Course syllabus

POLITICS 741: Ethics and Health Policy

SEMESTER 1, 2018

15 points

Thursdays 1-3pm

 
Course Convenor: 

Martin Wilkinson - m.wilkinson@auckland.ac.nz

  • Should alcoholics get liver transplants? Should smokers get expensive heart surgery?
  • How should allocating scarce resources take account of the ageing population?
  • If an influenza pandemic threatens New Zealand, should the government force infected people into quarantine?
  • Should the government force people to be healthy? Should it manipulate them?
  • Are people who smoke or get fat really making free decisions?
  • Should organs be taken from the dead when they are desperately needed – even when the deceased did not consent?

Political theorists think about rights, justice and the good life. Governments everywhere struggle with ethical problems in health. Public policy is all the better for being informed by political theory, and political theory is all the better for thinking about what ought to happen in the real world.

One focus is scarcity: how should resources be allocated in a government health system? We consider organs for transplant, expensive treatments, age discrimination and holding people responsible for their own health. Another focus is public health; we consider coercion to control the spread of contagious disease, and how the government should try to reduce "lifestyle" diseases attributed to, for example, obesity.

This is an applied political theory paper and it would suit politics students of political theory and public policy, and non-politics students interested in health policy, population health and applied ethics.

 

Coursework

Two essays, each to be no more than 3000 words. Equal marks for each piece.

There is no examination.

For each essay, write as part of your 3000 word allowance a 200-250 word abstract. Bring your first one to class in week 6 and we will discuss it.

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due