Academic Programs

Explore our Degree Programs

Master's in Bioethics      Minor in Bioethics    

 

The department also teaches the ethics curriculum for University of Washington Medical Students, offers a scholarship opportunity for students of the social, ethical, and policy implications of health research and/or healthcare, and hosts an Interprofessional Ethics Lab. 

 

Wylie Burke Endowed Scholarship

The Wylie Burke Endowed Scholarship supports UW undergraduate or graduate students studying the social, ethical, and policy implications of health research and/or healthcare. The $1,000 one-year scholarship is available to cover the costs of tuition, books, fees, travel to professional meetings, and other educational expenses.  This opportunity is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, sex or other identity.  For more information, please contact bhadvise@uw.edu.

UW School of Medicine Ethics Theme Curriculum

Director: Gina Campelia, PhD HEC-C
Co-Directors: Maya Scott, MSW, LICSW and Jay Brahmbhatt, MD MA

The Ethics Theme is a 4-year curriculum that is woven throughout the UW School of Medicine, including over 15 sessions with the medical students across the WWAMI region. Ethics sessions take place independently in basic science blocks or clerkships, where ethical principles are applied to cases and topics relevant to the block or clerkship. In addition, the ethics theme is taught in a collaborative set of courses called Medicine Health and Society (previously Themes in Medicine, or Ecology of Health and Medicine), where ethics is taught in coordination with other themes, such as Health Systems Science and Health Equity. Ethics sessions are typically case-based and rely on small-group discussion. Topics covered over the course of the curriculum include critical thinking, foundations of justice, decision making capacity, moral distress, pediatric ethics, relational ethics, narrative ethics, shared decision making, research ethics, and more. You can find out more about the UWSOM Curriculum here.

Bodemer Interprofessional Ethics Lab

The Charles W. Bodemer Lectureship honors groundbreaking labors in the development of biomedical sciences, medical history, and ethics at the University of Washington. Dr. Bodemer was an Associate Dean of the UW School of Medicine and founded the Department of Biomedical History in 1967.

In 2018, the Bodemer Interprofessional Ethics Lab was established in collaboration with the UW Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research & Practice.  These events are held up to three times per year, and feature evening seminars of current ethical issues in healthcare and science with small group breakout discussions. For more information, see “Clinical Bioethics Labs” in the IPE Core Curriculum.

Graduate Courses

B H 510 The Humanities in Medicine

The humanities offer important perspectives on the nature and practice of clinical medicine. Focuses on the intersection of multiple...
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B H 530 Epidemics and the Politics of Blame: Eugenic and Racial Logics in Shaping U.S. Health Policy

Explores how social inequality affects both public sentiment and public health measures during epidemics. Students develop a critical...
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B H 550 Critical Race Theory and Medicine

Understanding race and racism, their applicability to medicine, and their effects on marginalized communities. Explores the necessities of...
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B H 650 Bioethics Teaching Clerkship

This course affords graduate students a professional development opportunity to build skills that lay the groundwork for becoming an expert...
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B H 588 Global Perspectives in Bioethics

This course examines problems in bioethics from diverse global standpoints, including East Asian, Sub-Saharan African and Western. Our...
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B H 574 Justice in Health Care

This course is an examination of the ethical problem of allocating scarce medical resources. We will emphasize the fundamental principles of...
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B H 562 Ethical Issues in Pediatrics

This course provides a survey of contemporary ethical issues that arise in the clinical and research environment when children are involved,...
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B H 556 Social Justice and Health

This course examines the moral grounds for the view that social inequalities in health are unjust using contemporary literature from moral...
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B H 552 Advanced Qualitative Methods

Examines and compares phenomenology, discourse analysis, and grounded theory. Reviews the history of ideas and critically reads examples of...
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B H 544 Ethical Implications of Emerging Biotechnology

This course introduces students to select biotechnology innovations and invites consideration of the ethical and policy implications...
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B H 535 Medical Ethics & Jurisprudence

This course examines the relationship between bioethics and law. Reviews the basic concepts of both disciplines; their theoretical and...
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B H 502 Ethical Theory

This course studies the major normative ethical theories, including both teleological and deontological approaches. We emphasize moral...
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B H 596 Master's Research Project

This course entails a research project culminating in a scholarly paper suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. MA...
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B H 536 Research Ethics and Regulation

Explores the ethical foundations, principles and concepts, and U.S. laws related to the conduct of research with human subjects. Required for...
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B H 527 Social Science Research Methods

This course introduces students to research methods in bioethics, ranging from qualitative to quantitative: interviews, focus groups, surveys...
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Undergrad Courses

B H 474 Justice in Health Care

This course is an examination of the ethical problem of allocating scarce medical resources. We will emphasize the fundamental principles of...

B H 456 Social Justice and Health

This course examines the moral grounds for the view that social inequalities in health are unjust using contemporary literature from moral...

B H 444 Ethical Implications of Emerging Biotechnology

This course introduces students to select biotechnology innovations and invites consideration of the ethical and policy implications...

B H 421 History of Eugenics

This course examines the history of ideas, policies, and practices associated with eugenics and human genetics from the late nineteenth...

B H 488 Global Perspectives in Bioethics

This course examines problems in bioethics from diverse global standpoints, including East Asian, Sub-Saharan African and Western. Our...

B H 402 Ethical Theory

This course studies the major normative ethical theories, including both teleological and deontological approaches. We emphasize moral...

B H 311 Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine

This course offers a case-based approach to ethical topics in medicine, such as abortion, genetic testing, physician-assisted death, and...

B H 201 Population Bioethics

This course introduces students to bioethical questions that arise in public health, population health, and global health, situating ethical...