Other Education Programs in Bioethics

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Joint Degrees with Master of Arts in Bioethics

Joint Degree in Law and Bioethics (JD/MA)

Joint Degree in Medicine and Bioethics (MD/MA)

Programs with the School of Law

Health Law Certificate Program

Joint Degree in Law and Public Health (JD/MPH)

Programs with the School of Medicine

Medical Humanities Area of Concentration

Clinical Ethics Training Program

Fourth-Year Medical School Electives

Joint Degree in Law and Bioethics

Students enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh School of Law may elect to earn the Master Degree in Bioethics in conjunction with their law degree. Graduates of the program receive the Juris Doctor (JD) degree, the basic professional degree in law, and the Master of Arts (MA) degree from Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with a concentration in bioethics. The joint degree program has been established in recognition of the extensive and increasing overlap between law and bioethics. The objective of this educational program is to prepare graduates with an interdisciplinary background in law and bioethics so they can address those issues and situations that require knowledge of and expertise in both. Graduates will be academically prepared for professional roles as bioethicists in health care institutions, in public policy working for government or voluntary associations, or in the practice of law, giving counsel to health care institutions. This joint degree program permits students to earn the two degrees in a shorter period of time than if pursued separately. Students wishing to enter this program may apply before matriculation in the School of Law or while enrolled in the JD program.

Students may begin combining coursework in the two programs in their first semester of law school by taking one of the bioethics core courses (Theoretical Foundations of Applied Ethics) in place of Criminal Law, which would then be taken in the second year of study. Students should discuss this plan of study with Prof. Alan Meisel, Director of this joint program.

For more information on this program (including an informative brochure), contact the Director of Admissions, Center for Bioethics and Health Law, 300 Medical Arts Building, 3708 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3405 (412/647-5700). For a downloadable Application Materials Checklist (PDF file), click here. 

Joint Degree in Medicine and Bioethics

Students enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine may elect to earn the Master Degree in Bioethics in conjunction with their medical degree. Graduates of the program receive the Medicinae Doctor (MD) degree, the basic professional degree in medicine, and the Master of Arts (MA) degree from Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with a concentration in bioethics. The joint degree program has been established in recognition of the extensive and increasing overlap between medicine and bioethics. Physicians are increasingly aware that the practice of medicine often entails balancing conflicting interests and making difficult decisions that involve an appreciation of their ethical dimensions and cultural contexts. The objective of this educational program is to provide the interdisciplinary background in medicine and medical ethics to address those issues and situations that require knowledge of and expertise in both. Graduates will be academically prepared for professional roles as bioethicists in healthcare institutions, in public policy working for government or voluntary associations, or in the practice of medicine. This joint degree program permits students to earn the two degrees in a shorter period of time than if pursued separately. Students wishing to enter this program may apply before matriculation in the School of Medicine or while enrolled in the MD program.

For more information on this program (including an informative brochure), contact the Director of Admissions, Center for Bioethics and Health Law, 300 Medical Arts Building, 3708 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3405 (412/647-5700). For a downloadable Application Materials Checklist (PDF file), click here. 

Health Law Certificate Program

Students in the School of Law may enroll in the Health Law Certificate Program, which is intended to give students a basic grounding in the field, complemented by clinical experience and more in-depth study of advanced topics and closely related areas of law. A combination of classroom and clinical components acquaints students with everything from bioethics to medical malpractice and the complex business and legal problems surrounding integrated health care networks. Students are expected and encouraged to obtain the same broad background in law expected of all graduates of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Program requirements include the basic course in Health Law, a clinic or practicum, three or four health law electives, a choice of four or five recommended courses, and a research paper on a topic in health law. There is also a variety of externships and summer jobs available in the health care setting. For further information, contact the Director, Health Law Certificate Program, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (412/648-7120). Email inquiries may be sent to hlc@law.pitt.edu.

Joint Degree in Law and Public Health

The Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and the School of Law at the University of Pittsburgh offer a cooperative educational program, the joint degree program in law and health policy. Graduates of the program receive the Juris Doctor (JD) degree, the first professional degree in law, and the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, a professional degree focusing on health policy. The joint degree program has been established in recognition of extensive and increasing overlap between law and health policy and health care in the United States. The objective of this specialized educational program is to provide graduates with an interdisciplinary background to address issues and situations in the health sector that require expertise in both law and health policy. Graduates of this joint degree program are academically prepared for professional roles in health policy and regulation, the practice of law with private clients or government agencies, and for the roles of in-house counsel for health organizations and systems. The course of study ordinarily adds one or two semesters to the time needed to complete the JD degree. For further information, contact the Director, Master Degree in Law and Public Health, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (412/648-7120). Email inquiries may be sent to hlc@law.pitt.edu.

