PHI 110: Bioethics Course Syllabus
KCTCS catalog description
By applying major ethical theories to specific moral questions, this course attempts to teach the student to reason ethically about problems concerning health care. Topics such as abortion, euthanasia, care of the dying, paternalism, confidentiality, truth-telling, professional/patient relationships, medical experimentation (informed consent, coercion), professional/patient rights, rights to health care, and allocation of medical resources will be studied.
Course relationship to college’s mission and goals
The mission of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System is to improve the quality of life and employability of the citizens of the Commonwealth by serving as the primary provider of postsecondary education programs. This course aims at improving your quality of life and your employability.
Student learning outcomes specific to course
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
State-wide general education student learning outcomes being taught or strengthened in the course
Upon completion of the course, the student will also be able to:
Evaluate enduring and contemporary issues of human experience.
Required texts, supplies, materials
All course readings are available online.
Course requirements
The grade in this course will be based on 20 badges in the following categories:
Bioethics Badges
Discussion Badges
Other Badges
You may submit multiple attempts to earn a badge if you do not earn full credit on your first attempt. A badge is not earned (and therefore you do not receive points) unless you receive full credit (10 points) for the badge assignment you are attempting.
You may choose whichever badges you want to earn.
Please note that the grading criteria apply to all badges that you earn.
The more detail you can provide in your responses the more likely you will earn the badge.
To earn a badge your response must:
be sufficiently detailed to address all the points in the badge assignment.
show the application of the relevant philosophical concepts to the badge assignment.
be grammatically correct (i.e. written in standard college-level English).
Grading Policy
The grading scale for the course is as follows:
A=18 or more badges
B=16-17 badges
C=14-15 badges
D=12-13 badges
E= less that 12 badges
Incompletes can only be given under the following conditions:
Only the Registrar at your Home College can officially process a withdrawal or drop request. First, contact the instructor, and then contact the Registrar at your Home College if you must drop a class.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas in your written work without citing the source. ANYTIME you use information, ideas, or words from any book, magazine article, website, or any other source, you MUST fully and accurately cite the source by author name, title, publication date and page number (s). As a general rule, whenever you use more than three words from a source, you should put quotation marks around those words and cite the source as detailed above. This applies to textbooks and my lecture notes as well. Failure to comply with this policy will result in an E grade for the course. Your name will also be reported to your academic dean for possible further action.
Guidelines for Discussion Board Participation
In order to make the Discussion Board as effective an educational communication tool as possible, we will need to observe some basic ground rules.
Discussion Boards are an optional feature of this course. However, participating in them will enhance your learning in the course. If you do choose to earn the discussion board badges, I expect you to access these boards, read the contributions and make your own posts to those boards. Make sure you log in to this course frequently enough so that no discussion board becomes closed without your having made any posts to it. In this way, you demonstrate your engagement in the learning process. You will also enhance your final grade by your participation. Again, it is your responsibility to watch for the boards to open, and then make your post(s) in a timely manner. DO NOT procrastinate and make your posts at the last minute. The purpose of the discussion boards is to promote discussion. If you post at the last minute, with the obvious intention of doing the bare minimum to satisfy a requirement, I will not consider your posts to be of the same value as those which are posted in a timely manner and which promote genuine dialogue about philosophy.
Graded discussion boards CANNOT be made up. It is your responsibility to login regularly and make substantive contributions.
1. It is important that you use a good anti-virus program. A virus may not only crash your system, but could spread to others as well.
2. Complete all assigned readings before you participate in on-line discussions.
3. Respect each other's ideas, feelings and experience. While honesty and directness are encouraged, at the same time comments should be courteous and considerate.
4. All discourse will be civil. Under no circumstances will racial, ethnic or sexual slurs be tolerated. Everyone should feel welcome and good about participating in on-line discussions.
5. Make every effort to be clear in your communication. On-line communication lacks the nonverbal cues we often use for interpretation of language. I would suggest that you read your message at least twice (once aloud) before sending. This also includes checking for correct grammar and spelling. Posts with excessive grammatical and spelling errors WILL BE REMOVED!
6. When you post messages and replies, please do not use all capital letters. This makes the message not only hard to read, but it also MAKES IT APPEAR AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING!
7. Break up large blocks of text into paragraphs and space between paragraphs. In order to reduce the risk of losing longer messages, you may want to type your message in WORD and then cut and paste it into the Discussion Board. This will also prevent you from inadvertently sending a message before it is completed.
