- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
Ethics of End-of-Life Issues 3501-EKZ18-S-OG
The course is focused on the main moral problems of end of life and provides a relevant ethical knowledge (concepts, theories, principles, rules and arguments) as a general framework for interpreting and analysing moral issues arising in terminal care as well as teaches methods of case analysis. The course aims at making students aware of the normative aspects of medical decisions made in terminal care, clarifying the most important philosophical approaches to medico-moral reflection, that is the philosophical context of ethical theories and their practical application as well as normative positions in end-of-life ethics. The course aims at developing the students’ skills in recognising the moral dimensions of end of life and their ability to think critically about moral issues arising in terminal care. The course develops students’ ability to analyse critically moral arguments, making them able to formulate and support with clear reasoning their medico-moral judgments concerning terminal care.
To sum up: The course aims at: (a) giving students a relevant ethical knowledge of main problems and discussions in terminal care; (b) stimulating their analytical skills and reasoning abilities; (c) enhancing their intellectual sensibility and awareness of the needs of dying patients; (d) enhancing their skills in construction arguments; (e) developing their habit of critical thinking.
Content: Dying – changes in the attitudes to death and dying in Western culture according to Ph. Ariès. Is cultural thanatology just the science fiction to the Past? Michel Vovelle analyses of cultural thanatology. The phenomenon of medicalization of death. Dying in post-modernity: liberal pattern of full control and communitarian pattern of peaceful death. The concept of terminal stage and terminal phase. Ethical foundations of medical thanatology. Informed consent in terminal care. Ordinary and extraordinary means. Medical futility. Minimal (basic) means. Principle of double effect and analgesia of terminally ill patients. Palliative sedation. Ethical analyses of commissions and omissions, withholding and withdrawal. Ethical aspects of artificial feeding and hydrating in terminal care. End-of-life controversies. Advance directives. DNR. Quality of life: theories and methods of assessment. Ethical and legal issues concerning euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Palliative care and terminal care. Hospice movement: development of forms of hospice care.
Type of course
general courses
Mode
Assessment criteria
Your final grade depends on:
- Active participation in the seminars (attendance, preparation, participation in discussions) – 40%
- Preparation & oral delivery of presentation – 10%
- Critique of a paper concerning seminar subject (in writing) – 10%
- The case/problem analysis (individual, in writing) – 20%
- The case/problem analysis (team work, in writing) – 20%
Bibliography
– Ph. Ariès, Człowiek i śmierć, PIW, Warszawa 1989
– T. L. Beauchamp, J. F. Childress, Tradycyjne rozróżnienia i reguły rządzące zaprzestaniem leczenia, [w:] tychże, Zasady etyki medycznej, tłum. W. Jacórzyński, Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza 1996.
– D. Birnbacher, E. Dahl (eds.), Giving Death a Helping Hand, International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine 38, Springer 2008.
– D. Callahan, The Troubled Dream of Life. In Search of a Peaceful Death, Simon&Schuster, New York-London 1993;
– The Tyranny of Survival and Other Pathologies of Civilized Life, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York 1973.
– J. Drążkiewicz, W stronę człowieka umierającego - o ruchu hospicyjnym w Polsce, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Instytut Socjologii, 1983.
– E. Kübler-Ross, Rozmowy o śmierci i umieraniu, tłum. I. Doleżal - Nowicka, PAX, Warszawa 1979.
– McMahan, The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life, Oxford University Press 2003.
- A. Ostrowska, Śmierć w doświadczeniu jednostki i społeczeństwa, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN, Warszawa 1991.
– M.Pabst Battin, Ending Life, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005.
– Polskie Towarzystwo Pediatryczne, Zaniechanie I wycofanie się z uporczywego leczenia podtrzymujacego zycie u dzieci, Warszawa 2011.
– P. Singer, O życiu i śmierci. Upadek etyki tradycyjnej, przeł. A. Alichniewicz i A. Szczęsna, PIW, Warszawa 1997.
– Szeroczyńska, Eutanazja i wspomagane samobójstwo. Studium prawnoporównawcze, Universitas, Kraków 2004.
– K. Toombs, Sufficient Unto the Day: A Life with Multiple Sclerosis, [w:] S. K. Toombs, D. Barnard, R. A. Carson (red.). Chronic Illness: From Experience to Policy, Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press 1995
– M. Vovelle, Śmierć w cywilizacji Zachodu. Od roku 1300 po współczesność, Słowo/Obraz Terytoria, Gdańsk 2005.
– M. Warnock, E. Macdonald, Easeful Death, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009
– M. Webb, The Good Death. The New American Search to Reshape the End of Life, Bantam Books, New York 1999.
– S.J. Youngner, G.K. Kimsma, Physician-Assisted Death in Perspective. Assessing the Dutch Experience, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012.
Additional information
Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:
- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: