Undergraduate Module Descriptor

PHL2035: Critical Bioethics

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to:

  • familiarise you with the history of, and different positions, theories and problems in current bioethics
  • familiarise you with ethical issues of genetics, stem cell research and issues of social and cultural identity, through engagement with applied case studies; and
  • advance your ability to analyse text, criticize, empirical and philosophical arguments and reflect on your own preferences in making arguments and your ideas of right and wrong.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate knowledge of a range of key topics in bioethics
2. understand different empirical and theoretical perspectives in bioethics
3. appraise forms of argument on ethical issues from different philosophical and sociological perspectives
Discipline-Specific Skills4. analyse arguments in moral philosophy and social ethics
5. demonstrate the ability to engage with both abstract and practical ethical issues
Personal and Key Skills6. develop the ability to write scholarly well-argued reflective essays
7. construct normative arguments
8. practice different forms of writing
9. practice expressing own thoughts and ideas at different levels of abstraction in discussion and writing
10. Demonstrate the ability to work independently, within a limited time frame, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer (eds), A Companion to Bioethics, Blackwell Publishing (2001).

Raymond De Vries,Leigh Turner,Kristina Orfali,Charles Bosk (eds), The View From Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences (Sociology of Health and Illness Monographs). Wiley-Blackwell (2007).

Lisa A. Eckenwiler andFelicia G. Cohn (eds), The Ethics of Bioethics: Mapping the Moral Landscape, Johns, Hopkins University Press (2007).

Jonathan Glover: Choosing Children: Genes, Disability, and Design (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics), Oxford University Press (2008).

Christine Hauskeller, Steve Sturdy and Richard Tutton (eds), Special Issue Sociology: Genetics and the Sociology of Identity, SAGE (2013).

A Hedgecoe, Critical Bioethics. Beyond the Social Science Critique of Applied Ethics, In Bioethics, 18 (2) 2004, pp. 120-143.

R Hursthouse, Virtue Theory and Abortion, Philosophy & Public Affairs Vol. 20(3), 1991, pp. 223-246

MO Little, Why a feminist approach to Bioethics, Kennedy Institute for Ethics Journal, 1996, 6 (1), pp. 1-18.

S Sherwin, Abortion through a Feminist Ethics Lense, Dialogue, 1991, pp. 372-421.

H. Slim, Humanitarian Ethics. A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster, C Hurst & Co, London 2015

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/