MPA 6560G - Biomedical Ethics and Public Policy

Credits: 4

In this course, we will examine a range of issues at the intersection of ethics and health policy. In this course, students will be introduced to key students ethical theories and principles in the field of bioethics, and will use them to critically evaluate laws and policies at both the domestic and global levels. In the first part of the course, the class will be introduced to some fundamental questions in the areas of moral theory and health policy, and then will discuss the relationship between justice and healthcare. Thereafter, students will choose topics according to their areas of interest, and the class will read articles and cases on these topics for the remainder of the course. Students will be able to choose ethical and policy issues such as:

Issues concerning assisted reproduction, such as donation and/or sale of eggs and sperm, domestic and transnational surrogacy and sex selection of embryos for IVF.

Research ethics: human subjects research and the inclusion of vulnerable populations, randomized clinical trials and the appropriate standard of care in resource-poor settings.

Policies concerning live organ procurement and allocation, including the donation vs. the sale of organs and organ transplant “tourism”.

Rationing and allocation of scarce resources, including the distribution of vaccines in pandemics and the coverage of “orphan” diseases by health insurance.
Regulating the cost of pharmaceutical drugs and other medical costs in the US and abroad.

Ethical dilemmas encountered when delivering humanitarian medical treatment in disaster settings.

Relations between poverty and health, including the implications of the social determinants of health, implicit bias in healthcare and responsibility for global health disparities.