I’m working now on a new course for next semester in Law, Medicine, and Ethics. The course will initially be offered as a special topics class this spring, with a plan to become a permanent offering over time. It will be a small seminar style course that examines a variety of ethical dilemmas and problems in medicine through both bioethics and legal lenses. We will use case law, as well as different ethical modes of analysis to evaluate the various ethical dilemmas examined, ranging from pediatric assent to advance care planning to medical aid in dying/physician assisted suicide. Given my background as a clinical ethicist in both inpatient and outpatient settings, I’m also planning to include a number of role plays in the course curriculum, both to teach students about the emotional and human aspects of these decisions, as well as to teach important conflict resolution skills that become important in these situations to be used in concert with ethical and legal analyses.
