Melbourne Law School The Melbourne Law Masters

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Bioethics from an International Perspective 730892

Objectives

A student who has successfully completed this subject should:

  • Understand the nature of ethical argumentation
  • Identify ethical issues and construct arguments relevant to their practical resolution
  • Be able to engage in ethical debate and evaluate arguments
  • Understand basic ethical theories and concepts
  • Understand the difference between ethics and law in medical matters
  • Understand how ethical principles are relevant to law
  • Understand the modes of moral reasoning that are used in health care ethics, health care policy and in different parts of the world, including Australia
  • Be able to apply the foregoing tools to practical clinical problems and to problems of health law.
Syllabus

Principal topics will include:

  • The current revolution in bioethical reasoning and methods in bioethics
  • Making good medical-moral judgments for self and others
  • Abortion
  • Euthanasia
  • Regulation of research, including:
    • Stem cell research and cloning
    • Transgenesis and human–non-human chimeras
  • Sale of biological material and body parts
  • Regulation of doping in sport
  • Reproductive cloning
  • Human enhancement
  • Genetic selection
  • Coercion in reproduction.