Objectives of the course: The course is designed to show how bioethics as a branch of applied ethics may solve ethical and moral problems, arising from medical practice and biomedical research. An additional aim is to enable decision makers in health related contexts and in contexts involving biological sciences (medical doctors, researchers, policy makers) to make appropriate decisions, ethicaly, socialy and legaly.

Contents of the course: To achieve the described objectives, the teaching of bioethics as a rapidly evolving field, requires skills in the biological and medical sciences as well as in the discipline of ethics.

The skills involve the capacity of:

1. identifying and defining ethical and moral issues in a biomedical context,
2. developing strategies for analysing ethical and moral problems in health care, medical practice and research,
3. relating ethical principles to specific cases and issues,
4. helping scientists, physicians and policy makers to make the «right» decisions. (By far the most difficult task)

Furthermore, during the course students have the opportunity to discuss with their teachers the following topics: the ethical theories, the discipline of bioethics as a field of ethics, the concept of health and disease, the patients rights and the professional responsibilities, the informed consent, the confidentiality, the euthanasia, the allocation of scarse medical resourses, the issues of experimentation with specific subjects groups, the genetic intervention and reproductive technologies, the behavioral technologies e.t.c

Mode and outcomes of teaching: Learning occurs through lectures by professionals and by assigning relevant projects to the students which are discussed in the classroom. By the end of the course, the students should be able to relate the moral dilemmas that science evoke with the relevant ethical and social principles and present a solution to those dilemmas based on Ethics.

Hours of training per student: 26

Semester: 1st

ECTS: 2