Undergraduate Course: Social and Ethical Aspects of Medicine (BIME10013)
Course Outline
| School | Deanery of Biomedical Sciences |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides aims to develop students¿ understanding of the social aspects and ethical dimensions of medicine. We shall examine how issues of life and death are shaped by contemporary medicine and biotechnology, and their implications for individual patients, their families and society at large. We will also study ethical principles significant for relationships between patients and healthcare professionals in the context of an increasingly diverse society. Specific areas of interest include reproductive medicine, care for patients with chronic illness, end of life care, genetics and biotechnology, medical research, and issues of social justice and global health. |
| Course description |
Co Course Organiser: Kenneth Boyd and Lydie Fialova
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- By the end of the course students should have developed a critical understanding of the following and ability to apply them in a variety of contexts related to health and medicine: Social influences on how health and illness are experienced and medical care provided;
- Theoretical concepts of social science and philosophy relevant for understanding the role of medicine in contemporary society;
- Principles of medical ethics and forms of moral reasoning
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Reading List
Required readings for each week are available on Learn.
Students who have not taken the Medical Sciences Health, Illness and Society 3 or MBChB Health, Ethics and Society courses may find it helpful to read the following overview on sociological approaches to health and illness ahead of the course. It is available in PDF format on Learn.
Harden, J (2013) ¿Health, Illness and the Body¿ in Punch et al (eds) Sociology: Making Sense of Society 5th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited
The following texts provide useful overviews of the areas covered in the SEAM course:
Hope, T (2004) Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction Oxford: Oxford University Press
Lock, M and Nguyen, V-K (2010) Anthropology of Biomedicine Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell
Farmer, P. et al (2013) Reimagining Global Health Berkeley ; London : University of California Press
Lupton, D (2003) Medicine as Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body in Western Societies London ; Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications
Please note: all four ¿overview¿ texts are available as electronic books through the University Library (Hope, T appears in the Library catalogue as Hope, RA)
The following are key journals in the topic areas covered in SEAM:
The Journal of Medical Ethics
The Sociology of Health and Illness
Social Science and Medicine
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | SEAM |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Judith Sim
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Mary Cummings
Tel: (0131 6)51 3094
Email: |
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