FRS 001E - Sec. 001 - (2 units) - CRN 65614 - T 4:10-6:00pm - 1106 Hart
Litigating the Right to Die: Medicine, Bioethics, and the Courts

Instructor: Ben Rich, Department of MED: Bioethics, School of Medicine

Description: This seminar will explore the uniquely American phenomenon of resorting to the courts to assert a patient's right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. The students will have the opportunity to read and discuss excerpts from the actual appellate court decisions and related articles in the medical and bioethics literature. Initially, students will develop a basic understanding of the American legal system, strategies for reading and analyzing judicial opinions, as well as core concepts and principles in biomedical ethics. The topics considered in the seminar include: patient autonomy and informed consent, treatment refusal by competent and on behalf of incompetent patients, special cases of treatment refusal such as pregnant women and as those based on religious grounds, the role of advance directives, physician-assisted suicide, and cases of medical futility.

Format: The seminar will meet for 2 hours each week for 8 weeks. Students will be provided with excerpts of cases and other materials for discussion and analysis. Each student will have 3 written assignments. The first is a 4-5 page paper on a topic selected by the student (with prior approval by the instructor). The second is a 2-3 page analysis of a case raising ethical and legal issues in patient care. The third is completion of an advance health care directive. Grading: The student's final grade will be based on the following components: 40% on the paper, 30% on the case analysis, 20% on the advance directive, and 10% on the quality of contribution to class discussion.

About the Instructor: Professor Rich practiced health care law for nearly 20 years before returning to school to pursue a doctorate in philosophy. He is Associate Professor of Bioethics at UC-Davis School of Medicine and a Visiting Professor at UC-Davis School of Law. His research interests include care at the end of life, pain management, and informed consent. He is the author of Strange Bedfellows: How Medical Jurisprudence Has Influenced Medical Ethics and Medical Practice (Kluwer/Plenum Publishers, 2001).