Ethical Issues of Decision-Making Processes in Biomedicine

The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to the ethical issues related to biomedical decision-making.
The first part of the course will be eminently theoretical and will show what is meant by decision-making and ethical decision-making. We will the proceed with an overview of typical cases of ethical decision-making and decision-making in biomedicine. These cases will concern in particular three areas of contemporary bioethics, namely clinical ethics, research ethics and public ethics. In the first part of the course, several types of mental experiments recurring within the bioethical debate on decision-making will be also presented.
This will lay the groundwork for the second part of the course where this knowledge will be put under test.

Participation to this course will enable students to acquire both substantive knowledge in bioethics and methodological and procedural knowledge with respect to moral reasoning in the three main areas of clinical ethics, research ethics and public ethics.
In particular, regarding the former, students will acquire some basic knowledge about the origin, scope, epistemological status, and directions towards which bioethics is intended as a discipline; the distinction between moral dilemmas and moral disagreements; knowledge of the fundamental moral theories (teleological, deontological and mixed approaches); definition, scope, and main issues addressed by clinical ethics, research ethics and public ethics.
As for the latter, students will learn to exercise critical thinking and reasoning on bioethical issues; they will learn to provide justifications for their positions; they will learn to argue correctly, and to distinguish between consistent and unconsistent moral reasoning.