PHIL 165.001 – Bioethics

Instructor: Alex Marcoci. This course meets TR 8:00 – 9:15 a.m. via remote synchronous (RS) instruction.

This course engages with contemporary healthcare policy debates by analysing the normative questions about morality and justice underlying them. The course will cover the ethics of healthcare policy (including the ethics of policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic); the ethics of research and the ethics of doctor-patient relations. The course will guide students in formulating their own answers to questions such as: How should scarce lifesaving resources be distributed during a pandemic? Should governments mandate masks? Should you download a tracking app? Are Covid-19 human challenge trials morally permissible? Can healthcare practitioners override a patient’s wishes? Is there a right to healthcare? Should there be a market for organs? No prior experience with philosophy is required.