BMB840: The Ethics of Biomedicine

Study Board of Science

Teaching language: English
EKA: N210048102
Assessment: Second examiner: None
Grading: Pass/Fail
Offered in: Odense
Offered in: Autumn, Spring
Level: Master

STADS ID (UVA): N210048101
ECTS value: 5

Date of Approval: 10-05-2023


Duration: 1 semester

Version: Approved - active

Comment

The course is elective for the following curricula: Biochemistry and molecular biology, Biomedicine and or Computational Biomedicine.

Entry requirements

The course can be followed by students who are enrolled at BMB, Biomedicine or Computational Biomedicine
The course can be followed by students enrolled in the Master program in Pharmacy or Biology.

Academic preconditions

Students taking the course are expected to:

  • Have knowledge of bachelor level biochemistry and molecular biology
  • Be able to manage their own time, when taking a fully online course.

Course introduction

The aim of the course is to introduce the student to the basic concepts, principles and tools within biomedical ethics, enabling the student to evaluated ethical issues in biomedical research, and data handling. This is especially important when handling patient data, and conducting responsible ethical research.

The course builds on the knowledge acquired in the courses bachelor degree, and gives an academic basis for evaluating ethical problems in projects that are part of the degree. This is an online course developed by the Biomedical Ethics Unit at Karolinska Instituttet.

In relation to the competence profile of the degree it is the explicit focus of the course to:
  • Give the competence to identify and evaluate ethical aspects of biomedical research. 
  • Give the competence to coherent argue for and against ethical positions. 
  • Give skills to perform analyses of ethical problems in biomedicine.
  • Give knowledge and understanding of the basic theories, principles and concepts of biomedical ethics

Expected learning outcome

The learning objective of the course is that the student demonstrates the ability to:
  • Account for basic theories, principles, and concepts within biomedical ethics.
  • Identify ethical problems, positions, and arguments within biomedicine.
  • Perform an analysis of an ethical problem within biomedicine.
  • Coherently argue for and against courses of action on how to deal with an ethical problem within biomedicine.
  • Reflect on one’s own and others’ values
  • Identify ethical problems, positions, and arguments related to treatment development and its applications.
  • Identify ethical problems, positions, and arguments due to access to increasing information and recordings of personal health in biomedicine.
  • Identify ethical problems, positions, and arguments due to access to increasing amounts of genetic and other molecular information and recordings of personal health in biomedicine.

Content

The following main topics are contained in the course:
  • The basic concepts, theories, and principles in biomedical ethics
  • Research ethics for biomedical analytics.
  • Global justice for biomedical analytics.
  • Treatment development and its applications (the ethics of orphan drugs, screening, and biobanking).
  • Gene-ethical issues.

Literature

See itslearning for syllabus lists and additional literature references.

Examination regulations

Exam element a)

Timing

Course in Autumn: January
Course in Spring: June

Tests

Written assignment

EKA

N210048102

Assessment

Second examiner: None

Grading

Pass/Fail

Identification

Student Identification Card - Exam number

Language

Normally, the same as teaching language

Examination aids

Not specified, a closer description of the exam rules will be posted in itslearning

ECTS value

5

Indicative number of lessons

30 hours per semester

Teaching Method

At the faculty of science, teaching is organized after the three-phase model ie. intro, training and study phase.
  • Intro phase: 10 hours
  • Skills training phase: 20 hours, hereof tutorials: 20 hours tutorials
This course is a semi self-paced online course in the EdX platform. The course consists of five modules being released gradually over the semester. The teaching is a mixture of reading material, video lectures, quizzes and discussions, all conducted online. It is thus important, that the student is able to structure their own time and meet the deadlines within the course.

Study phase activities: 
  • Post in online discussion forum
  • Read material
  • Write final report

Teacher responsible

Name E-mail Department
Karin Hjernø hjernoe@bmb.sdu.dk Institut for Biokemi og Molekylær Biologi

Timetable

Odense
Show full time table (start E23)
Show full time table (start F24)

Administrative Unit

Biokemi og Molekylær Biologi

Team at Educational Law & Registration

NAT

Offered in

Odense

Recommended course of study

Profile Education Semester Offer period

Transition rules

Transitional arrangements describe how a course replaces another course when changes are made to the course of study. 
If a transitional arrangement has been made for a course, it will be stated in the list. 
See transitional arrangements for all courses at the Faculty of Science.