BIOE 400 | Bioethics Integration Seminar

This is the last, and thus capstone course required of all students who aim to attain the interdisciplinary Minor in Bioethics. Since the Integration Seminar enrolls seniors from a variety of majors, the primary goals of the course are two-fold: (1) for students to learn to process, synthesize and integrate the ethical implications of the courses they have taken toward the Bioethics Emphasis, and (2) for students to discover their post-baccalaureate "niche" in the scholarly community of Bioethics and the medical humanities. Weekly themes in medical humanities include: the history of medicine; literature, the arts, and medicine; philosophy and medicine; religion and medicine. Students will also have the opportunity to read classic primary texts in bioethics -- articles, books, and films -- from different sub-disciplines of the field, such as race and health care, medicine and technology, history of medicine, narrative medicine, end-of-life issues, and many more. In analyzing these texts, students will learn to explain why each one is regarded as a model in its field, and to process and articulate its relevance for one's own interest area within Bioethics and the medical humanities. The course builds upon students' own interest areas and acquired expertise as they undertake a capstone project that is presented to faculty members on the Bioethics Faculty Advisory Board.