***Subject to Change***
PHIL 213: Medical Ethics – Feminist Concerns in Medicine
Instructor: Chelsea Richardson
Course Meetings: May 16 – June 3, 11:30am – 2:20pm M-F in Burnett 120
Office Hours: Wednesday and Friday 2:30 – 3:30 in OLDH 1022
Course Description
Medical ethics concerns such issues as the duties of medical professionals toward their
patients and rules of good conduct within medicine. This course will discuss these issues in
relation to feminist concerns about race and gender. Insofar as the sick constitute one of
society’s most vulnerable groups, sick persons who are also members of socially
marginalized groups are an even more vulnerable subset. Arguably, given the general
duties of medical professionals toward the sick, the wellbeing of the sick and socially
marginalized should be of utmost concern to medical professionals. This course will
explore the experience and treatment of marginalized peoples in medicine, investigate the
ethical issues that surround certain marginalized groups, and help you develop theoretical
approaches that incorporate concern for the marginalized.
Course Objectives
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Develop an understanding of the broad overview of normative ethical theories
Develop an understanding of the barriers that marginalized groups face within
medicine
Be able to argue for a particular theoretical ethical framework
Be able to argue for a particular course of action using empirical evidence together with
a theoretical ethical framework
Required Course Texts
The Cancer Journals, By Audre Lorde (any edition will be fine)
All other required reading will be posted on the course Blackboard site
Assessments
Reading Quizes (worth 20% of the total course grade)
There will be daily reading quizzes usually consisting of a few multiple choice questions and
occasionally some short answer questions.
Reading Journals (worth 20% of the total course grade)
You will be required to keep a reading journal where you will summarize and reflect on the
texts and content of the course. For each day in class, I will ask that you reflect on that day’s
readings and class content and your own questions and concerns with the subject material.
Each entry should be no less than 250 words. These journals will be collected at the end of
each week you will get credit for a journal entry if it meets the length requirements and shows
engagement with the course content/readings. Basically, a legitimate effort to meet the
specifications of the assignment will receive full credit.
Ethical Theory Test (worth 20% of the total course grade)
At the end of week 1 you will take a comprehensive exam consisting of bothe multiple choice
questions and short essays. This is to ensure full comprehension of ethical theories that will be
utilized throughout the course.
Paper 1: Arguing for a Theory of Ethics in Medical Practice (worth 20% of the total course
grade)
This paper will be due on the final day of week 2. You will reflect on and endorse a particular
ethical theory discussed in the course and argue for the adoption of that theory as guide for
proper ethical reasoning in medicine. You must incorporate readings from the course and you
may incorporate outside sources if you choose. All empirical claims must be substantiated
with a source; all sources must be cited both in the text and at the end of the text in a
bibliography. Please use the formal citation method appropriate for your discipline. The paper
should be between 1000 and 1500 words.
Paper 2: Arguing from an Ethical Theory for an Application of Medical Practice in a Case
(worth 20% of the total course grade)
This paper will be due on the final day of week 3. You will build on the research done for Paper
1. This paper should argue for a specific course of action in a case from the course readings.
For example, in the case of medical professional’s conduct in treating Audre Lorde for breast
cancer in The Cancer Journals, what did the medical professionals in this case do wrong?
What made this conduct wrong? What would have been a better course of action in this case?
Explain how this better course of conduct could be supported by the ethical theory endorsed
in Paper 1. Again, you must incorporate readings from the course and you may incorporate
outside sources if you choose. All empirical claims must be substantiated with a source; all
sources must be cited both in the text and at the end of the text in a bibliography. Please use
the formal citation method appropriate for your discipline. The paper should be between
1000 and 1500 words.
Attendance Policy
Given that this course is so short and that is covers a huge amount of material, attendance
is mandatory. You may miss up to 1 class period without penalty. Any other absences, for
which no doctors note (or other appropriate documentation) is provided, will result in a 10
point reduction of the overall course grade (so a 95 would become an 85, 85 would become
a 75, etc.).
Late Work and Make Up Policy
I will not accept late work unless I have explicitly given an extension, or documentation of
illness is provided which explains why the work could not be completed on time. There will
be no make ups of quizzes or exams unless documentation of illness is provided which
explains why the quiz or exam could not be taken at its scheduled time.
ACE Credit
** This course satisfies ACE Outcomes 5 and 8.
ACE 5
Use knowledge, historical perspectives, analysis, interpretation, critical evaluation,
and the standards of evidence appropriate to the humanities to address problems
and issues.
ACE 8
Use knowledge, theories, and analysis to explain ethical principles and their
importance in society.
Academic Honesty
The UNL Student Handbook defines plagiarism as follows:
Presenting the work of another as one’s own (i.e., without proper acknowledgement of the
source) and submitting examination, theses, reports, speeches, drawings, laboratory notes
or other academic work in whole or in part as one’s own when such work has been
prepared by another person or copied from another person. Materials covered by this
prohibition include, but are not limited to, text, video, audio, images, photographs,
websites, electronic and online materials, and other intellectual property.
Any instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course.
Course Calendar
Week 1: Ethical Theory
5/16
NO READING DUE
5/17
J.S. Mill – Hedonism
J.S. Mill – On the Subjugation of Women
5/18
Immanuel Kant – The Good Will and the Categorical Imperative
Journal Entry Due
5/19
Russ Shafer-Landau - Virtue Ethics
Journal Entry Due
5/20
Russ Shafer-Landau – Feminist Ethics
Ethical Theory Test
Journal Entry Due
Week 2: Racism in Medicine
5/23
Tamar Gendler - On the epistemic costs of implicit bias
Harriet A. Washington – The Black Stork: The Eugenic Control of African
American Reproduction
Journal Entry Due
5/24
Harriet A. Washington – Profitable Wonders: Antebellum Medical
Experimentation with Slaves and Freedmen
Journal Entry Due
5/25
Audre Lorde – The Cancer Journals
Journal Entry Due
5/26
Audre Lorde – The Cancer Journals
Journal Entry Due
5/27
Arina Grossu – Margaret Sanger, racist eugenicist extraordinaire
Paper 1 Due
Journal Entry Due
Week 3: Sexism in Medicine
5/30
Sandra Harding – The Science Question in Feminism
Journal Entry Due
5/31
Alice Dreger – Categorical Imperatives
Journal Entry Due
6/1
Leslie J. Regan – Private Practices
Journal Entry Due
6/2
Yurdakul et al – The organisational silence of midwives and nurses: reasons
and results
Potterat et al – Women, forgotten by clinical research
Journal Entry Due
6/3
NO READINGS
Paper 2 Due
Journal Entry Due