Courses

At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai we believe in preparing you to negotiate the potentially muddy ethical waters of medical practice. Our elective courses enable you to consider, more specifically, the topics most relevant to your individual goals and plans.

Elective Courses

Medical Ethics

Course Directors: Bernard H. Baumrin, PhD, JD, and Daniel A. Moros, MD
This is a full semester seminar in medical ethics offered at Icahn School of Medicine every spring and sponsored jointly with the PhD Program in Philosophy, The Graduate Center, CUNY. 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.

Bioethics, Policies and Cases

Course Directors: Rosamond Rhodes, PhD and Ian Holzman, MD
A full semester seminar on some issue in medical ethics and health policy is offered at Icahn School of Medicine every spring. It is sponsored jointly with the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) Program at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Research Ethics

Course Directors: Karin Meyers, MA and Rosamond Rhodes, PhD
This semester-long seminar addresses the key issues related the use of human subjects in biomedical research. It involves seminar discussion, extensive reading, and a research paper. Topics include: the evolution of clinical trial oversight, informed consent, assent, assessment of risks and benefits, research design, research with minors and other vulnerable subjects, inducements for research subjects, conflict of interest, payments for researchers, confidentiality, privacy, scientific fraud, authorship, attribution and whistle blowing.

The seminar addresses historical examples as well as contemporary dilemmas such as surgical trials, gene therapy trials, and international research. It also explains the IRB & GCRC review processes. This seminar is required for students in the Masters and PhD Degree programs in Clinical Research. It is an elective for medical and Public Health students.

Ethical Issues in Medicine

Course Director: Rosamond Rhodes, PhD
This elective is open to students enrolled in any Icahn School of Medicine program. It allows students to pursue independent research. It offers an opportunity for students to explore the literature and to write on issues of particular interest.

Undergraduate Program Activities

Our commitment to ethics education goes beyond classroom coursework. We offer a study abroad option as well as a student organization focused on medical ethics.

Oxford King's College London - Medical Ethics Student Exchange Program

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) has developed a student exchange program with the Ethox Centre of Oxford University and the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics of King's College London (KCL), our British partners in the Oxford-Mount Sinai Consortium on Bioethics. For each year over the past fourteen years, two ISMMS students have received a fellowship to spend a month during their fourth year in an elective clerkship at either Oxford or KCL. The aim of the exchange is to allow participants the opportunity to encounter a health care delivery system and experience an approach to medical ethics significantly different from our own. Such an experience offers fellows a chance to consider critically medical ethics and the British system of health care delivery and to develop a more informed opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of the two as well as a better idea of what a physician and medical practice should be.

Participating students provide for their own food, lodging, and transportation. The Department of Medical Education will grant a stipend of $1,200 for each participant to help offset these expenses. In Oxford, the University will help to arrange for housing at a reasonable cost.

We invite third-year students to apply for a fellowship in the Oxford - King's College London - Student Exchange Program. Please call 212-241-3757 for more information.

Medical Ethics Student Organization (MESO)

This student group fosters dynamic conversation concerning ethical issues in medicine. It encourages students to extend their discussion of ethical issues beyond the parameters of the classroom. The group co-sponsors the monthly Center-Wide Ethics Luncheons. MESO also organizes and hosts evening guest speakers and an annual Ethics Night dinner meeting.