UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
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Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
B H 201 Topics in Population Bioethics (2) SSc
Introduces students to bioethical questions that arise in public health, population health, and global health, situating ethical questions and challenges within a broader social context and perspective. Students interact in a small-scale learning environment with classmates and faculty and have the opportunity to learn more about the Bioethics Minor. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 201
B H 311 Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine (3) SSc
Case-based approach to ethical topics in medicine, such as abortion, genetic testing, physician-assisted death, and euthanasia. Emphasizes utilizing ethical principles and methods of case analysis. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 311
B H 339 Bioethics: Secular and Jewish Perspectives (3) SSc, DIV
Legal, ethical, scientific, and Jewish religious perspectives on contemporary medical and biomedical research practices. Legal and civil rights of women, people with disabilities, minors and minority or marginalized groups. Key differences between secular and Biblical/Rabbinic approaches in interpretation, analysis and application of bioethics, doctor-patient relationships; reproductive methods; abortion; euthanasia; and stem cell research. Offered: jointly with JEW ST 339/MELC 328.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 339
B H 402 Ethical Theory (5) SSc
Studies the major normative ethical theories, including both teleological and deontological approaches. Emphasizes moral philosophy during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as contemporary commentary. Offered: jointly with PHIL 412.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 402
B H 404 Metaethical Theory (5) SSc
Studies the major metaethical theories, including both cognitivist and noncognitivist approaches. Emphasizes moral philosophy during the twentieth century, as well as contemporary commentary. Offered: jointly with PHIL 413.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 404
B H 409 Ethics and the Social Determinants of Health (3) SSc, DIV
Examines ethical issues confronting healthcare workers caring for poor & minority populations, whose capacity for health and recovery from disease are compromised by social conditions in which they grow up, live, work, and age. Aims to broaden/reorient understandings of disease, patient autonomy, and clinician duties within contexts of structural inequalities related to socioeconomic status/race/ethnicity/gender/other salient social differences. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 409
B H 420 Philosophical Problems in Bioethics (3) SSc
Introduces the philosophical concepts and controversies that underlie contemporary bioethical debates. Explores issues using the literature of bioethics and philosophy, contemporary film, works of fiction, and conversations with health professionals. Students learn philosophical methods of analysis and argument, and debate different sides of ethical issues.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 420
B H 421 History of Eugenics (5) SSc
Examines the history of ideas, policies, and practices associated with eugenics and human genetics from the late nineteenth century to the present in American society and other national contexts. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 421.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 421
B H 430 Epidemics and the Politics of Blame: Eugenic and Racial Logics in Shaping U.S. Health Policy (3) DIV
Explores how social inequality affects both public sentiment and public health measures during epidemics. Students develop a critical understanding of how enduring lines of social inequality shape public sentiment, medical knowledge, and public health policies during epidemics. Recommended: coursework in either bioethics and humanities, sociology, or public health. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 430
B H 440 Philosophy of Medicine (5) SSc
Familiarizes students with central issues in the philosophy of medicine. Focuses on the nature of medical knowledge, the connection between theory and observation, the meaning of medical concepts, and the relationship between theories and the world. Offered: jointly with PHIL 459.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 440
B H 444 Ethical Implications of Emerging Biotechnology (3)
Introduces students to select biotechnology innovations and invites consideration of the ethical and policy implications surrounding their development and potential use. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 444
B H 456 Social Justice and Health (5) SSc
Examines the moral grounds for the view that social inequalities in health are unjust using contemporary literature from moral philosophy and bioethics, case studies, and film. Explores basic questions integral to determinations of social injustice as well as moral constraints on the pursuit of health equity.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 456
B H 460 Reflections on Research, Responsibility, and Society (3) SSc
Explores ethical and policy issues that emerge in the conduct of basic, applied, translational, community-based, and collaborative research. Addresses the ethical debates that arise in the context of planning, implementing, and disseminating research.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 460
B H 474 Justice in Health Care (5) SSc/A&H
Examination of the ethical problem of allocating scarce medical resources. Emphasizes the fundamental principles of justice that support alternative health policies. Offered: jointly with PHIL 411.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 474
B H 481 Racism and the Institution of Medicine: Racial Knowledge, Professional Power, and Black Health (3) SSc, DIV
Covers the historical provenance of the move to find and account for racial differences in health. Students develop a critical understanding of the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on the contemporary production of medical knowledge and health inequities. Recommended: a social science or humanities course focused on social inequality. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 481
B H 488 Global Perspectives in Bioethics (3) SSc, DIV
Examines problems in bioethics from diverse global standpoints, including East Asian, Sub-Saharran African and Western. Our emphasis is on developing a deeper understanding of the cultural assumptions that lie just beneath the surface of bioethics debates. Readings from contemporary philosophy, film and literature. Recommended: prior coursework in ethics, philosophy, or global health. Offered: jointly with G H 419; W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 488
B H 497 Bioethics and Humanities Special Electives (*-, max. 30)
