BTHX 5400 | Introduction to Ethics in Health Policy
Jan. 19 - May 3
This course introduces students to ethical issues in health policy. There are no prerequisites for this course. Background will be provided on the bioethics concepts and frameworks, and the legal and policy structures required to analyze the issues of focus in the course. Through in depth case studies, students will explore how law and ethics both enable and constrain decisions involving: Reproductive decision-making; Genetic testing and gene editing; The definition of death and organ transplantation; Life sustaining treatment and decisions that may hasten death, and; vaccine mandates
About the Instructors
Jennifer Needle-Suarez, MD, MPH, MPA, HEC-C, is an Associate Professor in the Center for Bioethics and Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. She earned her MD from Howard University in Washington DC, and a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Jennifer Needle-Suarez completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. She completed her fellowship in Biomedical Ethics at the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.
Joel Wu, JD, MPH, MA, HEC-C, is a Center for Bioethics’ Clinical Ethics Assistant Professor and a senior lecturer in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. Professor Wu’s primary role is as a clinical ethicist for the MHealth Fairview system. He is a co-chair of the University of Minnesota Medical Center's Ethics Committee, co-lead for the clinical ethics consultation service for MHealth Fairview system hospitals, and member of the MHealth Fairview Ethics Council. Professor Wu also teaches courses at the intersection of clinical ethics, public health ethics, and public health law.