Applied Ethics and the Professions (Biomedical and Health Ethics)

Medicine is infused with moral values and is deeply embedded in a variety of social and cultural contexts, which significantly determine the effectiveness of medical care in achieving healthy outcomes for patients and populations. The objective of the biomedical and health ethics concentration is to integrate academic and clinical dimensions of moral issues in medical practice and biomedical research. Students from a broad range of backgrounds will be exposed to the internal and external logics of medicine, health care and biotechnology and will gain substantive understanding of ethical, cultural and societal issues in a variety of domains. Through course work and other experiences, students will deliberate individually and collectively about a wide range of issues and problems in contemporary medicine and the history of medicine; develop advanced critical normative reasoning and judgment capacities; and cultivate effective communication skills for academic, clinical and policy contexts.

Admission Requirements

All students are required to complete graduate course work distributed as follows:

• required core course (3)
• required concentration course (3)
• elective concentration courses (18)
• required culminating experience (6)

The required core course for students across all concentrations in the MA applied ethics and the professions program is AEP 501 Practical and Professional Ethics (3), which provides students with the theoretical and historical bases to pursue specialized applied ethics education.

The required concentration course introduces the students into basic concepts and practices of their field. In biomedical and health ethics, the required concentration course is BIO 516, which focuses on practices and products of bioethics.

Required Core Course:

• AEP 501 Practical and Professional Ethics (3)

Required Concentration Course:

• AEP 501 Practical and Professional Ethics (3)
• BIO 516 Foundations of Bioethics (3)
• Electives for this Concentration: (18)*
• Required Culminating Experience:
  AEP 593 Applied Project (6)

*Students must request approval from the chairperson of the degree program prior to selecting elective course work.