Medical Humanities Area of Concentration

In collaboration with the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, the School of Medicine offers an area of concentration in medical humanities for interested and qualified students. Just as medical science draws from a number of sciences to understand and address disease and disability, the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities draws from the humanities to enable physicians to provide more humane, sensitive care to diverse patients. To enhance medical science and its clinical application, medical humanities draws from the diverse domains of anthropology, cultural studies, ethics, history, law, literature, philosophy, religion, writing, and women's studies. Through this Area of Concentration (AoC) in Medical Humanities, students gain an enriched appreciation of the social context in which bioscience interventions and debates take place. They explore how medicine and culture interact to shape provider and patient identities, healthcare practices, and healthcare institutions. In addition, they gain critical analytical skills needed to participate in the broader public conversation about health care.

Students work with a mentor to tailor the content of their AoC to fulfill their interests and to apply medical humanities perspectives within clinical contexts. The AoC is designed to allow students to continue to pursue interest in the humanities that they may miss from their college studies, and to help them become a part of a broader community of medical humanities scholars and practitioners both locally, in the School of Medicine and the University, and nationally through participation in the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

Requirements are designed to expose students to the breadth and depth of the medical humanities, to allow them to pursue their particular interests, and to help them become members of the local and national communities of those interested in the medical humanities. Students will:

• Select and meet with a mentor
• Attend six local medical humanities professional educational activities during each of three years. Examples include: Bioethics and Health Law Grand Rounds, Health Policy Institute Lectures, Literature and Medicine Reading Group, and Reynolds History of Medicine Lectures.
• Maintain membership in the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities for at least three years and attend one national meeting.
• Complete two graduate-level medical humanities courses (typically one during the first two years, and a second during the third or fourth year).
• Complete two fourth-year medical humanities electives.
• Apply medical humanities approaches within one clinical rotation.

Clinical Ethics Training Program

The Clinical Ethics Training Program, established in 1987 with a grant from the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, integrates clinical training in bioethics into the third- and fourth-year curricula of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and into postgraduate training. The methods of instruction emphasize a case-oriented clinical approach, rounds, and case conferences, all supplemented by didactic teaching techniques. In the third year of medical school, the program integrates clinical ethics into the clerkships in medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and surgery. A month-long elective in clinical medical ethics is available for fourth-year medical students.

Fourth-Year Medical School Electives

1. Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice

This elective offers students an opportunity to explore several important ethical issues in clinical practice, including informed consent, competency, surrogate decision-making, advance directives, forgoing life-sustaining treatment, futility, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, confidentiality, reproductive ethics, managed care, access and rationing. The elective has two components:

• Seminar Sessions, which will explore important current medical ethics literature and related cases. There are required reading assignments for each session.
• Case Discussion Sessions, at which students will present cases. Students may need to spend time in the clinical setting gathering data for these presentations. There will be 4-6 case discussion sessions, depending on the number of students enrolled. Each student will be expected to present at least one case. Case discussion sessions will be scheduled at times that are mutually agreeable to students and faculty.

Whenever feasible, students will be given an opportunity to participate in ethics consultations by the CME Ethics Consultation Service at PUH, MUH, or CHP. Students may also have an opportunity to attend faculty seminars and meet with CME visiting professors.

2. Narrative, Literature, and the Experience of Illness

This elective provides the senior medical student with a rare opportunity to experience and examine the culture and practice of medicine from the perspective of an outside observer. Through the use of various types of medical literature (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and essays) and through clinical experiences that are traditionally thought to lie outside of the physician's role, we will explore the perceptions that patients have of doctors and hospitals as well examine the culture of traditional biomedicine. Through experiencing, reflecting, discussing, and writing about how differently doctors and patients often view illness, disease, treatment, and death, we may gain greater insight into our own beliefs, biases, and potential strengths to provide healing. Anne Fadiman writes in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, "I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things, but where the edges meet. I like shorelines, weather fronts, international borders. There are interesting frictions and incongruities in these places, and often if you stand at the point of tangency you can see both sides better than if you in the middle of either one. This is especially true, I think, when the apposition is cultural." It is the apposition of the culture of biomedicine and individual, personal experiences of illness that this course will help the student of medicine to examine more closely.

Grades for the class will be determined by student attendance, participation and writing assignments. Students are asked to complete two types of writing assignments. The first assignment is a weekly essay based on an assigned topic. The essays are designed to provoke critical thought about the experience of illness and your own professional development. The essays should be at least two double-spaced type-written pages. They will be examined for mainly for content and do not have to be carefully edited or follow formal paper standards.