LAW 7847 - Bioethics and the Law

The rapid pace of advancement in medical science and biotechnology continues to create significant legal and ethical challenges. This course will focus on a wide range of issues at the intersection of law, biotechnology, medicine, and ethics. The course will first trace the development of the fundamental principles of medical ethics. Next, the course will examine how these principles affect a variety of legal and regulatory arenas such as clinical research, privacy over our health information, end of life decision-making, the role of religion in health care delivery, notions of reproductive liberty, financial conflicts of interest, elective cosmetic surgery, the ownership of our tissue and DNA, and distributive justice concerns concerning access to health care.