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Courses 2023 - 2024

LAW H 504 Legal, Ethical & Social Issues In Public Health Genetics

Credits: 3


This core course in the Public Health Genetics Program addresses legal, ethical and social issues arising as genetic knowledge and technologies are made available to individuals and populations. The course will be oriented toward public health concerns and seek to equip the student to anticipate potential legal, ethical and social barriers complicating the incursion of new genetic advances into public health efforts. The course will begin with an overview of the historical uses and abuses of genetics. Using the current state of genetic knowledge and science as a substrate, the course will consider the controversies presented by both the unlimited and the limited access to these new technologies. Among the issues that will be dealt with in detail are: the potential for genetic discrimination and the creation of a genetic "underclass"; the use of genetic information in reproductive decision-making and the risk of a recurrent "eugenics" movement; distributive justice in the dispersal of these new technologies and impact upon the already crippled and dysfunctional health care system; and ownership/property issues arising as science reveal the secrets of the human genome. (PHG512)

Autumn, 3 Credit(s)

Course Sections and Instructors
Instructor(s)
Nelson, Sarah

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