Curriculum & Courses

Full-Time and Part-Time Curriculum

• 36 points (credits) for degree completion
• On-campus or online
• Fall intake only
• Three terms to complete (full-time)
• Up to six terms to complete (part-time)*
• Master's Thesis

* Three years maximum.

International students are responsible for ensuring they have read and understand the University’s student visa application eligibility and requirements. Please note that it is not permissible to enroll while in B-1/B-2 status. In addition, if studying on a student visa, you must enroll full-time (12 points/ credit per term) and study on campus.

The 36-point (credit) program is composed of five core courses, six electives chosen from the University course offerings, and a master’s thesis. Students are assigned to a primary faculty advisor, with whom they work closely to design an individualized program that best meets their needs. Students may then focus, if they choose, on one of a variety of areas, including clinical ethics, research ethics, neuroethics, reproductive ethics, environmental ethics, or other realms.

It is recommended that students take the Philosophy of Bioethics before the Clinical Ethics and Global Ethics. Additional course work includes six electives chosen from the University course offerings. Students must take three total electives in law/policy and ethics (with at least one in law/policy and one in ethics), one elective in social science methods, and are strongly encouraged to take one in genetics and, depending on their interest, one in environmental science. These electives may be taken at any time.

Students are required to complete a thesis, working closely with one of the program's core and/or affiliated faculty members, due in the student's final semester. Thesis assignments are based, as much as possible, on the student's main areas of interest within bioethics and are intended to be a serious independent work of scholarship. Topics are chosen in close consultation with the student’s core faculty advisor, or with members of the Advisory Board and faculty affiliates.

The M.S. in Bioethics demands a serious commitment of time and energy. Students are expected to devote significant time to completing reading and class assignments, and papers outside of class. Students may hold a full-time job simultaneously, but should bear in mind the significant demands of the program.

Full-time students may complete this program in three terms or one academic year. Part-time students may complete the program in six terms or a maximum of three years.

Of the five core courses, two or three are offered each fall and two or three are offered each spring, and each core course is offered at least once each academic year. The core courses are not offered during the summer, but students may take electives during that time. During the academic year, core courses meet once per week in person or online. Most courses are offered in the evening, between 4:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET. Elective courses vary depending on the semester.

Students should expect to spend an average of eight hours per week on readings, or attendance at outside meetings (e.g. hospital ethics committee meetings) for each core class. The number of hours that the master’s thesis will require varies widely, depending on the student, and the specific project. Some projects may entail the collection of data, while others may rely on scholarly sources, and the time estimates of each of these may vary depending in part on the difficulty of locating appropriate sources.

In order to receive the master's degree in Bioethics, students must complete all requirements for the degree with an overall grade point average of 3.0 (B) or better.

Review a list of available core, elective and thesis courses as well as a suggested course sequence. See the Course List & Schedule.

Explore the program's five areas of concentration and their corresponding courses. See Concentrations.

The thesis provides an important opportunity for students to expand their understanding of the complexities of the issues involved in a specific topic within bioethics. It represents an original work of scholarship and may take several different forms. Students are encouraged to choose a topic that draws on their specific interests, past experiences, and/or future professional or academic goals. 

Please find below some selected sample thesis topics that Bioethics students have explored through their thesis paper. In addition, visit the Capstones and Culminating Projects page to watch recordings of selected student thesis presentations.

Birth/Reproduction

• A Systematic Review of Cross-Border Reproductive Tissue Donor Treatments: Current Bioethical Relevancies and Future Applications
• Racial Disparities in Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
• The moral status of the fetus Post-Dobbs: Bioethical frameworks for fetal personhood and American abortion regulation

Organ Transplantation

• How to Meet Organ Demand for Transplantation? An Argumentative Analysis of the Ethical Parameters Constraining the Social and Legal Acceptance of For-Profit Organ Trade
• Life From Death: The Ethics of Directed Organ Donation Following Medical Assistance in Dying

Death and Dying

• Medically Dead but Legally Alive: A Call to Reexamine and Revise the Laws and Practice Guidelines Regarding Brain Death
• Compassion at the End of Life, Unless You are a Human: The Non-Acceptance of Medical Aid in Dying for Humans

Neuroethics

• Four Viewpoints of Alzheimer’s Care
• Peace of Mind: The Case for Establishing a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Neural Data

Genetics & Other Biotechnologies

• Genetic Databases: Ethical Challenges and Proposed Solutions
• The Ethics of Innovation in Biotechnology: How Lessons from the Past Pave the Ethical Way Forward
• Building Patient Protection into Medical Implant Development and Dissemination

Mental Health/Substance Abuse

• The Pain of Cancer and Opioid Addiction: The Effect of Cancer Exceptionalism on Adolescent Cancer Patients and Opioid Addiction Risk
• Virtual Reality as a Medical Therapy for Mental Health

Racism/Marginalized Groups

• Mobilizing Civil Rights Law and Organizational Ethics to Address Structural Racism in Health Care
• Recognizing and Standardizing Equality: Using a Hybrid Clinical-Legal Accreditation Model to Help LGBTQ Patients in America
• Seeing the Past in the Future: The Outdated Presence of Racial Bias in Clinical Technology and Algorithms

Health Insurance

• A Decade of the Sunshine Act - Has the investment led to less industry influence or improved patient knowledge?
• Healthcare Reimbursement and its Ethical Implications
• The Right(-eous) Price of Medicine

Broader Social Issues

• The Illusory of HIPAA: Electronic Health Records and the Potential Application of Blockchain Technology
• Deinstitutionalization: An Ethical Review
• Finding Solace in the Air We Breathe: A comprehensive assessment on why investments in housing, neighborhood & built environment, in the context of air pollution and childhood asthma in the US, will improve the collective health of society, even more than broad investments in the healthcare system itself
• Applied Behavioral Analysis: Ethics and Efficacy, April 2023.