Course Detail

In this half-semester seminar, we will consider many of the key ethical and social issues confronting the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.  Building on a set of case studies developed at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the Stanford School of Medicine, and the Association of Schools of Public Health, the course will consider such issues as:

• university-industry research collaboration, conflicts of interest, and intellectual property practices involving human genetic information;
• corporate responsibilities for injuries to human subjects, conducting research in developing countries, and the limits of risk exposure for human subjects receiving placebo treatment;
• corporate use of ethics advice and gene test marketing to a vulnerable population; and achieving appropriate balance in direct-to-consumer drug advertising; and
• ethics and the role of high-tech and high-cost medicine, and the biopharmaceutical industry’s corporate social responsibility – if any – beyond product innovation, safety and efficacy, and maximizing return on shareholder investment.

Class sessions will consist of a combination of lectures, case presentation, background readings, and discussion of cases and the issues they generate.

Upon completion of this course, each student should be able to:

• Define "ethics;"
• Understand the main features of key normative ethical theories and moral principles;
• Connect these theories and principles to the two primary component areas of "BioIndustry Ethics"--bioethics and business ethics;
• Recognize ethical dilemmas raised by the practice and study of bioscience;
• Make arguments and counterarguments about select moral dilemmas faced by the bioscience industry and its leaders;
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of his or her ethical arguments, and those of his/her classmates;
• Distinguish personal from societal issues;
• Demonstrate an increased ability to think critically about select moral dilemmas, and make persuasive ethics arguments;
• Better communicate and discuss moral values respectfully and with an open mind, and acknowledge the views of those with whom they disagree;
• Engage in more profound and effective self-reflection and critical assessment of personal and group beliefs and values; and
• Privately answer the self-inquiry: Am I an ethical person? Am I an ethical student? Am I confident that I will demonstrate, and advocate for, high ethical standards during my career as a bioscience leader?