Concentrations

While this course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of clinical ethics and the basic terminology and framework of ethical analysis in biomedical ethics, it offers a more sociological perspective, putting the contemporary clinical issues into a broader context. We will look briefly at the development of clinical ethics and its impact on hospital care and doctor-patient relationships, on the prevailing autonomy norm and its critique. The course then focuses on issues encountered in clinical practice such as informed consent, patient capacity, decision-making, end of life, advance directives, medical futility, pediatrics ethics, maternal-fetal conflicts, organ transplantation, cultural competence and diversity of beliefs and others. The course will examine the role of the clinical ethics consultant (CEC) and assignments will mimic the work that CECs may perform in the hospital setting.

Over the span of the semester, students become familiar with the ethical questions surrounding major topics in the clinic with a practical case-based approach toward ethics dilemmas and ethics consultation. During the semester, students in New York attend a meeting of the adult or pediatric ethics committees of New York Presbyterian and Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital or another area hospital, as well as ethics lectures given at the medical center.

Students are expected to complete five case write-ups using a template that will be given by the instructor. Students will be using these cases to refine and hone their ethical analysis skills and to show their knowledge of law, policy and ethical principles and how they might apply to each situation

This course is designed for those students who have successfully completed the Clinical Ethics course. This course is intended as a primer to Clinical Ethics Consultation. It is geared toward students who already have clinical experience in the healthcare or legal setting and students planning postgraduate study in a clinical or health policy discipline. Clinical Ethics Consultation (CEC) concerns itself with addressing value-laden questions and ethical dilemmas that arise in patient care, in the hospital in particular. The CEC course provides a case-based, insider’s view of CEC practice, introducing the core knowledge and skills required to perform CEC on an advanced level. The semester will include a mix of lecture/discussion, mock consultation with role-play based skills practice, and case-based exercises around formulating and documenting CECs. Course materials, presentations and exercises will address a range of topics and skills needed to effectively apply bioethics knowledge and clinical consultation skills to common value-based dilemmas that arise in the clinical setting. Examples include but are not limited to: moral dilemmas in advanced illness, end of life care, medical decision-making for the unrepresented patient, conundrums in caring for the incapacitated patient, refusal of treatment, dilemmas in discharge planning, surrogate decision-making, conflicts among parties to a case, value-laden decisions in pediatrics, and more. Additionally, process skills such as mediation, conducting a high-stakes family meeting, and consultation etiquette will be addressed. We will frame the course in the emerging context of the field of Clinical Ethics Consultation, as the practice has proliferated but the credentialing process is just now in development.

This course is for students with an interest in developing the skills to see and hear how the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects combine and impact bioethics interactions; to explore the ways in which elements of pastoral care can be integrated into the field of bioethics in order to inform decision-making concerning issues of illness and end-of-life. Through reading discussion and practical application this course will investigate how spiritual and existential perspectives can impact the process of health care decisions and how they can inform and animate the bioethical understandings and practices in consultation and other endeavors.

The syllabus is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the practice of pastoral care, the responsibilities of pastoral caregivers, and definitions of spirituality; and an introduction to the influences of spirituality in decision-making around end of life, goals of care, pain, organ donation, family conflict, sharing and withholding of health related information, conflict among the medical team; and provider compassion fatigue.

In this course, students will examine ethical, social, legal, and philosophical issues related to developments in the neurosciences, sometimes referred to as neuroethics. This field includes both the ethics of neuroscience (e.g, applied topics, such as the responsible conduct of neuroscience research or the acceptable limits of using new technologies) and the neuroscience of ethics (the use of neuroscience to inform theoretical questions, e.g., regarding moral reasoning or justifications for punishment).

Sessions will be organized under three main themes: “In the Clinic,” “In the Courtroom,” and “In Society.” “In the Clinic” will discuss medical applications of neuroscience, such as new varieties of pharmacologic enhancement, the use of brain imaging to diagnose mental illness, and the development of neuromodulatory therapies that directly alter brain function. “In the Courts” will address the legal implications of neuroscience, from concrete applications such as the admissibility of brain imaging in court proceedings to abstract questions regarding criminal responsibility and theories of punishment. “In Society” will review broader applications of neuroscience, including commercial ventures (such as “neuromarketing”), military uses, and the place of neuroscience in society.

This course meets once a week for a lecture and discussion. Course activities include in-class exercises, formal writing assignments, briefer written exchanges, and a final written project.