8. Please create an original title for your message so it is easily distinguishable from those of other students. When responding to a message from a classmate, please add the words "Reply to" in the subject line.
9. Remember that your on-line discussions are a portion of your grade. Please review and edit accordingly.
Your grade for the Discussion Board will ultimately be determined by the following criteria:
Relevance to the questions posed
Demonstration of an understanding of the topics under discussion
Clarity of expression
Frequency & timeliness of responses
Substantive contributions
Students Needing Special Accommodations:
Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Access*Ability Resource Center (ARC) on the appropriate campus as soon as possible. Please DO NOT request accommodations directly from the professor or instructor. If you require assistance during an emergency evacuation, notify your instructor and the ARC.
Downtown, Technical, and Carrollton Campuses
Terri Martin
Downtown Campus
VTI—Rm 319
(502) 213-2375
[email protected]
Southwest, Shelby, and Bullitt County Campuses
Nancy Birkla
Southwest Campus
Student Community Building—Rm 103
(502) 213-7120
[email protected]
Students with Hearing Loss or Deafness (Services include interpreting, note taking, and provision of ALD devices.)
Venetia Lacy, Interpreter and Coordinator of DHHS
(502) 213-4218
[email protected]
Student Code of Conduct
The KCTCS Student Code of Conduct explains the rights and responsibilities of both students and faculty and covers such matters as classroom and campus conduct, students' academic rights, and procedures for dealing with academic dishonesty. http://www.kctcs.edu/en/Students/Admissions/Academic_Policies/Code_of_Student_Conduct.aspx.
Attendance Policy
You should login at least twice a week to access the lectures and assignments I post. When we do discussion boards you will probably need to login in more to keep up with the posts and interact with each other on the discussion boards.
Non-discrimination Statement
Jefferson Community and Technical College is an Equal Opportunity institution committed to the policy of providing educational opportunities to all qualified students regardless of economic or social status, beliefs, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or physical or mental disability.
By applying major ethical theories to specific moral questions, this course attempts to teach the student to reason ethically about problems concerning health care. Topics such as abortion, euthanasia, care of the dying, paternalism, confidentiality, truth-telling, professional/patient relationships, medical experimentation (informed consent, coercion), professional/patient rights, rights to health care, and allocation of medical resources will be studied.
Course relationship to college’s mission and goals
The mission of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System is to improve the quality of life and employability of the citizens of the Commonwealth by serving as the primary provider of postsecondary education programs. This course aims at improving your quality of life and your employability.
Student learning outcomes specific to course
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- to identify ethical theories such as deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics.
- to identify philosophical problems in ethical reasoning
- to explain basic philosophical concepts in ethics.
- to apply ethical theories to issues such as informed consent, abortion, euthanasia.
- to explain and defend philosophical positions in written form.
State-wide general education student learning outcomes being taught or strengthened in the course
Upon completion of the course, the student will also be able to:
Evaluate enduring and contemporary issues of human experience.
Required texts, supplies, materials
All course readings are available online.
Course requirements
The grade in this course will be based on 20 badges in the following categories:
Bioethics Badges
Discussion Badges
Other Badges
You may submit multiple attempts to earn a badge if you do not earn full credit on your first attempt. A badge is not earned (and therefore you do not receive points) unless you receive full credit (10 points) for the badge assignment you are attempting.
You may choose whichever badges you want to earn.
Please note that the grading criteria apply to all badges that you earn.
The more detail you can provide in your responses the more likely you will earn the badge.
To earn a badge your response must:
be sufficiently detailed to address all the points in the badge assignment.
show the application of the relevant philosophical concepts to the badge assignment.
be grammatically correct (i.e. written in standard college-level English).
Grading Policy
The grading scale for the course is as follows:
A=18 or more badges
B=16-17 badges
C=14-15 badges
D=12-13 badges
E= less that 12 badges
Incompletes can only be given under the following conditions:
- You have completed a majority of the course work.
- Your have a passing grade in the course.
