Ethics in Public Health

Graduate / Professional

The purpose of this condensed course is to familiarize students in the online Executive M.P.H. with critical foundations of public health ethics and to foster sophisticated ethical reasoning so that students may carefully apply and negotiate different ethical principles in relation to current public health challenges. The course examines ethical frameworks across cultures and considers sociohistorical context in relation to ethical constructs and applications. Attention is given to the interplay of race, gender, social inequalities, and marginalized populations when approaching matters of public health ethics. The first part of the course explores core principles of public health ethics; the second part of the course broadly applies these principles to some key areas of the field of public health practice in which ethics are particularly pertinent—infectious disease control, environmental health, social determinants of health, and policies of global health care access. Each session has readings and prerecorded material viewable online that should be completed before class. For each session, we meet for one hour of live discussion and interaction that synthesize and build on the readings and prerecorded material. Brief written reflections are incorporated into live interactions. A paper in which students evaluate ethical principles in relation to practical professional public health experience is developed and discussed incrementally. Open only to students enrolled in the Executive Online M.P.H. Program. Not open to auditors. ½ Course cr HTBA