ATS1264 - Bioethics, justice and the law - 2019

The unit investigates how the law and public policy should respond to advances in medicine and biotechnology, and the role of justice in these contexts. Examples of possible topics covered include: whether employers and insurance companies should be permitted to discriminate among applicants on the basis of genetic profile; whether it is discriminatory to select against sex or disability in future children; whether the law should protect individuals' genetic privacy or whether we have a duty to share our genetic knowledge; whether the law should act paternalistically to prevent people from harming themselves or making bad health decisions; whether people who are responsible for their own bad health should receive lower medical priority, and whether advances in knowledge in the biological/genetic bases for behaviour give us reason to doubt individual responsibility.

On successfully completing this unit, students will have:

1. familiarity with the key philosophical approaches to discrimination, autonomy, responsibility and equality as they apply to debates within bioethics;
2. skills enabling them to think critically about key ethical, policy and legal issues raised by recent advances in medicine and biotechnology;
3. the ability to make informed judgements about those ethical, policy and legal issues.

Within semester assessment: 65% + Exam: 35%

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

Bioethics

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/bioethics/ugrad/chb1020.php