Undergraduate - UnitATS2637 - The human body and the international marketplace

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Centre for Human Bioethics
Offered	Caulfield First semester 2014 (Day) Clayton First semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Ryan Tonkens

Notes

Previously coded INT2180

Synopsis

The human body and its parts are increasingly being bought and sold internationally by pharmaceutical companies, researchers, kidney and surrogate brokers and by individuals directly. In this unit we discuss the ethical issues that arise with the international commercialisation of the human body, focusing on the concepts of coercion and exploitation. Should such markets be prohibited altogether, or simply reformed and regulated to reduce exploitation and harm? Specifically, we discuss gene patents and access to medicines in the developing world, research conducted on poor people in developing countries, international markets in organs; surrogacy and embryo trading.

Outcomes

On successfully completing this unit, students will have:

Familiarity with the range and nature of international markets in the human body
Familiarity with the major ethical concepts and arguments used in discussing markets in, and commercialisation of, the human body
Skills enabling them to critically analyse key ethical and policy issues related to these practices
The ability to make informed judgements about these ethical and policy issues.

Assessment

Written work: 80%
Class test: 20%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Ryan Tonkens

Workload requirements

One 1-hour lecture per week + One 1-hour tutorial per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Bioethics
Human rights
Philosophy
International studies

Prerequisites

Two gateway units in International Studies, or Philosophy, or Human Rights. Or first-year sequence in Bioethics

Prohibitions

ATS3637