This course will explore how medical decisions at the end of life regarding both curative and palliative care are influenced by medical, legal and philosophical principles and social norms. We will explore how the development of clinical practice standards for patients with advanced disease have evolved in response to advances in treatment and societal assertion of consumerist rights of self determination. This work will assist students in the Bioethics Masters Program to develop the consultation skills needed to interact effectively with patients, even under difficult circumstances. We will build on the knowledge base established in the Introduction to Clinical Ethics course (BIETPS5400) to develop the specific insights and skills needed by clinicians and other professionals to support patients and caregivers who confront dilemmas in end of life care management. Students will develop the analytic and communication techniques needed to advise treating clinicians who seek guidance on management of end of life care for patients, and communicating prognosis and treatment options to their patients’ families. The skills developed in this course will be useful to students who will confront ethical dilemmas in their roles as treating clinicians, health care administrators, ethics committee members, compliance officers, and patient advocates. This course will also provide a valuable foundation for students who intend to pursue more advanced training in clinical ethics consultation, in order to prepare for a career as an institutionally based Ethics Consultant.

The goal of the Clinical Ethics Practicum is to give selected students experience leading or co-leading clinical ethics consults and writing or co-writing chart notes. During the Practicum, students will shadow, work closely with, and be supervised by, a clinical ethicist at various local hospitals.

The Practicum is a very special opportunity to gain the necessary experience to apply for Quality Attestation for Clinical Ethics Consultants; each student should lead/co-lead and author/co-author a total of six (6) consults, the number required for application.

Because the need for clinical ethics consults arises based on when a patient requests a consult, the timing of these consults cannot be predicted. Students should be prepared to make themselves available most of the time, on most of the days, of their involvement with the Practicum. We expect that students should be able to complete their six consults in one to two months.

Application

Interested students should email Patricia Contino with a brief two-paragraph summary of their interest in the Practicum, and a summary of their prior relevant clinical experience or previous work with clients. Because there are limited spaces available for the Clinical Ethics Practicum, we will give priority to students who have already taken Introduction to Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation in the program.

Preference will be given to those students with relevant prior experience. Participants will also need to register as an Administrative Visitor (or the equivalent) at the medical center where they are assigned, which will require them to undergo a physical exam/medical clearance.

TBD

In contemporary bioethics, we find ourselves grappling with practically important, and at the same time, philosophically fundamental questions such as: When does someone’s life begin and how should it end? What is the proper role of physicians, nurses and other health care providers and what are the rights of their patients? What is a just and fair way to provide access to health-care services and resources? Which potential uses of new genetic and reproductive technologies would represent a legitimate advance in medicine and which would signify the beginning of a humanly degrading "brave new world"? Indeed, in a society committed to protecting a diversity of lifestyles and opinions, how can citizens resolve significant policy controversies such as whether there should be public funding of human embryonic stem cell research, or a legally protected right to physician assistance in ending one’s life?

The aims of this course are to identify the fundamental ethical questions that underlie contemporary biomedical practice; develop skill in analyzing and clarifying key concepts such as autonomy, justice, health and disease; critically assess the healthcare implications of different ethical outlooks; explore how citizens can reasonably address controversial bioethical issues in a mutually respectful and constructive way.

The course meets once a week online for an hour and a half. Live-session interaction and post-session discussion forums play a key role as students explore, in a give-and-take spirit, the pros and cons of each position.

This course is designed for medical students, nursing students, and other healthcare professionals, as well as for students at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level in biology, philosophy, political science, public health, law, and related fields.

In recent years, many crucial issues have arisen concerning research ethics. Scientists in biomedicine, social science and other areas, as well as policy makers face rapidly evolving challenges. In recent years, violations of research ethics have attracted attention from the public, the media, the government, and the scientific community, which have all responded in varying ways. Issues arise in deciding how best to protect human subjects, obtain informed consent, protect privacy and confidentiality, finance research without biasing results, and avoid “misbehavior” among scientists. Questions arise concerning the professional responsibilities and rights of scientists, the rights of study participants, and the appropriate role of the state in these matters.

The course meets online once a week for an hour and a half, with extensive interaction between students and the professor both during class and on post-class discussion forums. It can fulfill the requirements for Responsible Conduct of Research that the NIH and other funders currently mandate for training programs that they support.

