Course No. & Section: BIOE 640.01
Course Title: Clinical Bioethics & Religious Traditions
Professor: James J. Walter, Ph.D.

 
Course Description:
This course will focus on the clinical and religious aspects of bioethics in a hospital setting.  Each Tuesday the students will attend clinical rounds on the palliative care service in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, CA.  During these rounds certain ethical issues will emerge from patient care, and the students will be responsible for studying these issues during the week.  On Thursdays, the students will attend class at LMU, and each student will make 2 presentations on various ethical issues involved in clinical medicine from different religious traditions, e.g., Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic, etc.  Critical reflection papers will be shared with the class on these issues.  A final research paper is due on the last day of class.
Maximum number of students: 6

Prerequisites/Recommended Background:
An undergraduate degree or its equivalent. A previous course in bioethics would be helpful, but it is not necessary.

 Required Texts:

  •  Ronald L. Numbers and Darrel W. Amundsen, eds. Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). [ISBN: 0-8081-5796-1]
  • American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation (Glenview, IL: ASBH, 1998). No ISBN number.

 

Recommended Texts:

  • John H. Dirckx, M.D., ed.  Stedman’s Concise Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions, 4th Edition (Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2001).  [ISBN: 0-7817-3012-0]
  • Marjorie Canfield Willis.  Medical Terminology: The Language of Health Care, 2nd Edition (Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006). [ISBN: 0-7817-4510-1]

 

Course Work/Expectations:
Students must attend the bioethics rounds each Tuesday at Little Company of Mary Hospital. On Thursdays, seminars will be held where the students will research and study various religious traditions' positions on clinical bioethical issues, e.g., withdrawal of treatment from dying patients. Each student must present two religious traditions to the class and submit one final research paper.