Only the Registrar at your Home College can officially process a withdrawal or drop request. First, contact the instructor, and then contact the Registrar at your Home College if you must drop a class.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas in your written work without citing the source. ANYTIME you use information, ideas, or words from any book, magazine article, website, or any other source, you MUST fully and accurately cite the source by author name, title, publication date and page number (s). As a general rule, whenever you use more than three words from a source, you should put quotation marks around those words and cite the source as detailed above. This applies to textbooks and my lecture notes as well. Failure to comply with this policy will result in an E grade for the course. Your name will also be reported to your academic dean for possible further action.
Guidelines for Discussion Board Participation
In order to make the Discussion Board as effective an educational communication tool as possible, we will need to observe some basic ground rules.
Discussion Boards are an optional feature of this course. However, participating in them will enhance your learning in the course. If you do choose to earn the discussion board badges, I expect you to access these boards, read the contributions and make your own posts to those boards. Make sure you log in to this course frequently enough so that no discussion board becomes closed without your having made any posts to it. In this way, you demonstrate your engagement in the learning process. You will also enhance your final grade by your participation. Again, it is your responsibility to watch for the boards to open, and then make your post(s) in a timely manner. DO NOT procrastinate and make your posts at the last minute. The purpose of the discussion boards is to promote discussion. If you post at the last minute, with the obvious intention of doing the bare minimum to satisfy a requirement, I will not consider your posts to be of the same value as those which are posted in a timely manner and which promote genuine dialogue about philosophy.
Graded discussion boards CANNOT be made up. It is your responsibility to login regularly and make substantive contributions.
1. It is important that you use a good anti-virus program. A virus may not only crash your system, but could spread to others as well.
2. Complete all assigned readings before you participate in on-line discussions.
3. Respect each other's ideas, feelings and experience. While honesty and directness are encouraged, at the same time comments should be courteous and considerate.
4. All discourse will be civil. Under no circumstances will racial, ethnic or sexual slurs be tolerated. Everyone should feel welcome and good about participating in on-line discussions.
5. Make every effort to be clear in your communication. On-line communication lacks the nonverbal cues we often use for interpretation of language. I would suggest that you read your message at least twice (once aloud) before sending. This also includes checking for correct grammar and spelling. Posts with excessive grammatical and spelling errors WILL BE REMOVED!
6. When you post messages and replies, please do not use all capital letters. This makes the message not only hard to read, but it also MAKES IT APPEAR AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING!
7. Break up large blocks of text into paragraphs and space between paragraphs. In order to reduce the risk of losing longer messages, you may want to type your message in WORD and then cut and paste it into the Discussion Board. This will also prevent you from inadvertently sending a message before it is completed.
8. Please create an original title for your message so it is easily distinguishable from those of other students. When responding to a message from a classmate, please add the words "Reply to" in the subject line.
9. Remember that your on-line discussions are a portion of your grade. Please review and edit accordingly.
Your grade for the Discussion Board will ultimately be determined by the following criteria:
Relevance to the questions posed
Demonstration of an understanding of the topics under discussion
Clarity of expression
Frequency & timeliness of responses
Substantive contributions
Students Needing Special Accommodations:
Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Access*Ability Resource Center (ARC) on the appropriate campus as soon as possible. Please DO NOT request accommodations directly from the professor or instructor. If you require assistance during an emergency evacuation, notify your instructor and the ARC.
Downtown, Technical, and Carrollton Campuses
Terri Martin
Downtown Campus
VTI—Rm 319
(502) 213-2375
[email protected]
Southwest, Shelby, and Bullitt County Campuses
Nancy Birkla
Southwest Campus
Student Community Building—Rm 103
(502) 213-7120
[email protected]
Students with Hearing Loss or Deafness (Services include interpreting, note taking, and provision of ALD devices.)
Venetia Lacy, Interpreter and Coordinator of DHHS
(502) 213-4218
[email protected]
Student Code of Conduct
The KCTCS Student Code of Conduct explains the rights and responsibilities of both students and faculty and covers such matters as classroom and campus conduct, students' academic rights, and procedures for dealing with academic dishonesty. http://www.kctcs.edu/en/Students/Admissions/Academic_Policies/Code_of_Student_Conduct.aspx.
Attendance Policy
You should login at least twice a week to access the lectures and assignments I post. When we do discussion boards you will probably need to login in more to keep up with the posts and interact with each other on the discussion boards.
Non-discrimination Statement
Jefferson Community and Technical College is an Equal Opportunity institution committed to the policy of providing educational opportunities to all qualified students regardless of economic or social status, beliefs, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or physical or mental disability.