Bioethics and Law

This course surveys the law of bioethics.  Most of the course will focus on the law of decision making in healthcare or medical settings.  We will begin by examining the treatment relationship between patients and their healthcare providers, focusing on the fiduciary nature of the relationship and the doctrine of informed consent.  Informed consent is also the foundation of human subjects research regulation, which is the next topic in the course.  We will then explore the law of organ transplantation before moving into special types of healthcare decision making-reproductive and end-of-life decision making.  We conclude the survey with the law of public health.