Health Sciences
Module 2: Ethics of Prevention
This course stimulates reflection on the role of values and value trade-offs in public health interventions, asking under what conditions these can be justified. It introduces students to a variety of normative ethical theories (deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, and care ethics) as well as Beauchamp and Childress’ well-known principles of medical ethics. Students reflect on the concepts of health and disease, proceeding with analysis and discussion on how values like health, individual autonomy, and privacy may clash when considering public health interventions, and on ways to arrive at a well-considered judgment as to whether a specific intervention can be justified. The course also reflects on how interventions assign responsibility for health to either individuals or society and to what extent such assignments are justified.
RESTS Teacher: Julia Hermann (Section Philosophy)
Module 6: Clinical Scientific Research
This course enables students to deal critically and responsibly with ethical issues in research. It introduces the history of research with human subjects, and the ethical principles guiding its regulation. It discusses the motivation for and acceptability of research with human subjects, questions of informed consent, and responsibilities in research, including vulnerable populations. Students learn to reflect on human subject research ethics, on the process of informed consent, and develop proposals for ethics committees.
RESTS Teacher: Naomi Jacobs (Section Philosophy)
Module 7: Filosofische Reflectie op Gezondheidstechnologie (taught in Dutch)
In this module, students are acquainted with philosophical approaches within the philosophy of technology and ethics of technology, and learn to apply them to issues within technical medicine. A central consideration is that (medical) technologies are not neutral instruments but embody our understanding of ourselves and the world. Contexts, wherein the moral and social impact of specific technologies are realized, are explored. Questions arising from these contexts include: How does technological development influence our concept and understanding of health? How can we reflect on the ways that technologies form our world? What are the ethical implications of this? What is the expertise involved in identifying the impact of technologies? How does the philosophy of technology contribute to this expertise? The objectives of the module are threefold: To acquire knowledge of the base theories in the philosophy of technology and the ethics of technology; to analyze the social and moral impact of technologies; and to apply philosophical approaches in the reflection on and anticipation of technologies in health care.
RESTS Teacher: Bas de Boer (Section Philosophy)