Bioethics Teaching Across Campus

IU School of Medicine

Center faculty teach many guest lectures and lead classes and teaching sessions on bioethics and related topics.  This education impacts every part of the education of future doctors, including the following:

Center faculty lecture and lead discussions during the pre-clinical years (Phase I) on topics including autonomy and informed consent, pandemics, healthcare reform, coverage of extremely expensive medicines for conditions such as advanced cancer or Hepatitis C, and ethical challenges for medical students on the wards. 

Dr. Schwartz serves as the faculty advisor for the Medical Student Interest Group in Ethics, and faculty from the Center lecture regularly in their lunchtime talks (“Ethics at Lunch”). Contact ethicsig@iu.edu for more information.

Professor Hartsock co-leads the Scholarly Concentration in Medical Humanities, and faculty from the Center lecture and provide mentorship in bioethics to students in this program.  This program allows medical students to learn and conduct a research project in medical humanities or bioethics during their medical school.  Click here for more information about the Scholarly Concentration in Medical Humanities:  https://medicine.iu.edu/md/curriculum/scholarly-concentrations/medical-humanities

For more than 15 years, the Center has offered a month-long elective course for fourth-year students about medical ethics, often in February, led for many years by Dr. Gaffney and this year by Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Halverson. IUSM elective 93ZP700, Medical Ethics and Professionalism is an annual, month-long elective that seeks to provide mature medical students and palliative care fellows with an overview of major medical ethics and in-depth exploration of foundational issues. In this seminar-style course, students first discuss basic ethical principles and theories; ethics at end of life, including hospice and palliative care; conscience-sensitive medical ethics; and the intersection of law, medicine, and ethics before moving on to topics on genetics, research professionalism, public health, health care reform, and more. Students also attend a monthly hospital ethics committee meeting and an ethics consult meeting, with the course culminating in presentations on topics of their choosing. Click here for more information.

IU School of Liberal Arts

Faculty from the IU Center for Bioethics lecture and teach courses on bioethics, medical  humanities, health communication, and related topics for undergraduate and graduate students at the IU School of Liberal Arts in a range of departments and programs.  The purpose of this education is both to prepare those who will enter the health professions or become scientists, as well as to prepare all people to better understand the relationships between science, technology, health, and society.  Check the websites for the departments of Philosophy, Religion, Medical Humanities and Health Sciences, and Anthropology, for upcoming courses on bioethics and related topics.  Those who are especially interested may consider majoring or minoring in these departments to focus on related topics.  Courses taught by faculty of the IU Center for Bioethics recently include:

Peter Schwartz, MD, PhD

  • PHIL-P 393/547 Foundations of Bioethics
  • PHIL-P 383/696 Topics in Biomedical Ethics
  • PHIL-P 600 Topics in Philosophy

Jane Hartsock, JD, MA

  • MHHS-M 201 Medical Humanities & Health Studies
  • MHHS-M 301 Perspectives on Health
  • MHHS-M 492/592 Topics in Medical Humanities: Motherhood in Medical Humanities
  • MHHS-M 495 Seminar in MHHS: Precision Medicine 
  • MHHS-M 498/598 Readings in Medical Humanities

David M. Craig, PhD

  • REL-R 133 Introduction to Religion
  • REL-R 378 Religion and Philanthropy 
  • REL-R 383 Religion, Ethics, and U.S Society
  • REL-R 384 Religion, Ethics, and Health
  • REL-R 386 Ethics of Consumption 
  • REL-R 393 Comparative Religious Ethics
  • REL-R 433 Theories of Religion 

Brandon Brown, MD, MA

  • MHHS-M 301 Perspectives on Health, Disease, and Healing
  • MHHS-M 501 Exploring the Human Condition 

IU Fairbanks School of Public Health

Center Faculty teach bioethics and health law to students in public health, including topics such as healthcare management, leadership, ethics and public health, and global health law and ethics. 

Ross Silverman, JD, MPH

Undergraduate level

  • PBHL-H 361 Leadership in Health Management: Resolving disputes and difficult conversations
  • PBHL-H 120 Contemporary Healthcare Issues

 Graduate level

  • PBHL-H 361 Leadership in Health Management
  • PBHL-H 841 Ethics and Public Health
  • LAW-D 676 Directed Reading: Indiana Health Policy
  • PBHL-H 756 Leadership in Global Health Law & Ethics
  • LAW-D 761 Law and Public Health
  • PBHL-H 641 Ethics and Public Health 

IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Center Faculty teach and lecture on health law and bioethics in a variety of courses, including the following:

Robert A. Katz, JD

  • Law-D 802 Legal Externships
  • Law-D 722 Trusts and Estates
  • Law-D 843/ PHST-P 535 The Law of Nonprofit Organizations