The Master of Science in Biomedical Science and PhD in Biomedical Sciences programs offers a course that covers professional norms, codes of conduct, misconduct, and working with animal and human subjects.

Responsible Conduct of Research

This course is required for all first-year graduate students. The course covers eight, one-hour sessions on:

• Research misconduct
• Experimental design and data management practices
• Mentor and trainee responsibilities and collaborative research
• Conflicts of interest and intellectual property
• Protection of human subjects
• Welfare of laboratory animals
• Publication, authorship, and peer review
• Grant processes and fiduciary responsibility

Both the Master of Science in Clinical Research and PhD in Clinical Research programs help students develop the ability to explain, assess, and employ research ethics. Courses include:

Professionalism and Ethical Issues in Clinical Research

This seminar will explore the complex issues raised by human subject research. The seminar will begin with a review of some of the landmark cases of unethical use of human subjects in research; the policies that shape our current understanding of the ethical conduct of research, and the mechanisms for research oversight that have been instituted. Then, through reading a broad selection of seminal articles and papers from recent literature, seminar presentations, and discussions, we engage in a conceptual analysis of a number of controversial and pressing issues.

We discuss the moral and public policy aspects of topics such as research design, risk-benefit assessment, informed consent, the use of “vulnerable” subjects, research without consent, confidentiality, inducements, conflicts of interests, disclosure of research findings, tissue use, vaccine development, and international research. In addition to exploring the moral landscape of this rich and provocative domain, the seminar clarifies and informs participants’ understanding of basic moral concepts such as autonomy and justice. It should also serve as a model for approaching other issues in applied ethics.

This seminar is required for students in the Master’s and PhD programs in Clinical Research. It is an elective for medical school and Master of Public Health students.

Theories of Bioethics (Bioethics, Policies, and Cases)

Most people who consider the ethical rules that should govern the practice of medicine assume that the ethics of medicine is no different from the rest of morality. For that reason, people who write about medical ethics draw on the classical sources of ethical insight. They discuss autonomy in Kantian terms, allocation of scarce resources in utilitarian terms, access to health care in terms of rights, and professionalism in terms of virtues. This dominant view was articulated by K. Danner Clouser in his article “Bioethics,” published in Encyclopedia of Bioethics, in which he explains that “bioethics is not a new set of principles or maneuvers, but the same old ethics being applied to a particular realm of concerns.” This strategy is most prominently expounded by Beauchamp and Childress in the six editions of Principles of Medical Ethics and further explained by Gert, Culver, and Clouser in Bioethics: A Return to Fundamentals. The authors of those volumes identify the common features of morality and show how to apply them to the practice of medicine. This course will explore the major theoretical approaches to bioethics, including common morality, virtue theory, casuistry, and constructivist bioethics. We read and discuss this literature in the context of cases from the practice of medicine. Our study will be guided by two goals: how these theories inform our thinking about medical ethics, and whether these theories are appropriate to the practice of medicine.

Both the Master of Science in Clinical Research and PhD in Clinical Research programs help students develop the ability to explain, assess, and employ research ethics. Courses include:

Professionalism and Ethical Issues in Clinical Research

This seminar will explore the complex issues raised by human subject research. The seminar will begin with a review of some of the landmark cases of unethical use of human subjects in research; the policies that shape our current understanding of the ethical conduct of research, and the mechanisms for research oversight that have been instituted. Then, through reading a broad selection of seminal articles and papers from recent literature, seminar presentations, and discussions, we engage in a conceptual analysis of a number of controversial and pressing issues.

We discuss the moral and public policy aspects of topics such as research design, risk-benefit assessment, informed consent, the use of “vulnerable” subjects, research without consent, confidentiality, inducements, conflicts of interests, disclosure of research findings, tissue use, vaccine development, and international research. In addition to exploring the moral landscape of this rich and provocative domain, the seminar clarifies and informs participants’ understanding of basic moral concepts such as autonomy and justice. It should also serve as a model for approaching other issues in applied ethics.

