- Docente: Elisabetta Lalumera
- Credits: 1
- SSD: M-FIL/05
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Single cycle degree programme (LMCU) in Medicine and Surgery (cod. 9210)
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from Jan 19, 2023 to Jan 23, 2023
Learning outcomes
After successful completion of this module students will be able to individuate and reflect on ethical issues pertaining to:
- public health communication and policies (such as vaccination and prevention campaigns)
- distribution of resources in healthcare systems (equity and fairness)
- medical experts' communication in the media and their responsibilities
Course contents
The course is organized in four lectures/themes:
1) Healthcare and justice.
The right to healthcare. Allocation of scarce resources. Overdiagnosis, overprescription and fairness. Is rationing based on unhealthy lifestyles ethically defensible? Discussion of cases.
2) Ethics in public health communication.
What is public health communication. Ethical issues: choice of target, message, and the role of shared values. Paternalism and nudges. The risk of stigmatization. The slogan of empowerment.
3) The case of vaccination campaigns.
Short history of vaccine hesitancy. Psychological explanations. Communication and policies: the deficit model vs the value-based model. The role of trust in institutions. The ethics of vaccination. Ethical arguments for hesitancy and refusal.
4) Medical experts in the media
What is an expert. Are we all experts on Twitter and Instagram? How experts should communicate with the public. Epistemic humility. Expert disagreement and how to communicate it. Hydroxychloroquine as an alleged cure for Covid as a case study.
Readings/Bibliography
The basic notions of this module are covered by my lectures, and I make the lecture notes available online. While this material is sufficient to successfully deal with the exam questions, I still recommend to read the optional material that will be uploaded each week.
Optional reading for class 1: Daniels, Norman, "Justice and Access to Health Care", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/justice-healthcareaccess/>.
Teaching methods
Traditional classroom lectures, with discussion
Assessment methods
Written test with multiple choice questions
Teaching tools
Files uploaded to Virtuale, ppt presentations during classes
Office hours
See the website of Elisabetta Lalumera
SDGs
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.