Public Health-related Majors
Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Bioethics
This major requires 13 courses. Prerequisites do not add any additional courses. It is a Bachelor of Arts major that satisfies the Humanities requirement of the Rochester Curriculum.
- Key goals for this major:
- Provide students with the tools to think about the major ethical and related legal questions that arise in medicine and public health;
- Understand the frameworks in which individual moral decisions should be made;
- Understand the frameworks in which social and political moral decisions should be made;
- Understand the most important controversies in bioethics;
- Develop the tools to analyze moral arguments in bioethics; and
- Develop the tools to construct arguments that contribute to some of these debates.
Requirements of the Major (prerequisites in parentheses):
| A. Foundational Courses: | ||
|---|---|---|
| None | ||
| B. Common Core (5 courses): | ||
| PH 101 | Introduction to Public Health I | (none) |
| PH 102 | Introduction to Public Health II | (PH 101) |
| PH 103 | Concepts of Epidemiology | (none) |
| STT 212 or STT 211 | Appl. Stat. for the Biological and Physical Sciences I or Appl. Stat. for Social Sciences | (none) |
| PHL 228 or PHL 225 |
Public Health Ethics (228) or Ethical Decisions in Medicine (225) | (1 in PHL; or permission of instructor) |
| C. Specific Core Requirements: | ||
| Required Core (5 courses) | ||
| PHL 102 | General Ethics | (none) |
| PHL 223/223W | Social and Political Philosophy | (PHL 102) |
| PH/PSC 236 | Health Care and Law | (none) |
| PH 300 (H) | Seminar for Bioethics Majors | (1 in PHL) |
|
*PHL 228/228W or PHL 225/225W |
Public Health Ethics or Ethical Decisions in Medicine |
(1 in PHL; or permission of instructor) |
| *ONE COUNTS FOR THE COMMON CORE GROUP ABOVE, THE OTHER FOR THE SPECIFIC CORE IN THE MAJOR |
||
| D. Electives (3 courses - 2 must come from Group I; 1 must come from Group II): | ||
| I. Philosophy and Ethics | ||
| PHL 103 | Contemporary Moral Problems | (none) |
| PHL 220/220W | Recent Ethical Theory | (1 in ethics) |
| PHL 226/226W | Philosophy of Law | (1 in PHL) |
| PHL 230/230W | Environmental Justice | (1 in PHL) |
| II. History, Sociology, and Anthropology | ||
| ANT 216 |
Medical Anthropology |
(1 in ANT) |
| HIS 208/208W | Medicine, History and Social Reform | (none) |
| HIS 209/209W | Changing Concepts of Health and Illness | (none) |
| HIS 287/287W |
History of International and Global Health |
(none) |
| PH 116 | Introduction to the U.S. Health System | (none) |
| E. Upper-Level Writing Requirement: | ||
| Students will be required to register for two upper-level writing courses within this major, one of which is PH 300 Seminar for Bioethics Majors. | ||
Honors Program:
Students will be invited by the Office for Public Health-related Programs to apply to the honors program. Invitations are based on a 3.7 grade-point average in the five Public Health-related Common Core Courses (all five courses need to have been completed by the end of junior year) and on progress toward finishing requirements for the major. Students who receive an invitation will need to formally apply to the Office for Public Health-related Programs to enroll in the honors program. To graduate with honors in Bioethics, students must complete the major; complete the honors section of the Seminar for Bioethics Majors; complete eight credit hours of independent study over and above the credits required for the major (PH 391 for fall semester and PH 398 for spring semester of senior year); have a cumulative grade-point average of at least a 3.7 in the major; and, complete a distinguished research paper under the direction of a faculty adviser. The thesis must be of at least A- quality. Students will not receive honors for a thesis that does not meet this minimum standard.
Distinction Program:
This major will offer a distinction program in which the terms “distinction”, “high distinction”, and “highest distinction” will reflect the quality of performance in the major. A GPA of at least 3.40 will qualify for “distinction”; a GPA of at least 3.60 will qualify for “high distinction”; and a GPA of at least 3.80 will qualify for “highest distinction”.
