700.644.01
Justice and Health
Location
East Baltimore
Term
4th Term
Department
Berman Institute (Bioethics)
Credit(s)
3
Academic Year
2025 - 2026
Instruction Method
In-Person
Wednesday, 3:30 - 6:20pm
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
Yes
Grading Restriction
Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Ruth Faden
Contact Email
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
none
Enrollment Restriction
Priority enrollment given to MBE, Bioethics Certificate & PhD Bioethics & Health Policy students
Why do you think health matters? Are all inequalities in health equally important? If not, why not?
Many of us are attracted to public health because of a desire to make the world not only a better place, but also a more just one. But what does that mean?
In this course we will examine concepts like fairness, equity, equality and justice. What do they mean? Why are they contested? Why do they matter to public health and health policy?
Through readings in the philosophical literature and challenging examples from public health and health and science policy, we will explore different understandings of how to make the world a more just place.
Examines theories of justice and their implications for bioethics, public health and health policy. Explores how justice considerations emerged in the origins of bioethics, justice as fairness, justice and well-being, structural injustice and the related concepts of power and advantage, critiques of structural injustice, and the ethics of policy making under conditions of disagreement and constraint.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Explain alternative social/structural justice frameworks
- Describe the implications of these different frameworks for health policy
- Explain the normative framings used in critiques of social/structural justice
- Apply a justice framework to a new situation
- Reflect professionally about justice disagreements in health policy settings
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 50% Exam(s)
- 50% Participation
Jointly Offered With
Taught synchronously, in an online seminar format. After an initial plenary session, the class is divided into two breakout groups of no more than ten students each. Students in each group meets for one hour without the instructor and one hour with. During the hour without the instructor, students work-shop paper ideas, and discuss specific questions that are circulated in advance of class.