This course explores the phenomenon and consequences of vaccine hesitancy and opposition through the disciplines of history, sociology, social welfare, anthropology, philosophy, literature, journalism, public health, and law.

Students taking this course will develop the skills to identify and analyze ethical challenges in public health especially regarding innovation. This course is case-based yet takes an unusually systematic approach. Each week introduces one of four major ethical theories relevant to public health, showing how the theories relate to each other. Students will learn how to identify the core ethical issues at stake in real examples and which theoretical approach to take for which types of challenges. These four theories are: respect for persons/autonomy, utilitarianism, distributive justice, and human rights. The real cases we analyze include: Planned Parenthood’s intervention study which involved paying girls to avoid pregnancy, Oregon and other health systems rationing of healthcare, an international trial testing an intervention to reduce maternal transmission of HIV which involved a placebo arm, the emergence of germline gene editing, experimental invasive neuro-technologies, and a range of uses of AI in health.

This course will meet synchronously, online. 2 units

Kavli Center Ethics, Science, and the Public Graduate Fellows should contact the Instructor for an Enrollment Permission number.

Repeat Rules