PHIL 165.001 – Bioethics

IDEAs in Action: Which curricular requirements does this course satisfy?

Instructor: Raye Ploeger. This course meets via remote, mostly asynchronous (RM) instruction.

Bioethics is the philosophical study of ethical, social, and legal issues related to health and medicine. These issues include (among many others) medical paternalism, abortion and euthanasia, the boundaries and significance of health and disease, the use of genetic technologies, and what it means to have a right to healthcare.

Every one of the above issues is deeply intertwined with questions about disability: What does it mean to be disabled? What counts as a disability? Are disabilities (ever) something that we should seek to cure or prevent? What would life for disabled people look like in a just society?

In this course, we will study the traditional topics of bioethics, but with a special focus on articulating and exploring the assumptions about disability that underlie discourse about those topics. In effect, we will be studying philosophy of disability through bioethics – using the ethical questions associated with health and medicine as our starting point for thinking about disability.

Have registration questions? Our PPE Administrators can help! Please email them at ppeprogram@unc.edu for assistance.