PHIL 165.001 – Bioethics

Instructor: Jeff Sebo. This course meets MTR 3:15 – 5:50 p.m. in CW 208.

This course is an introduction to bioethics. We start with a survey of moral theory. What is morality, and what does morality require of us? Should our priority be promoting happiness, respecting autonomy, cultivating virtues, or something else? Also, what, if anything, do we morally owe to fetuses, animals, plants, species, ecosystems, other nations, and past and future generations? We then apply these ideas to particular topics in bioethics, including the nature and value of mental and physical health and wellbeing; autonomy, paternalism, and trust; abortion, euthanasia, and physician assisted suicide; human and nonhuman subjects research; genetic modification of human and nonhuman animals; public health impacts of food, war, and other such industries; and distribution of scarce medical resources in society.