Applied Ethics or Bioethics ...

firemedic0227

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I need to take an Ethics course for my degree in Paramedicine and I can either take Applied Ethics or Bioethics, which one would you say would suit this career better?
 
I'd go for applied ethics. Bioethics tends to deal more with the issues concerning advances in science like genetic engineering, and cloning. Bioethics is fascinating but a basic applied ethics course will probably be more applicable in our field.
 
Check out the syllabi. My Biomedical Ethics course was really about the principles of medical ethics, but this was at a college with a moderately-sized philosophy department. Applied ethics is apparently a general term that encompasses bioethics and the ethics of other disciplines and situations.
 
Check out the syllabi. My Biomedical Ethics course was really about the principles of medical ethics, but this was at a college with a moderately-sized philosophy department. Applied ethics is apparently a general term that encompasses bioethics and the ethics of other disciplines and situations.

A great deal of current bioethics is based around medicine, but it tends to be the pretty fancy end of medicine. Like I said very interesting stuff but maybe not quite as useful to a pre hospital medical provider. MrConspiracy is right though look at the syllabi and see exactly what they cover.
 
A great deal of current bioethics is based around medicine, but it tends to be the pretty fancy end of medicine. Like I said very interesting stuff but maybe not quite as useful to a pre hospital medical provider. MrConspiracy is right though look at the syllabi and see exactly what they cover.

I think back to my medical ethics class all the time when dealing with DNR situations, but that was before the advent of stem cell research, genetic engineering, etc.

I would say that a general ethics course might be more useful, but I thoroughly enjoyed my medical ethics class.
 
I would take applied ethics. I've taken a wide range of social ethics and bioethics classes exploring different philosophical and theological theories (even having been taught by one of the most prominent Catholic and feminist ethicists...fun). Bioethics has a focused changing from genetics and research to patient care and even health care reform these days, but I have had a hard time finding the application in emergency medicine including pre-hospital care for an EMT, medic, or ED tech.

I'd go with applied ethics as it will at least teach you the foundations of ethical systems easily, which you can apply to whatever.
 
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I took a biomedical ethics class while in college. It was pretty cool.
 
So much of your decision will come down to the course curriculum and how it is taught. See if you can obtain and review the syllabus ahead of time.

My degree is in Philosophy with an emphasis in applied ethics and while you'll find wide variation in what is covered and how in courses, I think you'll likely find an applied ethics class more useful, even if it has no medical component at all.

While (almost) everyone has a moral code of some sort and to some degree has a handle on where they stand on various issues, far less have taken the time to examine why they think that way and on what basis their morality comes from. As a result we can fall into some situations where our morality becomes bogged down with emotional baggage. This may not be an issue for someone whose work and life finds them in a controlled fairly homogeneous environment, but can be far more problematic in the environment in which we work.

Ideally everyone would be required to take a reasoning or logic course (not symbolic logic, too obtuse) and an introduction to ethics course as part of their post-secondary education regardless of major.

Biomedical ethics is extremely interesting, but without a grounding in basic ethics you can get to bogged down in the principles and professional ethics and end up learning them by rote. Sure knowing why autonomy and informed consent are vital for the ethical practice of medicine is important, but without a good foundation in ethical theory you'll only learn this by rote.
 
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