This course will examine critical ethical issues posed by developments in assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as /in vitro /fertilization (IVF); buying and selling human eggs and sperms; hiring "gestational surrogates" (i.e., "renting wombs"). These practices have helped millions of people to have children, but also raise serious moral concerns: e.g., about the scope of procreative autonomy, the status of the human embryo, the limits of legitimate state authority.

This course will explore the extent to which citizens with different points of view can nevertheless address these challenging issues in a mutually respectful way and thereby arrive at clearer and deeper understandings of what is at issue.Wherever possible, we will also strive to uncover significant (but sometimes not immediately apparent) common ground, in the hope of thereby reducing the areas of disagreement.

This course discusses important issues at the nexus of bioethics and the environment, including climate change, ozone shield depletion, soil erosion, ocean pollution, diminishing biodiversity-all among the environmental factors with adverse consequences for the health of both human and non-human beings. Even the technologies employed in health-care have environmental impact harmful to health.

Among the challenges to be addressed: How can healthcare be made “green”?  What do present generations “owe” to future generations? What is environmental justice in the relations between developed and developing societies? How should humans relate to the other inhabitants of this planet?

In this course, students will examine ethical, social, legal, and philosophical issues related to developments in the neurosciences, sometimes referred to as neuroethics. This field includes both the ethics of neuroscience (e.g, applied topics, such as the responsible conduct of neuroscience research or the acceptable limits of using new technologies) and the neuroscience of ethics (the use of neuroscience to inform theoretical questions, e.g., regarding moral reasoning or justifications for punishment).

Sessions will be organized under three main themes: “In the Clinic,” “In the Courtroom,” and “In Society.” “In the Clinic” will discuss medical applications of neuroscience, such as new varieties of pharmacologic enhancement, the use of brain imaging to diagnose mental illness, and the development of neuromodulatory therapies that directly alter brain function. “In the Courts” will address the legal implications of neuroscience, from concrete applications such as the admissibility of brain imaging in court proceedings to abstract questions regarding criminal responsibility and theories of punishment. “In Society” will review broader applications of neuroscience, including commercial ventures (such as “neuromarketing”), military uses, and the place of neuroscience in society.

This course meets once a week for a lecture and discussion. Course activities include in-class exercises, formal writing assignments, briefer written exchanges, and a final written project.

This course will provide an introduction to the theory and practice of empirical research in the social and behavioral sciences. The focus will be on learning to frame questions in bioethics that can be answered using empirical research methods and on building familiarity with the array of logics of inquiry, research designs, and data collection and analysis techniques that can be applied to answer these questions. The course will emphasize the practical importance of maintaining epistemological consistency across research question and purpose, logic of inquiry, research design, and data collection and analysis techniques.

IRB Internship

The IRB internship program allows students to gain hands-on and administrative experience in an Institutional Review Board setting. The internship is a wonderful foundational opportunity toward pursuing work in the field of human subjects’ protections, and gaining valuable work experience and making important connections. 

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at academic research centers, hospitals, and universities across the U.S. remain at the heart of a federal oversight system created nearly forty years ago to safeguard the rights and well-being of research participants. Within this system of “research protections,” institution-based ethics review boards (i.e., IRBs) provide ongoing review and approval of research involving human subjects. The IRB promotes an institution’s application of the core ethical principles related to research and supports compliance with federal, state, and local research regulations. The IRB internship is designed for those students who are interested in the possibility of obtaining a job as an IRB administrator, rather than in seeking further education (e.g., going to law school or medical school) when they complete their master’s in Bioethics degree. 26 

We established this program to provide students with experience as IRB interns that will help them in seeking such jobs. 

Potential topics covered during an IRB internship are IRB metrics (what types of metrics can be used to demonstrate whether IRBs are achieving or falling short of their mission); assessments of possible harm(s); ethical challenges encountered in specific applications including drug abuse research and randomized controlled psychopharmacology studies involving minors; the limits of confidentiality with respect to internet-based research; and crafting of informed-consent documents. 

Students selected for the IRB internship will be assigned to a mentor at one of various affiliated medical centers. Students will be required to complete a ‘scholarly project’ during their internship, the parameters of which will be determined collaboratively in conjunction with the Program Director, IRB mentor, and student. 

Prerequisites: Philosophy of Bioethics and Research Ethics (recommended courses for the internship; can be taken concurrently). Once selected, students should register for a 3-credit Independent Study on SSOL for the semester in which they will complete the internship. 

