Instructor: Prof. Bernice Elger and international guest lecturers

Coordinator: Yi Jiao (Angelina) Tian

Purpose of the Lecture:

As a quintessential part of biomedical ethics research, clinical ethics is a practical discipline that provides a structured approach to assist health professionals in identifying, analyzing and resolving ethical issues that arise in clinical practice. Ongoing developments in medical technology, particularly at the beginning and end of life, may raise awareness of, or concerns about the ethical dimensions of clinical care. In face of changing social, cultural and public attitudes towards healthcare professions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical ethics tries to address the conflicts that arise when the values of parties involved are at odds. In this lecture series, we have invited one guest lecturer per week to speak on this wide dimension of topics.

Intended Learning outcomes:

With the progression of these lectures, students are able to first grasp the foundational principles that guide clinical ethicists, understand the critical issues for various population groups, and participate in lively discussions on specific anonymized cases. Together with internationally renowned experts, we will uncover questions such as: What do clinical ethicists do? How could they help healthcare professionals and patients in face of moral distress and difficult situations? What set-backs have they encountered during the pandemic? How could they help the healthcare field be more culturally-sensitive?

Course Requirements:

For University of Basel students, to pass this course you are required to:

1. Attend at least 8 out of 10 total lectures and participate actively. In case of unavoidable further absences, please contact me. These can possibly be compensated by an additional assignment (e.g. an additional short essay)
2. Critically read the suggested readings for each lecture (uploaded on ADAM and distributed via email 1 week prior to lecture)
3. Write a short essay on a topic in clinical ethics of your interest

Course Structure

Most lectures will take place on Mondays from 12:15 to 13:45 (see timetable for exceptions). When the situation permits, we will try to have in-person lectures on 19.09, 03.10, 17.10, 14.11 following all the regulatory constraints by the University of Basel. All other sessions are held over Zoom.

Joining over Zoom for in-person lectures is available for participants who have exceptional reasons and cannot participate in-person. Please let Angelina (Angelina.tian@unibas.ch) know if you cannot participate in-person for these sessions, otherwise students are expected to arrive on-site.

As this course is given to the University of Basel students for credit with requirements to pass, no restrictions for attendance and credit points are given to non-University members. Registration required for location/Zoom access via Angelina Tian (Angelina.tian@clutterunibas.ch)

Support for Students:

All readings and presentation material (if given permission by the lecturer) will be uploaded on ADAM.

If you have feedback, questions or input that might be interesting for other members of the course, you are very encouraged to bring them to the discussion at the end of each lecture. If you prefer, you are always free to contact the coordinator via email: (angelina.tian@clutterunibas.ch)

Course dates: