in making treatment decisions. 

We will also consider special issues that arise in end-of-life decision-making, including recent updates to Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying legislation, as well as issues of social justice and “triage” policies for allocating scarce resources (such as ventilators and vaccines during the current pandemic.) 

Prerequisites  

None

Required Text 

Fisher, Russell, Brown, Burkholder, eds., Biomedical Ethics, A Canadian Focus, 3rd Ed. (Oxford 2018)

Components of Course Grade

Grades will be based on a combination of (i) Blog posts, (ii) Comments posted in response to others’ Blog posts (both to be posted on public edublog website), and 2 essay papers. There is no final exam for this course.