The relatively new discipline of bioethics, which encompasses medical and healthcare ethics, has often been concerned with clinical practice. Work in the field has been designed to guide the behavior and decision-making of medical professionals. However, the scope of topics that might be designated by the term “medical ethics” is in fact far broader, encompassing such subjects as medical research priorities, healthcare inequalities, and the social and cultural experience of disability. This course will introduce students to bioethics in the more capacious sense, seeking to identify points of contact between choices made at the bedside and in the headquarters of governments and international health organizations. This course will introduce students to a range of topics including the role of explanatory narratives and patient experience in healthcare, the ethics of the design and conduct of clinical trials, the evolution of diagnostic categories, and the problem of healthcare access both in the US and in a global context.
Chloe Silverman, "SCTS 612: MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE ETHICS", contributed by Ali Kenner and Eliza Nobles, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 20 August 2018, accessed 24 April 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/scts-612-medical-and-healthcare-ethics
Critical Commentary
The relatively new discipline of bioethics, which encompasses medical and healthcare ethics, has often been concerned with clinical practice. Work in the field has been designed to guide the behavior and decision-making of medical professionals. However, the scope of topics that might be designated by the term “medical ethics” is in fact far broader, encompassing such subjects as medical research priorities, healthcare inequalities, and the social and cultural experience of disability. This course will introduce students to bioethics in the more capacious sense, seeking to identify points of contact between choices made at the bedside and in the headquarters of governments and international health organizations. This course will introduce students to a range of topics including the role of explanatory narratives and patient experience in healthcare, the ethics of the design and conduct of clinical trials, the evolution of diagnostic categories, and the problem of healthcare access both in the US and in a global context.