The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services (1 credit)
Explore the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” which serves as a guide and reference point for all Catholic bioethical thought, ranging from end-of-life issues to partnerships with non-Catholic institutions.
Catholic Bioethics, the Dignity of the Person, and the Gift of Human Life (5 credits)
Investigate the major areas of modern bioethics and consider the key ethical concerns surrounding these issues. These investigations will include areas where ethical ambiguity may still exist from the vantage point of Catholic teaching such as embryo adoption and Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer. Students will learn to articulate a reasoned position and coherent approach to dealing with such questions in the practical sphere.
Bioethics: Faith and Reason (4 credits)
Dive into the philosophical and theological underpinnings of bioethics and apply them to the topics of moral courage and moral relativism. Other prominent ethical theories – such as situational ethics, consequentialism, and Kantian Fundamentalism – will be addressed in relation to Natural Law.
Law and Bioethics (3 credits)
Examine bioethical principles and topics in light of their relationship to modern legal realities, discussing relevant legal issues and how they relate to the ways courts, policy makers, and scholars approach them in both federal and state governments.
Medicine and Bioethics (3 credits)
Explore the philosophical, theological, and physiological concepts of bioethics as the relate to clinical decision-making in medicine, considering how microcosmic and macrocosmic ethical issues affect every-day practice in the realm of medicine.
Health Policy and Bioethics (3 credits)
Survey health policy and its development with an emphasis on social justice and human rights in order to establish a moral and ethical basis for existing and potential policies. Concepts such as political and ethical principles, distributive justice, and competing goals will be analyzed in terms of how they contribute to and compete with each other in policy development.
Bioethics Practicum and Capstone Project (4 credits)
Participate in the experience of ethical clinical decision making by developing and disseminating an original scholarly paper, utilizing both compassion and moral courage. This practicum is an integration and synthesis of content from all previous courses in the program and requires the application of scholar methods and composition.
For a list of courses for the Bioethics, M.S., please visit the catalog.