This seminar is required for students in the Master’s and PhD programs in Clinical Research. It is an elective for medical school and Master of Public Health students.

Theories of Bioethics (Bioethics, Policies, and Cases)

Most people who consider the ethical rules that should govern the practice of medicine assume that the ethics of medicine is no different from the rest of morality. For that reason, people who write about medical ethics draw on the classical sources of ethical insight. They discuss autonomy in Kantian terms, allocation of scarce resources in utilitarian terms, access to health care in terms of rights, and professionalism in terms of virtues. This dominant view was articulated by K. Danner Clouser in his article “Bioethics,” published in Encyclopedia of Bioethics, in which he explains that “bioethics is not a new set of principles or maneuvers, but the same old ethics being applied to a particular realm of concerns.” This strategy is most prominently expounded by Beauchamp and Childress in the six editions of Principles of Medical Ethics and further explained by Gert, Culver, and Clouser in Bioethics: A Return to Fundamentals. The authors of those volumes identify the common features of morality and show how to apply them to the practice of medicine. This course will explore the major theoretical approaches to bioethics, including common morality, virtue theory, casuistry, and constructivist bioethics. We read and discuss this literature in the context of cases from the practice of medicine. Our study will be guided by two goals: how these theories inform our thinking about medical ethics, and whether these theories are appropriate to the practice of medicine.

The Master of Science in Genetic Counseling includes an extensive curriculum in bioethics education. Courses include:

Ethical Responsibility of Genetic Counselors

This course introduces students to the concept of professional responsibility and professional codes of ethics with a focus on the genetic counselor code of ethics. The importance of confidentiality and truth telling in genetic counseling are explored, and controversial topics such as conscientious objection and testing children for adult-onset conditions are discussed.

Clinical Research Ethics in Genetics Counseling

This seminar will explore the complex issues raised by human subject research. The seminar will begin with a review of some of the history of eugenics. In that light, we shall examine the policies that shape our current understanding of the ethical conduct of research and the mechanisms for research oversight that have been instituted. Through reading a broad selection of seminal articles and papers from recent literature, we engage in a conceptual analysis of a number of controversial and pressing issues. We discuss the moral and public policy aspects of research design, risk-benefit assessment, informed consent, research with “vulnerable” subjects, research without consent, confidentiality, inducements, conflicts of interests, disclosure of research findings, and biobank research.

The Master of Public Health program offers two courses in bioethics. Courses include:

Public Health Ethics/Medical Ethics

This course examines classic and emerging issues in biomedical ethics, paying particular attention to the history of medicine and the nature of scientific thought as it relates to medical ethics. While many issues in biomedical ethics seem timeless—our concerns about the withholding of treatment, abortion, truth telling—others have arisen out of the development of increasingly scientific medicine, beginning in the 1700s. It is the availability of well confirmed effective treatments that forces us to wrestle with such questions as the propriety of medical intervention over the objection of the patient, the treatment of children over the objection of their parents, the right of all citizens to health care, the regulation of the sale of body parts for transplantation, and numerous circumstances arising out of assisted reproduction. The current revolution in biotechnology, microelectronics, and nanotechnology continuously produces new issues. The course prepares students to enter into medical institutions with the preparation necessary to be helpful to the provision of health care in ethically acceptable ways.

Social Justice, Public Health, and Medicine

Justice is a major concern in theoretical ethics and political philosophy. A huge amount of literature is devoted to trying to explain what it entails. In this course, our aim is to examine a broad spectrum of issues in medicine, medical research, and public health that raise questions about justice. In light of these critical examples, we review and critique an array of philosophical views on justice. Throughout the seminar, we engage in two activities: using clinical dilemmas and health policies as touchstones for developing a clear understanding of justice, and developing an understanding of how theories of justice apply in different public health and medical contexts. By going from practice to theory, and theory to practice, we are able to advance our understanding of theoretical literature, as well as the requirements of justice in public health, medicine, and other areas of the social world.