ETHICS - Schedule & Syllabus

Lectures:
1. Introduction to Ethics - historical background, earliest codes of medical ethics, current divisions of ethical theories, bioethics
2. Being a person – criteria of being a person, abortion
3. In-vitro fertilization – pros and cons of the procedure, its risks and benefits, effectiveness, current ethical dilemmas
4. Transplantation – Organ and body donation, short history of organ transplantation, living donors vs. dead donors, donor anonymity, possibilities of whole body donation. Polish Transplantation Act
5. Medical experiments – history of clinical studies, post-scandal legal improvements, speciesm
6. Medically assisted suicide – Suicide tourism, Dignitas, Exit, Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act
7. Euthanasia – when, where, why and for whom?
8. Disease mongering and medicalization – history of creating diseases, candidates for disease mongering, MoDoD, overdiagnosis

Seminars:
1. Patients’ autonomy – competent, incompetent, underage patient, possibility of self-determination, patients’ rights vs. physicians’ obligations
2. Informed consent – providing information on benefits, risks, alternatives, outcomes of abandoning the procedure, manner of providing information, who can obtain consent, validity of informed consent
3. Confidentiality – conditions for keeping and breaching confidentiality
4. Transplantation – selling and donating organs, family objection, refusal of organ donation to next of keen, blood donation
5. End of life issues – proxy, living wills, DNR and AND orders
6. Malpractice – reporting, successful and unsuccessful lawsuits
7. Doctor-doctor, doctor-patient relationship – rules of professional conduct, reporting misconduct, dating, gifts
8. Test and feedback