This course provides learners with and introduction to the increasingly complex legal and ethical issues facing professionals who work in health and human services. This broad perspective will help practitioner’s respond to many dilemmas they face in the clinical settings and increase their sensitivity to the depth of issues involved in many treatment and service decisions. A framework is provided to enhance student’s capacities to think critically and creatively. No topic lends itself so readily to that goal than does the study of law, ethics, and bioethics. This course enables the student to reason clearly and effectively about the ethical and legal issues involved in medical science and technology. Emphasis is also placed on understanding the ethical and legal environment of health care, making appropriate ethical and legal choice in practice, and developing skills necessary to promote ethical and legal leadership in a health care setting. Every effort is made to help students understanding the impact of an ethical position on other individuals as well as on the larger community. It is not the intent of this course to change a student’s mind about any of the bioethical issues, nor to diminish their personal belief systems on any issue. It is mandatory, however, that all students begin to clarify their positions on issues, understand the nature of their beliefs, be able to defend their positions, and understand the process by which others with different beliefs arrive at their decisions.
