FYE 1050A Medical Ethics

Dr. Christian Perring, Department of Philosophy, Dowling College

Fall 2006 MW 830-950AM. RC 203

CRN 98184

E-mail: perringc@dowling.edu [All email to me should have "FYE" in the subject line]

Office Phone: 244-3349

Office: 330B RC (next to the computer lab)

Office Hours: 11:30AM-2:30PM MW, 1:00-2:00PM T

Cohort Librarian is Professor Joyce Gotsch, (gotschj@dowling.edu), 244-3150.

Writing Tutor is Mrs. Frances Schauss (SchaussF@dowling.edu).

Read this syllabus carefully! It is a contract between the professor and students and contains important details about this course. Note that some details are subject to change.

Aim of the course

As a First Year Experience seminar, this course is designed to help students make the transition between high school and college. As such, we will focus on the skills and behavior necessary for college courses. We will also spend time on students' need to take responsibility for their own learning, their future lives, and to be participating members of both the college community and wider society.

As a course in medical ethics, it will provide students with philosophical and factual knowledge and both abstract and practical skills. Students will learn about current controversies in medical ethics and the ways that different philosophical theories are used to shed light on conflicting beliefs. This will involve legal, medical and sociological facts about relevant issues such as, for example, the development of a fetus, pregnancy, abortion, genetics, disability, terminal illness, the process of dying, and the distribution of health care. Students will also develop a variety of skills. Through class discussion and paper writing, students will improve their skills of expressing their understanding of the complexities in ethical dilemmas, and searching for satisfactory solutions to those dilemmas. The course will also focus heavily on particular cases involving real people and actual events, and they will learn to see the options available to those people, to assess the ethical strengths and weaknesses of those options, to make a choice of one of those options, and then to articulate a defense of that option.

Student Learning Outcomes

a. The course will provide students with an understanding of a wide variety of philosophical traditions and in the contemporary world. Medical ethics has in the last forty years become of the most vital areas of academic research and discussion within philosophy, and so this course in medical ethics will give students a background in an important area of contemporary philosophy.

b. The course will provide students with knowledge and skills that will serve them well in their future careers. A course in medical ethics will be very useful for any students who plan to go into careers in medical health, managed care, health insurance, government health management, health policy, the law, clinical psychology. It could also be useful to those going into careers that involves frequent interaction with people with health problems and disabilities, such as special education teachers.

c. The course provide knowledge and skills that will be useful to them in their personal lives. Ethical debates about abortion and physician-assisted suicide, to take two prominent examples, have persisted for centuries. The availability of new technology has improved our ability to keep people alive but has also meant that now most people in the industrialized world at some point in their lives have to make decisions about when to withhold medical treatment. This course should help students to understand the many ethical dimensions of difficult ethical choices, and therefore it should help students to be more comfortable in coming to a decision when they confront such choices.

Textbook: Moral Dilemmas In Community Health Care: Cases and Commentaries. Pearson Longman, 2005 [MD]

· Students will do research on papers and class presentations.

· Students will receive instruction on research methods, including web-based research

· Students will write drafts for their final papers.

· Students will receive instruction in discussion methods and active listening.

· Students will receive instruction in active reading.

· Students will evaluate each other's work.

· Class time will be spent on the explication of texts.

· Students will receive instruction in note taking.

· Students will enhance their skills in critical thinking, analyzing arguments, and expressing their ideas.

Grade assignment:

6 pop quizzes on assigned reading: 10%

Library assignments: 5%

First paper: 10%

Second paper: 20%

Third paper: 30%

Attendance: 5%

Participation: 7%

Presentation: 5%

Personal reflections (4): 8%

Reading assignments: The reading is listed in the syllabus below. You must do the reading before that week. You should be familiar with the main ideas in each assigned chapter, and you should make notes of those parts that are hard to follow. There will be 6 pop quizzes during the semester on the readings. You either get credit for these or you don't.

All students will meet with me in at least two one-on-one tutorials, to discuss their papers, how their first semesters are coming along, and what courses to take in the next semester.

Plagiarism detection and prevention: All papers should be submitted via Turnitin.com or sent to me by email as an attachment in MS Word or RTF. I will give you information about how to use Turnitin.com. Note that I view any form of academic dishonesty very seriously, and if I find that you have engaged in any significant form of plagiarism or cheating I will fail you in this course and report my action to the Dean of Students.

The class ID for turnitin.com is "1151642"

The password is "dilemma"

Presentations: You must sign up to do a presentation in by the end of the Week 2. You can do a 5-minute presentation on your own, or a 10-minute presentation with another person. If you do a joint presentation, you will both get the same grade. You can use Powerpoint to do your presentation, but it is not required. However you do your presentation, you must keep it lively and interesting, and you should not simply read out from a pre-written text. You should provide some information that is not available in the course textbook. Your presentation will be assessed using the form available by clicking here.

Attendance: You need to be in the classroom by the start of the class period, when I will take attendance. If you are late to class, you need to speak to me at the end of class to explain why you were late and ask me to record your presence on my roster. If you need to miss a class, you should notify me by phone or email before the class. If you are ill and see a medical professional, or you have an unavoidable legal obligation, you should show me some documentation as evidence. Your attendance grade will suffer significantly if you miss classes without excuse. If you miss classes, you should write a 600 word summary of the reading assigned for that class, or arrange some alternative make-up work.

Participation: You should participate in class discussion, both answering questions that are put to the class, raising questions when you do not fully understand an idea or a part of the text, or what someone in the class says. There is a Blackboard site for this course, and you can also participate and discuss issues there.

Personal Reflections: These should be at least 400 words, in grammatical English. They will not be graded, but I will give you some feedback on them. You either get credit for them or you don't. They are not meant to be academically challenging, but are meant to give you the opportunity to link the topics of the class to your own life and ideas you have about how best to make decisions. It is up to you how much of your own personal experience you include, but you are encouraged to do so link your own life with philosophical discussions.

Classroom Etiquette. All cell phones ringers should be turned off and you should never talk on your cell phone in class. You should not eat any food in class, especially food that others will notice through sound or smell. You should turn up on time to all classes. You are free to express your views and question the views of others, including your professor, and you can be passionate about your opinions. However, you must always treat others in the class with respect; you can criticize the views and arguments of others, but you cannot criticize them as persons. You should also make sure you are not dominating classroom discussion to the exclusion of other class members.

Extra Credit. There will be a few extra credit options such as going to talks by visiting speakers or going to plays and writing 600 words about it afterwards. All extra credit options will be available to all students. If you want an extra credit option or have an idea for a task to perform to get extra credit. Extra credit options normally provide 2% added to your total grade. No student can receive more than 4% extra credit.

Academic and Personal Problems. If you have problems that cause you to be late with work or to miss a number of classes, please stay in communication by phone, email, or by meeting with me in person. I will be willing to work with you and sort out a way for you to still stay in the class and get a fair grade. If you miss a number of classes or fail to hand in work on time but don't give me any explanation then you risk failing the class. Most people experience some sort of crisis during their college career, and you need to find ways to make sure that such problems don't ruin your college career.

Keeping Copies of Your Work. It is your responsibility to keep copies of all your work in this course until your final grade is submitted. You need to keep copies of your work in at least 3 different places, because all storage methods are fallible. Floppy disks are very unreliable and I recommend you don't use them. If you do use them, back them up every day. Better methods of storage are CD-ROMS, flashdrives or jumpdrives, zip-drives, hard disks, and emails to yourself with your work attached to the emails. It can be a good idea to print out your work and keep a hard copy. But remember that no method of data storage is perfect, which is why you should keep your work stored in at least 3 separate places.

Final Deadline: All work is due by December 15, when I will calculate final grades. You must make sure that you have given me:

· all the papers

· a draft version of your final paper

· electronic copies of all the papers

· If required, proof that you consulted with a writing tutor.

If I don't have all of these, you will fail the course.

Schedule.

