CHALLENGES IN ENVIRONMENTAL BIOETHICS

The environment affects human health and well-being, and current health-care technology can impact the environment. Thus, questions about how humans ought to relate both to their own environment and to other living beings on this planet fall squarely within the field of bioethics. While some observers may see bioethics as concerning only the health of human beings defined narrowly, bioethics in fact has many implications for the larger biosphere and vice versa. 

This course discusses important issues at the nexus of bioethics and the environment, including climate change, ozone shield depletion, soil erosion, ocean pollution, diminishing biodiversity-all among the environmental factors with adverse consequences for the health of both human and non-human beings. Even the technologies employed in health-care have environmental impact harmful to health.

Among the challenges to be addressed: How can healthcare be made “green”?  What do present generations “owe” to future generations? What is environmental justice in the relations between developed and developing societies? How should humans relate to the other inhabitants of this planet?