View course details in MyPlan: B H 497
B H 499 Undergraduate Research (*, max. 5)
Investigative work in biomedical ethics or history of the biomedical sciences.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 499
B H 502 Ethical Theory (5)
Studies the major normative ethical theories, including both teleological and deontological approaches. Emphasizes moral philosophy during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as contemporary commentary. Offered: A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 502
B H 509 Ethics and the Social Determinants of Health (3)
Examines ethical issues confronting healthcare workers caring for poor & minority populations, whose capacity for health and recovery from disease are compromised by social conditions in which they grow up, live, work, and age. Aims to broaden/reorient understandings of disease, patient autonomy, and clinician duties within contexts of structural inequalities related to socioeconomic status/race/ethnicity/gender/other salient social differences. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 509
B H 510 The Humanities in Medicine (2)
The humanities offer important perspectives on the nature and practice of clinical medicine. Focuses on the intersection of multiple disciplines in the humanities and medicine. Examines medicine through different lenses. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 510
B H 513 P-Ethical Responsibilities of Medical Practice (2)
Provides intensive and practical guidance about management of principal ethical and legal problems that arise in clinical practice: informed consent, confidentiality, decisions regarding life-support, advance directives and surrogate decision-makers, duty to care for indigent and risky patients. One week intensive course. Offered: S.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 513
B H 514 Legal, Ethical, and Social Issues in Public Health Genetics (3)
Equips the student to anticipate and assess potential legal, ethical, and social barriers complicating the incursion of new genetic advances, information, and technologies into public and private healthcare delivery efforts. Prerequisite: GENOME 361, GENOME 371, or equivalent. Offered: jointly with GCNSL 512/LAW H 504/PHG 512; A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 514
B H 518 Spirituality in Healthcare (2)
Examination of the beliefs, values, meaning, and spirituality of health professionals for the well-being of their patients as well as for themselves. Offered: jointly with FAMED 547/SOC W 587; Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 518
B H 527 Social Science Research Methods (3)
Introduces students to research methods in bioethics, ranging from qualitative to quantitative: interviews, focus groups, surveys, and experimental and observational designs. Students write research questions, match research methods to research questions, and conclude with a proposal that uses a social sciences empirical approach to address their research question. Offered: jointly with PHG 527; Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 527
B H 530 Epidemics and the Politics of Blame: Eugenic and Racial Logics in Shaping U.S. Health Policy (3)
Explores how social inequality affects both public sentiment and public health measures during epidemics. Students develop a critical understanding of how enduring lines of social inequality shape public sentiment, medical knowledge, and public health policies during epidemics. Recommended: coursework in either bioethics and humanities, sociology, or public health. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 530
B H 535 Medical Ethics and Jurisprudence (3-)
Examines the relationship between bioethics and law. Reviews the basic concepts of both disciplines; their theoretical and practical connections. Analysis of principle legal cases and statutes illustrating such issues as informed consent to treatment, foregoing life support, research with human subjects, confidentiality, and allocation of health care resources. Offered: jointly with LAW H 503.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 535
B H 536 Research Ethics and Regulation (3)
Explores the ethical foundations, principles and concepts, and U.S. laws related to the conduct of research with human subjects. Required for graduate students in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine. Offered: jointly with LAW H 536; W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 536
B H 539 Bioethics: Secular and Jewish Perspectives (5)
Explores legal, ethical, scientific, and Biblical-Rabbinic & contemporary religious perspectives on contemporary medical and biomedical research practices. Review of key differences between secular and Jewish approaches in interpretation, analysis and application of bioethics. The topics include: doctor-patient relationships; reproductive methods; abortion; euthanasia; and stem cell research. Offered: jointly with JEW ST 539.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 539
B H 544 Ethical Implications of Emerging Biotechnology (3)
Introduces students to select biotechnology innovations and invites consideration of the ethical and policy implications surrounding their development and potential use. Offered: jointly with PHG 544; W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 544
B H 548 Methods in Clinical Ethics (3)
Introduces the history, practice, and research methods in clinical ethics. Case-based examination of methods including principalism, casuistry, narrative methods, virtue ethics. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered: A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 548
B H 550 Critical Race Theory and Medicine (1)
Understanding race and racism, their applicability to medicine, and their effects on marginalized communities. Explores the necessities of critiquing and bettering medicine through a Critical Race Theory lens in order to eliminate bias and decrease health disparities within marginalized communities. Offered: jointly with FAMED 550; Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 550
B H 551 Human Genomics: Science, Ethics, and Society (3)
Explores the ethical and social implications of human molecular genetics and genomics investigation. Recent research is critically evaluated for its potential impact on scientific practice, research participation, and societal understandings. Prerequisite: LAW H 504/B H 514/ PHG 512 or permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with GENOME 573; A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 551
B H 552 Advanced Qualitative Methods (4)
Examines and compares phenomenology, discourse analysis, and grounded theory. Reviews the history of ideas and critically reads examples of published articles to appreciate how each method frames questions and produces different analyses.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 552
