Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, M.D., Ph.D., J.D., Associate Professor of Medical Ethics in Medicine
Spring - 3 Credits
This course introduces students to the moral dimension of medicine, preparing them for a medical practice that is scientific in its means but essentially moral in its goals and ends. The course fosters an artful approach to medicine, encouraging students to clarify and articulate their own values in the medical context. The format of the course is designed to promote deliberation and to help students develop analytical attitudes and skills.
S&TS 5051 primarily utilizes a discussion seminar format and relies on the reading of literary fiction and essays that illustrate how ethics blends into medicine and medical practice. In addition, the course offers some hands-on activities, such as interviews with real and standardized patients, clinical simulations, and a problem-based learning exercise. The course is divided into modules, each one dedicated to exploring one thematic area. Thematic areas explored include the nature of medical knowledge and its ethical repercussions, the world of the patient and the experience of being a patient, family dynamics when someone becomes sick, the doctor and the hospital, and the ethics of conducting research with human subjects. Students learning is assessed through in-class discussion, short weekly essays, and a final multisource research paper on a medical ethics topic.
Note: In case of cross-registration, applicants will be screened/interviewed by the instructor.