Course overview
Can a liberal state legitimately promote a particular conception of health, or even nudge its people to adopt a healthier lifestyle? Is it morally permissible to terminate a pregnancy, or ones own life? Is there anything wrong about using biomedical means to enhance one's physical or mental capacity? These issues are some of the most pressing issues in the context of healthcare. They reveal that many health-related issues are not only medical, but also ethical and political. In this course, we will explore topics such as healthism, medicalisation of everyday life, abortion, human enhancement, euthanasia, and the ethics of pandemics. Through engaging with some of the most influential responses to these issues, you will be able to develop your own views on these important issues.
Course learning outcomes
- Analyse ethical and philosophical issues raised by health-related practice, technologies, and policies.
- Acquire a broad knowledge of ethical issues in contemporary biomedical ethics.
- Obtain skills to critically appraise the strengths and weaknesses of different arguments.
- Develop and defend their own views on controversial topics, both through written work and through constructive discussion with others.
- Apply course concepts to everyday interactions and in practice, including in critical self-reflection as healthcare consumer.