Degree in Health Engineering La Salle Campus Barcelona

Bachelor in Health Engineering

Lead the biomedical engineering that will define the medicine of the future

Bioethics

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Description: 
Human life is made up of decisions. These decisions are influenced by many factors: values, society, individual freedom... Ethics is the reflection on these factors and on human behavior. What is right? What are moral principles based on? Why should rules be followed? These are some of the questions that ethics addresses. Bioethics is the ethics applied to the professions and sciences related to the assistance and care of life. This discipline reflects on how human beings can best protect and promote life. The human being possesses great technological power and it is important to ask how this power should be used, what rules should be followed, etc.
Type Subject
Tercer - Obligatoria
Semester
Annual
Course
2
Credits
4.00

Titular Professors

David Lorenzo Izquierdo
Professor
Previous Knowledge

Not required.

Objectives

The aims of the course are related to the learning outcomes:

-To assume the social and ethical responsibility of the profession.
-To feel involved in the promotion of human rights.
-To know how to distinguish the level of ethical reflection in professional practice in relation to the legal level in order to be able to accept responsibility for their own professional judgments and actions and the fact of being responsable for.

Contents

Lesson 1. Ethics: Basic Concepts.

Lesson 2. Individual Conscience and Social Values.
Lesson 3. Bioethics: Concepts and Principles.

Lesson 4. Ethical Issues at the Beginning of Life.
Lesson 5. End-of-life Ethical Dilemmas.

Lesson 6. Ethics in Scientific Research.

Lesson 7. Ethics and Technology: Technoethics Principles.
Lesson 8. Ethics and Artificial Intelligence.

Lesson 9. Transhumanism: Technology and Human Nature.
Lesson 10. Ethics and Genetic Engineering.

Methodology

The course is taught in one weekly lesson.

The usual dynamics of each class will consist of a combination of theoretical explanations based on the discussion and debate on practical cases. Applied methodologies: master class, case/problem discussion.

Evaluation

Evaluation is based on: tests, participation in class discussions and one group task (a paper).

Evaluation Criteria

-Midterm exam. 20%. It will be an exam with open questions (essay questions, no test). Minimum grade required to be considered as a part of the final grade: 4.

-Final exam. 40%. It will be an exam with open questions (essay questions, no test). Minimum grade required to be considered as a part of the final grade: 4.

-Participation in class discussions. 20%. There is no minimum grade required.

-Paper. 20%. Students have to develop a group paper on an Ethics topic throughout the course and hand in it at the end of the course. There is no minimum grade required.

Basic Bibliography

Beauchamp, T. and Childress, J., Principles of Biomedical Ethics, OUP, Oxford, 2019.

Bilbao, G., Fuertes, J. and Guibert, J., Ética para ingenieros, Desclee, Bilbao, 2006.

Jonas, H., El principio de responsabilidad, Herder, Barcelona, 1995.

Rodríguez, A., Ética general, Eunsa, Pamplona, 1998.

Additional Material

Articles, movies, cases and documentaries.