LAW 481 - Bioethics/Medical Ethics & Law

This course will explore the manner in which the law affects ethical issues of national and individual health care as they impact the most acute questions of health care policy in the twenty-first century. Materials presented will cover emerging as well as developing issues relating to classic and contemporary constructs of ethical appraisal and analysis and their application to topics such as: legal and ethical issues of technical advancements in human reproduction, medical research involving human subjects, and organ harvesting and transplantation; definitions of death; accomodation of humanity in the dying process; and ethical considerations involving the administration and cost of health care to the totality of society. The course will be presented through traditional case and statutory material, integrated with analysis of prevailing and proposed medical, economic and ethical applications. Where appropriate, client oriented problems will be utilized to introduce legal practice reality into abstract issues of medical, legal and ethical principles.