This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Dilemmas in Bio-Medical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good?

Human blastocyst showing inner cell mass and trophectoderm.

Human blastocyst showing inner cell mass and trophectoderm used in human embryonic stem cell research. (Photo Credit: Mr. J. Conaghan. Image courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21A.216J / SP.622J / WGS.622J

As Taught In

Spring 2005

Level

Undergraduate

Course Features

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the cross-cultural study of bio-medical ethics. It examines moral foundations of the science and practice of western bio-medicine through case studies of abortion, contraception, cloning, organ transplantation, and other issues. It also evaluates challenges that new medical technologies pose to the practice and availability of medical services around the globe, and to cross-cultural ideas of kinship and personhood. It discusses critiques of the bio-medical tradition from anthropological, feminist, legal, religious, and cross-cultural theorists.

Other OCW Versions

OCW has published multiple versions of this subject. Question_OVT logo

Erica James. 21A.216J Dilemmas in Bio-Medical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good?, Spring 2005. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), https://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA


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