Date	Topic	Reading	Work Due	Presentation Topics
Wed 9/6	Introduction		Send me an email from your Dowling email account with the follow information: Your name, your phone number, High School, your probable major, your previous AP and/or college experiences, what job you have, how many hours you work each week at your job, what town you live in and how you get to college, any information about special needs for teaching or test-taking, and any concerns you have about this course.
Mon 9/11	Reading for comprehension	MD pp.1-7	Writing Sample: At least 600 words, in paragraphs of clear grammatical English, on the topic "How I decided to come to Dowling College." This can be typed, emailed, or handwritten.
W 9/13	The Analysis and Justification (AJ) Method	MD pp.7-14	Defining Terms. One page giving the most useful definition of your assigned word, explaining where you got it and why you think it is good. This must be posted to the Blackboard class discussion page. (Worth 2%)
M 9/18	Options at Dowling College: Visit from Student Services. Problem solving and stress relief. Time management.
W 9/20	Defining terms: Library Resources. Visit from Librarian.		Each student will be given a term to define, or information to locate. You need to find 3 sources of information and assess their quality. One needs to be non-Internet.
M 9/25	Examining the Case Study	MD pp.14-27	First Reflection: Examine a moral decision in your life, such when as you decided whether to lie, cheat, steal, hurt another person, break off a friendship, break a promise, sacrifice yourself, or go against your own values. Explain what decision you had to make and how you made the decision. In retrospect, do you think you made the right decision? Explain yourself clearly and write in grammatical English. This can be typed, emailed, or handwritten. Due by midnight.
W 9/27	Doing a good presentation. Using Powerpoint. Note taking.		How to do a good Powerpoint presentation.
W 10/4	Using placebos.	MD Ch 1., pp.29-43.
M 10/9	Doing research: finding books, journal articles, and evaluating web sites. Visit from Librarian.		Second Reflection: How has your first month at Dowling College been? What has been good and what has been difficult? What changes can you make to improve your chances of success? Explain yourself clearly and write in grammatical English. This can be typed, emailed, or handwritten. Due by midnight.
W 10/11	Competence and advance directives	MD Ch 2., pp. 44-61
M 10/16	Writing papers. Citing sources. APA style. Plagiarism.		Facts about plagiarism and academic dishonesty. The growth of plagiarism and plagiarism detection.
W 10/18	Minding other people's business.	MD Ch 3., pp. 44-79	First Paper. At least 600 words. Topic: Consider the case "SHHHHHHHHH, DON'T TELL." Use the AJ method to make a recommendation about what therapist Eve Nye should do. Your paper must include at least one reference in APA style. Your paper must be submitted to Turnitin.com. Due by midnight.
M 10/23	Helping those who don't want help	MD Ch 4, pp. 80-94
W 10/25	Depression.	MD Ch 5, pp.94-110.		· What different kinds of depression are there? · What treatments of depression are there? · What are the possible psychological effects of rape on the victim/survivor?
M 10/30	Lying to Patients.	MD Ch 6, pp. 111-129		· What ethical codes guide the actions of doctors? What do they say and what do they mean? · What ethical codes guide the actions of nurses? What do they say and what do they mean?
W 11/1	Decision-making affecting families, and race issues	MD Ch 7, pp. 130-144	Second Paper. At least 1200 words. Topic: Discussion of a more complicated case. Must include at least two scholarly references in APA style. Must be submitted to Turnitin.com. Due by midnight.	· What happened in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?
M 11/6	Cultural differences	MD Ch 8, pp. 145-166		· What is Hmong culture? · What is a nurse practitioner? What training and experience does it take to become an NP?
W 11/8	Health care for the working poor.	MD Ch 9, pp. 167-184		· What do NY emergency rooms do if people come in without health insurance? · What kinds of health care systems do other countries have?
M 11/13	The pharmaceutical industry	MD Ch 10, pp. 185-199		· Are the pharmaceutical companies financially successful? · How are drug prices regulated in the USA and in other countries?
W 11/15	Amish society and family decisions.	MD Ch 11, pp. 200-212	Draft of Paper 3. At least 1000 words. Topics to be decided. Must include at least two scholarly references in APA style. Must be submitted to Turnitin.com. Due by midnight.	· What are the beliefs of Amish society? · What is the history of Amish people in the USA?
M 11/20		MD pp. 213-225.		· What is the Americans with Disabilities Act? · What are the Baby Doe regulations and why were they created?
M 11/27	People of Weight.	MD Ch 12, pp. 226-240	Third Reflection. Should we treat obesity just as a medical problem or as a moral problem? Explain yourself clearly and write in grammatical English. This can be typed, emailed, or handwritten. Due by midnight.	· What are the causes of obesity? · Why is obesity a greater problem in the USA than most other countries?
W 11/29	The social duties of physicians	MD Ch 14, pp. 256-273		· What is an HMO? Are HMOs financially successful?
M 12/4	Confidentiality	MD Ch 15, pp. 275-288		· What is the evidence that becoming an alcoholic has medical causes? · What is NY law regarding doctor-patient confidentiality?
W 12/6	Respecting family decisions.	MD Ch 16, pp. 289-305		· What are hospital ethics committees and what do they do?
M 12/11	Alternative and complementary medicine	MD Ch 17, pp. 306-325	Paper 3. At least 1500 words. Must include at least three scholarly references in APA style. Must be submitted to Turnitin.com. Due by midnight.	· What is the FDA and what does it do?
W 12/13	Pharmacists' responsibilities to the community	MD Ch 19, pp. 343-354	Fourth Reflection. What have you gained from this course? What parts did you enjoy most? What parts gave you the most difficulty? Explain yourself clearly and write in grammatical English. This can be typed, emailed, or handwritten. Due by midnight.	· What is NY law regarding the rights of the community to know about potential sexual offenders?
M 12/18	Course wrap up.

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