ANU-PAAE8007:Bioethics

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject will focus on providing a comprehensive understanding of current key debates within bioethics including: the normative effects of medical technology, in relation to reproductive options and decision making, genetic testing, screening, engineering and cloning, medical experimentation and human enhancement; questions of life and death, including euthanasia, abortion and infanticide, and the professional role morality the obligations and role virtues appropriate to and perhaps distinctive of medical and health work. The subject also aims to develop student understanding of some of the deeper philosophical issues implicated in these debates, for example the nature of personhood, life and death; issues of moral agency and responsibility, including regarding distinctions between what we intend and foresee or our actions and omissions, and; the different approaches to such issues provided by our normative ethical theories, most notably, Consequentialism, Kantianism, and Virtue ethics. When successfully completed, students will have developed a good theoretical understanding both of central and current issues in bioethics and of some key philosophical issues of importance to applied ethics more generally.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.