EXPERIENCE AN ON-LINE BIOETHICS COURSE!

Animal Ethics

Jewish Bioethics

Neuroethics

Veterinary Ethics

Both Animal Ethics and Veterinary Ethics are taught by John Rossi, VMD, MBe.  Dr. Rossi is currently a fellow in bioethics at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia. He was formerly a Pfizer Fellow in Health Policy, and a Commissioner's Fellow at the US Food and Drug Administration.  He has published extensively on animal ethics, ethical issues in risk analysis, and public health ethics.  In these two courses, Dr. Rossi applies his regulatory expertise and practical experience at animal hospitals to help students understand traditional and emerging issues in animal and regulatory ethics, with topics ranging from the minds and moral status of animals to the responsibilities that humans and veterinarians have towards them. 

Jewish Bioethics is taught by Rabbi Noam Zohar, PhD. Rabbi Dr. Zohar is the Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Bar Ilan University, Israel, and a Senior Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem.  His books include Alternatives in Jewish Bioethics and The Jewish Political Tradition, a series that he edits with the renowned Jewish philosopher Michael Walzer.  Rabbi Dr. Zohar has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, and a Faculty Fellow of the Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Professions. He has also been an advisor for Religious Policy to Israel's Minister of Education, and he serves on the ethics committees of several hospitals.

Neuroethics is taught by Nada Gligorov, PhD Assistant Professor of Bioethics Education at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and practicing clinical ethicist for the Mount Sinai Medical Center. A graduate of the University of Toronto and of CUNY doctoral program in philosophy, Dr. Gligorov conducts research and publishes on neuroethics, an emerging field that explores both the ethics of neuroscience -- which seeks to develop an ethical framework for regulating neuroscientific inquiry and the application of neuroscientific knowledge to human beings --  and the neuroscience of ethics -- which examines the impact of neuroscience our understanding of ethical conduct.

Dates of the Open Elective Courses: 

June 13 – July 20, 2011                      Neuroethics, Nada Gligorov, PhD

July 25 – August 31, 2011                   Animal Ethics, John Rossi, NMD, MBe

September 7 – October 14, 2011         Jewish Bioethics, Rabbi Noam Zohar, PhD 

October 17 – November 23, 2011       Veterinary Ethics, John Rossi, VMD, MBe

Course Descriptions:

BIE 533 – Neuroethics: This course addresses pertinent issues in neuroethics, emphasizing those issues that have immediate application in clinical settings, such as criteria for brain death, the ethics of enhancement, and justification of memory manipulation.  The objective of the course is to demonstrate continuity between neuroethics and other areas of bioethics, and to identify the application of major ethical principles to this new branch of ethics.

BIE 523 -Animal Ethics:  Western society has shown a shift in moral attitudes about animals, with many people now seriously thinking about our ethical obligations to animals for the first time and some questioning traditional uses of animals for food or biomedical research.  This class addresses 1) what life is like for farm and research animals, 2) whether and to what extent we can know animals’ minds, 3) moral theories and what they have to say about animals, and 4) moral philosophical perspectives practices in animal agriculture, biomedical research and other areas.

BIE 543- Jewish Bioethics:  After exploring the scope and nature of "Jewish Bioethics", presented in the broader context of the Jewish tradition of normative discourse, this course addresses contemporary bioethical issues within the contours of a tradition whose history traces from the Bible through Talmudic and medieval texts to modern works.  The content and workings of Jewish Bioethics will be illustrated in two issues in which its teachings are particularly distinct that related in different ways to the fundamental belief that humans are created in the Divine Image: (a) Beginning of life (including the status of the embryo, assisted reproduction and stem-cells, with a special emphasis on questions of gender) and (b) End of life (including the tradition's powerful emphasis on saving and extending life, the debate over "brain death", and cadaver organ transplantation).

BIE 553 -Veterinary Medical Ethics: This coursewill explore core issues in veterinary medical ethics, including the moral status of animals, the ethical principles that should guide veterinary practice, conflicts of interest in the veterinary-client-patient relationship, the disparate and seemingly contradictory practices falling under the umbrella of veterinary medicine, the contemporary “moral politics” of veterinary medicine, and others.  Students will benefit from having previously taken Animal Ethics, though this is not a prerequisite.

TUITION PER COURSE ……$1292.50

Each course is 5 weeks and carries 1.66 semester hours masters’ credit

To register or for further information contact….. Ann Nolte: Noltea@uniongraduatecollege.edu

Or call 518-631-9860.