B H 553 International Research Ethics, Law, and Policy (3)
Exploration of legal requirements and ethical principles related to responsible conduct and research in a variety of different government structures, healthcare systems, and research environment. Compares and contrasts law and ethical standards applicable to research enterprises in developing countries, industrialized countries, and ethically distinct communities. Offered: jointly with LAW H 511; A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 553
B H 556 Social Justice and Health (5)
Examines the moral grounds for the view that social inequalities in health are unjust, using contemporary literature from moral philosophy and bioethics, case studies, and film. Explores basic questions integral to determinations of social injustice as well as moral constraints on the pursuit of health equity.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 556
B H 560 Genomics, Ethics, and Policy (2, max. 10)
Explores the intersection of genomics, ethics, and policy, with a particular focus on examining the benefits of genomics for medically underserved communities. Offered: S.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 560
B H 562 Ethical Issues in Pediatrics (3)
Provides a survey of contemporary ethical issues that arise in the clinical and research environment when children are involved, including the role of children and adolescents in decision-making, the limits of parental decision-making authority, and issues related to genetic testing, transplantation, research, and public health. Offered: jointly with PEDS 562; A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 562
B H 566 Introduction to Person Centered and Interprofessional Palliative Care (1-5)
Introduces fundamental concepts in narrative and person centered communication and interprofessional practice. Presents foundations for learning to apply an interdisciplinary approach to palliative care. Offered: jointly with FAMED 531/NSG 526; A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 566
B H 567 Advanced Topics in Person Centered and Interprofessional Palliative Care (1-5)
Interprofessional course presenting advanced concepts in narrative and person centered communication and interprofessional practice.
Requires admissions into the Palliative Care Graduate Certificate Program. Prerequisite: NSG 526 Offered: jointly with FAMED 532/NSG 527; W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 567
B H 568 Palliative Care: Quality Metrics and System Integration (1-5)
Prepares students to integrate team based palliative care into a larger system, introduces community engagement, and palliative care policy issues. Specific content includes building palliative care service, engaging leadership to support palliative care, and using quality metrics to leverage and support quality care.
Requires admissions into the Palliative Care Graduate Certificate Program. Offered: jointly with FAMED 533/NSG 528; Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 568
B H 574 Justice for Healthcare (5)
Examination of the ethical problem of allocating scarce medical resources. Emphasizes fundamental principles of justice that support alternative health policies. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 574
B H 581 Racism and the Institution of Medicine: Racial Knowledge, Professional Power, and Black Health (3)
Covers the historical provenance of the move to find and account for racial differences in health. Students develop a critical understanding of the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on the contemporary production of medical knowledge and health inequities. Recommended: a social science or humanities course focused on social inequality. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 581
B H 588 Global Perspectives in Bioethics (3)
Examines problems in bioethics from diverse global standpoints, including East Asian, Sub-Saharran African and Western. Our emphasis is on developing a deeper understanding of the cultural assumptions that lie just beneath the surface of bioethics debates. Readings from contemporary philosophy, film and literature. Recommended: prior coursework in ethics, philosophy, or global health. Offered: jointly with G H 519; W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 588
B H 590 Health Ethics: Theory (4)
Explores ethical theories and shows how they are interpreted and applied in clinical contexts. Examines deontological and teleological approaches, including utilitarianism, kant's ethics, Aristotle's ethics, Rawls's ethics, and feminist ethics. Builds knowledge of ethical theories, skills of ethical argument, and practice using theories in case analysis. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: A.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 590
B H 591 Health Ethics: Law (4)
Explores legal cases, laws, statutes as well as paradigm ethics cases that inform clinical ethics consultation. Focus on ethical and legal issues that arise for ethics consultants from conception (assisted reproductive technologies) through death (withdrawing life-sustaining treatments). Addresses equity issues inherent in our polarized health care system. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 591
B H 592 Healthcare Ethics: Consultation Methods (4)
Explores the methodologies through which students can employ ethical theory in clinical contexts. Coursework investigates ethical approaches, such as Virtue Theory, Feminist Ethics, and Casuistry. Assignments build the skills of communication and ethical analysis used in the clinical setting, such as writing chart notes and facilitating case discussion. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 592
B H 595 Ethics Practicum (1-6, max. 6)
Students participate in clinical ethics rounds, case discussions, review of research protocols, or other professional activities related to bioethics. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 595
B H 596 Master's Research Project ([1-12]-, max. 12)
Research project culminating in a scholarly paper suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Majors only. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 596
B H 597 Special Topics in Medical Ethics (1-5, max. 15)
View course details in MyPlan: B H 597
B H 600 Independent Study or Research (*-)
View course details in MyPlan: B H 600
B H 650 Bioethics Teaching Clerkship (1-5, max. 15)
Affords graduate students a professional development opportunity to build skills that lay the groundwork for becoming an expert teacher. Direct, hands-on experience along with mentoring to develop teaching skills. Students develop lesson plans, lead small group discussions, obtain guidance and feedback by working closely with a faculty mentor to improve pedagogy methods and skills - grading, course website development/management. Prerequisite: MA Bioethics graduate student. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: B H 650
