Course Details
924: Whose Life is it Anyway?
Wednesdays, July 9-August 6
1:00 PM -
2:30 PM
Online
A foundational principle of medical ethics is patient autonomy. But when is it appropriate for the government to intervene? This course will examine medical, legal, and ethical controversies that arise when personal autonomy is perceived to be in conflict with the interests of society. We will consider the contentious issues of abortion, assisted reproduction, end-of-life care, vaccination, medical aid in dying, and gender-reassignment surgery. Opinions of medical organizations, patient rights and religious groups, and recent decisions by the Supreme Court will form the basis for discussion from many points of view. This Short meets at 1:00-2:30 PM on Wednesdays from July 9-August 6. This study group has a high class size capacity.
This course is being offered through the OLLI at Carnegie Mellon University.
Class Type: Lecture and Discussion
Class Format: Online
Hours of Reading: No reading
Study Group Leader(s):
Fredric PriceDr. Fredric Price was a women’s cancer surgeon in Pittsburgh for more than 25 years. At the end of his career, he practiced inpatient end-of-life care and hospice medicine. He founded an outpatient palliative medicine clinic and an emotional support group for oncology nurses at Allegheny General Hospital. During his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh and Temple medical schools, he received national and international teaching awards. He now teaches the ethics of end-of-life care at Chatham University and is on the faculty of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation Fellowship on Death and Dying. He holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Louisville and Carnegie Mellon University.