Bioethics for Beginners (Online)

Unit 1: Argument and the implications of enhancing lifespan

Introduction to the course, to bioethics and to the analysis of argument in the context of a discussion of the possibility of significantly increasing human lifespan.

Unit 2: Reproductive ethics

The ethics of reproduction. Does everyone have the right to a family? Is reproductive cloning morally acceptable? How would you feel if you discovered your mother had been aborted at 24 weeks?

Unit 3: Absolutism and relativism I

Is morality relative or absolute? This philosophical unit will discuss these deep issues, with an eye to using the thoughts stimulated to further our thoughts about bioethics.

Unit 4: Absolutism and relativism II

Arguments for moral absolutism

Unit 5: Genetics and human nature

Genetics and human nature. Could it be that by interfering with the human genome, either by enhancement or therapy we would be threatening the very nature of what it is to be a human being?

Unit 6: Genetic modification

Does our new understanding of genetics make a new eugenics movement acceptable? Would we end up with the problems that we abhore in the Nazis’ programme, or could it be that the new technology will bring a new benign eugenics?

Unit 7: Virtue ethics and deontological ethics

Another philosophical unit considering various ethical theories such as Virtue Theory and Kantianism.

Unit 8: Utilitarianism

Another philosophical unit considering various ethical theories such as Utilitarianism.

Unit 9: Therapeutic cloning

Therapeutic cloning and the moral status of the embryo. Is it acceptable to use embryos as means to the ending of suffering?

Unit 10: Bioethics and the developing world

The ethics of biotechnology in the devloping world. Should there be a market in human organs? Should there be double standards in clinical trials given the very different conditions in the developing world and the developed world?

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.

To participate in the course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following books:

• Fukuyama, F., Our Posthuman Future (London, Profile Books, 2003)
• Ridley, M., Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (London, Harper Collins Fourth Estate, 2000) The later 2006 edition of this text published by Harper Perennial may also be used for the course.

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee for each course you enrol on. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. If you do not register when you enrol, you have up until the course start date to register and pay the £10 fee.

For more information on CATS point please click on the link below: http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/studentsupport/faq/cats.php

Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework, but only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.

All students who successfully complete this course, whether registered for credit or not, are eligible for a Certificate of Completion. Completion consists of submitting both course assignments and actively participating in the course forums. Certificates will be available, online, for those who qualify after the course finishes.

•  Guided reading of texts.
•  Group discussions of particular issues.
•  Questions to be answered in personal folders.
•  Debating from positions given rather than from personal belief (to hone skills of debate).

By the end of this course students will have gained the following skills:

• The ability to think philosophically.
• The ability to describe key issues in bioethics.
• The ability to identify arguments for and against various positions in bioethics.
• The ability to construct their own arguments about the issues to which they have been introduced.

Assessment for this course is based on two written assignments - one short assignment of 500 words due half way through the course and one longer assignment of 1500 words due at the end of the course.

Assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an application form.

FHEQ level 4, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, therefore a total of about 100 hours.