ATS2637 - Global bioethics - 2017

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

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

Faculty

Arts

Organisational Unit

Monash Bioethics Centre

Coordinator(s)

Dr Ryan Tonkens

Unit guides

Offered

Caulfield

  • First semester 2017 (Day)

Clayton

  • First semester 2017 (Day)

Synopsis

The unit investigates bioethical issues related to global justice, global commerce (e.g. market-driven border crossings of biomedical professionals, patients, and/or human body parts and tissues), exploitation, commodification, and/or the responsibilities of developed nations towards developing nations. Specific topics explored in this unit may include: fair allocation of scarce medical resources (e.g. access to affordable medicines in the developing world); the ethics of research conducted on poor people in developing countries; medical and reproductive tourism; the ethics of international markets in human organs and other body parts; the ethics of international commercial surrogacy; the ethics of human egg and embryo trading; the migration of medical professionals; and the ethics of patenting human genes, etc.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the unit students will be able to:

  1. familiarity with the range and nature of topics in global bioethics;
  2. familiarity with the major ethical concepts and arguments used in discussing and resolving issues in global bioethics;
  3. skills enabling them to critically analyse key ethical and policy issues related to topics in global bioethics;
  4. the ability to make informed judgments about these ethical and policy issues.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 65%

Exam: 35%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

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

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.

Prohibitions

ATS3637