The instructor may waive the prerequisite requirements on a case-by-case basis. In order to obtain instructor permission, please submit a two-paragraph description of your prior research ethics work to the Program Director. 

Application: Interested students should email Robert Klitzman (rlk2@cumc.columbia.edu) and Sameer H. Ladha (shl2159@columbia.edu) with a two-paragraph summary of prior relevant course and work experience, and interest in the Internship. As limited spaces are available in the Internship program, the program leadership and IRB mentors will make final decisions about acceptance to the program. 

Voices in Bioethics Internship

Students interested in completing an internship with the Voices in Bioethics online journal should contact Dr. Robert Klitzman at rlk2@cumc.columbia.edu or Sameer Ladha at shl2159@columbia.edu.

Other Internships

Related internships can be arranged. Interested students should contact Dr. Robert Klitzman at rlk2@cumc.columbia.edu or Sameer Ladha at shl2159@columbia.edu.

Drawing upon the rich array of preeminent scientists, physicians, and scholars working at Columbia University, this course takes an inter-faculty approach to explore the scientific underpinnings of some of the major challenges in bioethics. Should we regulate advances that allow for manipulation of genetic outcomes? How do we balance respect for persons, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, in light of a changing scientific and medical landscape? Students will be better equipped to understand the scientific foundations underlying some of the most prominent issues in bioethics; become acquainted with research and scholarship in the field; be poised to consider and analyze enduring bioethical issues in a new light; and become familiar with a set of new ethical challenges emanating from some of the science and clinical research explored during the course.

News outlets have always been key portals for the dissemination of bioethics news and thought. This course will acquaint students with the various ways in which traditional and novel publications shape national ethical opinion and discourse. Students will also learn the internal approaches to the ethics of medical coverage. The course will also examine the feedback systems that allow journalism to affect the practice of bioethics, medicine and public health policy. Students will learn how to analyze coverage and how to understand the manner which news culture helps shape medical and ethical articles. The course emphasizes the myriad ways in which ethical experts can improve the coverage of health and medicine and how to navigate influential organizations in order to do so.

The development of a new drug is a long and expensive process, involving thousands of discrete processes and decisions. Most of these processes reflect some level of ethical diligence and may even be governed by local law. There is a range of formal mechanisms in place in the complex drug development industry (e.g., regulatory requirements, Institutional Review Boards, internal bioethics committees, and legislative requirements) to ensure that ethical issues are considered and that best ethical practices are applied throughout the process. And yet, ethical challenges and considerations persist and evolve.

This online 13 week, 3-credit course will examine some of the major components and drivers of the drug development process from an array of perspectives and analyze the ethical issues surrounding these constituent steps, stages, and components. This course is an elective in the Master of Science Bioethics program and is open, space permitting, to cross-registrants from other fields and/or Columbia University programs. The course is designed for anyone with an interest in the ethics of pharmaceutical product development and the research required to enable it. Registrants should have a foundational understanding of clinical research and development to be successful in the program. This course aligns with programmatic goals in that it gives students an opportunity to develop expertise in a specific area of bioethics through an analysis of the pharmaceutical industry while also demonstrating critical thinking skills and the application of ethical frameworks.

Increasingly, issues of medical research and clinical care are posing complex ethical issues not only in the United States, but in other countries in both the industrialized and the developing world. Yet varying economic, political, social, cultural, and historical contexts shape these issues. In diverse contexts in Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America, practices and policies, along with cultures and moral values, differ enormously. Yet ethical issues are arising not in isolation, but as part of global communities and discourses. In research, multinational pharmaceutical companies are increasingly conducting studies in both industrialized countries and the developing world, posing numerous ethical tensions. In clinical care, uses of reproductive technologies differ across national borders, leading to “reproductive tourism”. End of life care varies widely, reflecting in part differing attitudes toward death and dying. This course examines the political, economic, social, cultural, philosophical, medical, and historical roots and implications of these issues.

The course meets once a week online for an hour and a half, and offers extensive live-session interaction and post-session discussion forums to explore the various bioethical issues contemplated throughout the semester.

News outlets have always been key portals for the dissemination of bioethics news and thought. This course will acquaint students with the various ways in which traditional and novel publications shape national ethical opinion and discourse. Students will also learn the internal approaches to the ethics of medical coverage. The course will also examine the feedback systems that allow journalism to affect the practice of bioethics, medicine and public health policy. Students will learn how to analyze coverage and how to understand the manner which news culture helps shape medical and ethical articles. The course emphasizes the myriad ways in which ethical experts can improve the coverage of health and medicine and how to navigate influential organizations in order to do so.

