Medical Ethics

Lecturer:

Tutor:

Supervisor:

Department of Cybernetics

Synopsis:

The aim of the course is to provide students with orientation not only in general ethical problems but in ethical questions connected with human life, health, disease and dying and medical interventions above all. Integral part of the course are discussions in which students can react both to topics from lectures and questions of the day and search for responses. Another part of the seminars should be training of skills how to conduct argumentation about practical questions according to general logical rules.

Requirements:

Conditions for approval: presence in seminars

Syllabus of lectures:

1. Ethics as philosophical disciplines, history of this field

2. Fundamental ethics, basic ethical categories

3. Hermeneutics: principles and applications in medicine

4. Resources and content of human behaviour, rules of correct behaviour, ethics of interpersonal relations

5. Natural, positive and imposed law as resources of standards of morality, conscience

6. Hippokrates' oath, medical codes and Czech law

7. Problems of modern genetics and embryology

8. Transplantations and experimentation on humans

9. Relation of human to life, especially to human life and health, quality of life

10. Ethics in sexuality

11. Problems of truth in human life, truth at patient's bed

12. Critical moments at the end of life, coma and definition of death

13. Ethics of chronic patients and handicap

14. Ethics of research work

Syllabus of tutorials:

1. Basic ethical principles

2. Ethical categories

3. Ethical behaviour in medicine

4. Human behaviour, interpersonal relations

5. Standards of correct behaviour

6. Legal regulations, medical codes

7. Ethical questions in genetics and embryology

8. Ethical questions connected with transplantations and experimentation on humans

9. Human life and health

10. Ethical questions of sexuality

11. Truth at patient's bed

12. Critical moments at the end of life

13. Ethics of chronic patients and handicap

14. Ethics of research work

Study Objective:

Study materials:

There is no text-book covering the course completely; any book on modern operating systems can be used. The lecturer will hint resources to particular topics.

Note:

Further information:

No time-table has been prepared for this course

The course is a part of the following study plans:

• Biomedical Engineering- structured studies (compulsory course)