Clinical Ethics & the Law

3.0 credits

This is a course about laws relating to clinical bioethics with a focus on New York State. The course introduces the language and concerns of the laws that impact patient care, including the United States Constitution, the New York State Constitution, and legal rules (legislation and case law) that govern relationships between hospitals and individuals, specifically hospital employees caring for patients. The course will focus on the topics that most frequently arise in the setting of patient care, including the history and evolution of these laws. While this course does not directly address legal authority or political philosophy, an important theme of this course is restrictions of individual autonomy and the justifications.