This course discusses important issues at the nexus of bioethics and the environment, including climate change, ozone shield depletion, soil erosion, ocean pollution, diminishing biodiversity-all among the environmental factors with adverse consequences for the health of both human and non-human beings. Even the technologies employed in health-care have environmental impact harmful to health.

Among the challenges to be addressed: How can healthcare be made “green”?  What do present generations “owe” to future generations? What is environmental justice in the relations between developed and developing societies? How should humans relate to the other inhabitants of this planet?

This course is intended to introduce clinicians and academic bioethicists to critical issues at the intersections of religion and bioethics. It will serve to supplement other, related course offerings in bioethics by providing a dedicated treatment of the various bioethical and religious principles developed within select world religions. We will examine how religious frameworks inform notable bioethical cases - both past and present. We will also discuss specific medical interventions, such as those occurring at the beginning of life, during periods of critical illness and suffering, and those occurring at end of life. Additionally, the course will offer both a historical survey of the roles religion has played in the development of bioethics generally, as well as a treatment of how religion is shaping bioethics today and will likely do so in the future. Its goals, though, are practical: aiding clinicians and bioethicists in their attempt to further clarify and discuss medical issues and their relationship to religious values with patients, policy-makers, and colleagues. This elective course will function similarly to a “seminar” class, in which various guest speakers who are experts in the field of religious studies or bioethics will provide their expertise and insights in select modules. In addition to these presentations, there will be class sessions dedicated to class discussion and debate.

In contemporary bioethics, we find ourselves grappling with practically important, and at the same time, philosophically fundamental questions such as: When does someone’s life begin and how should it end? What is the proper role of physicians, nurses and other health care providers and what are the rights of their patients? What is a just and fair way to provide access to health-care services and resources? Which potential uses of new genetic and reproductive technologies would represent a legitimate advance in medicine and which would signify the beginning of a humanly degrading "brave new world"? Indeed, in a society committed to protecting a diversity of lifestyles and opinions, how can citizens resolve significant policy controversies such as whether there should be public funding of human embryonic stem cell research, or a legally protected right to physician assistance in ending one’s life?

The aims of this course are to identify the fundamental ethical questions that underlie contemporary biomedical practice; develop skill in analyzing and clarifying key concepts such as autonomy, justice, health and disease; critically assess the healthcare implications of different ethical outlooks; explore how citizens can reasonably address controversial bioethical issues in a mutually respectful and constructive way.

The course meets once a week online for an hour and a half. Live-session interaction and post-session discussion forums play a key role as students explore, in a give-and-take spirit, the pros and cons of each position.

This course is designed for medical students, nursing students, and other healthcare professionals, as well as for students at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level in biology, philosophy, political science, public health, law, and related fields.

This course introduces students to selected legal and policy texts that have addressed issues in bioethics and shaped their development. Students will explore and contrast legal reasoning and bioethical analysis, often of the same issues. By the end of the course, students will understand the legal or regulatory status of selected issues and have begun to independently navigate major legal, regulatory, and policy texts. Individual sessions will be focused around particular issues or questions that have been addressed by (usually) American courts and/or in legislation, regulation or policy, and that have been the subject of scholarship and debate within bioethics.

The course begins with a theoretical look at the relationship between law and ethics, and includes a brief introduction to legal decision-making and policy development. We then survey a range of bioethics issues that have been addressed by the courts and/or in legislation, regulation, or significant policy documents, contrasting and comparing legal argument and reasoning with arguments utilized in the bioethics literature.

This course will examine critical ethical issues posed by developments in assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as /in vitro /fertilization (IVF); buying and selling human eggs and sperms; hiring "gestational surrogates" (i.e., "renting wombs"). These practices have helped millions of people to have children, but also raise serious moral concerns: e.g., about the scope of procreative autonomy, the status of the human embryo, the limits of legitimate state authority.

This course will explore the extent to which citizens with different points of view can nevertheless address these challenging issues in a mutually respectful way and thereby arrive at clearer and deeper understandings of what is at issue.Wherever possible, we will also strive to uncover significant (but sometimes not immediately apparent) common ground, in the hope of thereby reducing the areas of disagreement.

