Phil
340: Bioethics
Suppose you have a pill that you can either use to
save a 20-year-old person, or five 70-year-old people from death. Who should
you save? Is Jack Kevorkian, who assisted in the suicides of many terminally
ill patients, a murderer or a courageous and humane person who saved his
patients from painful deaths? Would it be morally right to genetically engineer
our children? Is a future where we freely alter our cognitive lives through
highly developed medication a scary or a desirable prospect? Can it ever be
right to clone a human being? Should we carry out risky trials on individuals
if the drugs we develop will benefit many people? Should pharmaceutical
companies be spending their resources on research for drugs that will save the
lives of the global poor, or should they spend their resources on drugs that
will make them more money?
In this course, we will seek answers to these
difficult and urgent questions. Along the way, we will look at ethical theories
such as utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. You will not only
develop a deep understanding of these ethical questions, but also learn how to
construct and critically evaluate arguments.
The course is currently
scheduled for Monday 12.40 to 14.40, and Wednesday 12.40 to 13.40. However, the
schedule can be revised to accommodate the students’ needs.
You can email afaikkurtulmus@sabanciuniv.edu
to find out more about and
express interest in this course.