Clinical medicine and research are undergoing rapid changes, due to technological, digital, and genetic advances that allow for unprecedented amounts of data collection and individual monitoring. Likewise, capabilities to store, transfer, and query private health information have also increased. Technologies also allow different mediums for patients to interact with providers and health data, including patient portals, direct texting, health-related apps, and video conferencing. These powerful technologies will certainly result in health benefits on individual and public health/societal levels, but they also raise ethical concerns.

For students in the Master’s of Bioethics program, it is important to keep up with these changes, and identify and analyze the ethical issues raised by new e-health, digital health, and telemedicine technologies. In this course, students will engage with speakers, assigned readings, and writing assignments to formulate recommendations on how our society can productively harness the power of these tools while simultaneously upholding the principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Specifically, students will evaluate concerns about quality and delivery of care, privacy/confidentiality, control and use of data, and access, and propose best practices for the use of e-health technologies from patient/consumer, clinical care, research, and public health perspectives.

This elective course complements the Core Courses in the M.S. in Bioethics Program by exploring how bioethical issues arise as a result of rapidly changing technological capabilities in e-health, m-health and telemedicine.

This three-credit course will meet for twelve online sessions, 1.5 hours each time, for lecture and discussion, each aiming for in-depth analysis, debate, and discussion of topics at the intersection of e-health and ethics. The class format is a combination of lecture and seminar. Students should come to each session prepared to engage with each other and with the instructor and to offer their questions, comments, insights, and analyses.

This course introduces students to how healthcare policy is created and implemented in the United States and abroad, while also raising critical ethical issues surrounding healthcare policy for the US, and other industrialized as well as poorer nations. Through lectures, discussions, and readings from the current literature, we will explore the political processes and concerns which produce our current policy; examine the major issues being debated surrounding the creation and delivery of healthcare, including ethical issues; explore the process by which we induce biomedical progress and development; explore barriers to sound healthcare production and delivery in various countries, and examine the recent reforms wrought through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). In addition, we will spend a few units looking, in detail, at the unusual challenges posed in delivering healthcare to the poor and the elderly.

News outlets have always been key portals for the dissemination of bioethics news and thought. This course will acquaint students with the various ways in which traditional and novel publications shape national ethical opinion and discourse. Students will also learn the internal approaches to the ethics of medical coverage. The course will also examine the feedback systems that allow journalism to affect the practice of bioethics, medicine and public health policy. Students will learn how to analyze coverage and how to understand the manner which news culture helps shape medical and ethical articles. The course emphasizes the myriad ways in which ethical experts can improve the coverage of health and medicine and how to navigate influential organizations in order to do so.

In contemporary bioethics, we find ourselves grappling with practically important, and at the same time, philosophically fundamental questions such as: When does someone’s life begin and how should it end? What is the proper role of physicians, nurses and other health care providers and what are the rights of their patients? What is a just and fair way to provide access to health-care services and resources? Which potential uses of new genetic and reproductive technologies would represent a legitimate advance in medicine and which would signify the beginning of a humanly degrading "brave new world"? Indeed, in a society committed to protecting a diversity of lifestyles and opinions, how can citizens resolve significant policy controversies such as whether there should be public funding of human embryonic stem cell research, or a legally protected right to physician assistance in ending one’s life?

The aims of this course are to identify the fundamental ethical questions that underlie contemporary biomedical practice; develop skill in analyzing and clarifying key concepts such as autonomy, justice, health and disease; critically assess the healthcare implications of different ethical outlooks; explore how citizens can reasonably address controversial bioethical issues in a mutually respectful and constructive way.

The course meets once a week online for an hour and a half. Live-session interaction and post-session discussion forums play a key role as students explore, in a give-and-take spirit, the pros and cons of each position.

This course is designed for medical students, nursing students, and other healthcare professionals, as well as for students at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level in biology, philosophy, political science, public health, law, and related fields.

TBD

The development of a new drug is a long and expensive process, involving thousands of discrete processes and decisions. Most of these processes reflect some level of ethical diligence and may even be governed by local law. There is a range of formal mechanisms in place in the complex drug development industry (e.g., regulatory requirements, Institutional Review Boards, internal bioethics committees, and legislative requirements) to ensure that ethical issues are considered and that best ethical practices are applied throughout the process. And yet, ethical challenges and considerations persist and evolve.

This online 13 week, 3-credit course will examine some of the major components and drivers of the drug development process from an array of perspectives and analyze the ethical issues surrounding these constituent steps, stages, and components. This course is an elective in the Master of Science Bioethics program and is open, space permitting, to cross-registrants from other fields and/or Columbia University programs. The course is designed for anyone with an interest in the ethics of pharmaceutical product development and the research required to enable it. Registrants should have a foundational understanding of clinical research and development to be successful in the program. This course aligns with programmatic goals in that it gives students an opportunity to develop expertise in a specific area of bioethics through an analysis of the pharmaceutical industry while also demonstrating critical thinking skills and the application of ethical frameworks.

This course will examine critical ethical issues posed by developments in assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as /in vitro /fertilization (IVF); buying and selling human eggs and sperms; hiring "gestational surrogates" (i.e., "renting wombs"). These practices have helped millions of people to have children, but also raise serious moral concerns: e.g., about the scope of procreative autonomy, the status of the human embryo, the limits of legitimate state authority.

This course will explore the extent to which citizens with different points of view can nevertheless address these challenging issues in a mutually respectful way and thereby arrive at clearer and deeper understandings of what is at issue.Wherever possible, we will also strive to uncover significant (but sometimes not immediately apparent) common ground, in the hope of thereby reducing the areas of disagreement.

Clinical medicine and research are undergoing rapid changes, due to technological, digital, and genetic advances that allow for unprecedented amounts of data collection and individual monitoring. Likewise, capabilities to store, transfer, and query private health information have also increased. Technologies also allow different mediums for patients to interact with providers and health data, including patient portals, direct texting, health-related apps, and video conferencing. These powerful technologies will certainly result in health benefits on individual and public health/societal levels, but they also raise ethical concerns.

For students in the Master’s of Bioethics program, it is important to keep up with these changes, and identify and analyze the ethical issues raised by new e-health, digital health, and telemedicine technologies. In this course, students will engage with speakers, assigned readings, and writing assignments to formulate recommendations on how our society can productively harness the power of these tools while simultaneously upholding the principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Specifically, students will evaluate concerns about quality and delivery of care, privacy/confidentiality, control and use of data, and access, and propose best practices for the use of e-health technologies from patient/consumer, clinical care, research, and public health perspectives.

This elective course complements the Core Courses in the M.S. in Bioethics Program by exploring how bioethical issues arise as a result of rapidly changing technological capabilities in e-health, m-health and telemedicine.

This three-credit course will meet for twelve online sessions, 1.5 hours each time, for lecture and discussion, each aiming for in-depth analysis, debate, and discussion of topics at the intersection of e-health and ethics. The class format is a combination of lecture and seminar. Students should come to each session prepared to engage with each other and with the instructor and to offer their questions, comments, insights, and analyses.

In this course, students will examine ethical, social, legal, and philosophical issues related to developments in the neurosciences, sometimes referred to as neuroethics. This field includes both the ethics of neuroscience (e.g, applied topics, such as the responsible conduct of neuroscience research or the acceptable limits of using new technologies) and the neuroscience of ethics (the use of neuroscience to inform theoretical questions, e.g., regarding moral reasoning or justifications for punishment).

Sessions will be organized under three main themes: “In the Clinic,” “In the Courtroom,” and “In Society.” “In the Clinic” will discuss medical applications of neuroscience, such as new varieties of pharmacologic enhancement, the use of brain imaging to diagnose mental illness, and the development of neuromodulatory therapies that directly alter brain function. “In the Courts” will address the legal implications of neuroscience, from concrete applications such as the admissibility of brain imaging in court proceedings to abstract questions regarding criminal responsibility and theories of punishment. “In Society” will review broader applications of neuroscience, including commercial ventures (such as “neuromarketing”), military uses, and the place of neuroscience in society.

This course meets once a week for a lecture and discussion. Course activities include in-class exercises, formal writing assignments, briefer written exchanges, and a final written project.

Drawing upon the rich array of preeminent scientists, physicians, and scholars working at Columbia University, this course takes an inter-faculty approach to explore the scientific underpinnings of some of the major challenges in bioethics. Should we regulate advances that allow for manipulation of genetic outcomes? How do we balance respect for persons, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, in light of a changing scientific and medical landscape? Students will be better equipped to understand the scientific foundations underlying some of the most prominent issues in bioethics; become acquainted with research and scholarship in the field; be poised to consider and analyze enduring bioethical issues in a new light; and become familiar with a set of new ethical challenges emanating from some of the science and clinical research explored during the course.