Master of Arts in Bioethics

The bioethics program is 100% online and asynchronous (with the exception of one elective) to offer the most flexibility for busy students. Though the courses are structured and there are deadlines for assignments, you will not be required to be online at specific times.

Yes! While a background in bioethics certainly helps, it is not a requirement. Our students come from a wide range of professional and academic backgrounds, as do our faculty. We welcome anyone with an interest in bioethics to apply.

Courses and admission for the Master of Arts in Bioethics are available year-round in the spring, summer, and autumn semesters.

Once you submit your contact information, a dedicated Enrollment Advisor will connect with you shortly to provide more details about this online program, provide one-on-one guidance, and answer any questions you may have as you navigate the application process.

Philosophical survey of the moral foundations of contemporary bioethics theories and health care policies.

Examination of importance of ethics in research concerning advanced biomedical sciences, public regulation, and more.

Exploration of major clinical ethical issues confronting the practices of medical and biomedical science.

Instructs students in rudimentary legal research skills, constitutional foundations of health care law applicable to some classical and contemporary legal issues, and an overview of the structures of the legal system of the United States.

This unique course follows a longitudinal format with monthly 3-hour lectures, presentations, panel discussions, and/or debates led by various OSU faculty and guest lecturers. The intent of the course is to present to students a wide exposure to the most relevant, contemporary, and controversial topics in bioethics presented from a wide array of experts in the disciplines intersecting bioethics.

This unique Symposium II course follows a longitudinal format with monthly 3-hour lectures, presentations, panel discussions, and/or debates led by various OSU faculty and guest lecturers.

This course serves to introduce students to the study of neuroethics, which concerns itself with ethical problems arising at the interface between philosophy and neuroscience. Reading broadly, it explores both how philosophy animates ethical discussion within neuroscience as well as how neuroscience has much to say to philosophers.

This course offers an advanced introduction to disability bioethics. Students will become familiar with some of the central debates in contemporary disability bioethics. Topics may include: competing models of disability; whether, all things equal, having a disability make one’s life worse; if it is permissible to try and “treat” or “cure” disabilities.

To understand neuroscience is also to understand its impact on society. This course will examine the broader situation of contemporary neuroscience via the history of the field, how it is practiced now, and what that means looking towards the future. Students will engage with multiple disciplines to cultivate critical thinking, deepen awareness of their studies, and develop as professionals.

Building upon Clinical Bioethics (BIOETHIC 6020), this course will engage students in the more advanced processes and procedures of clinical ethical analysis, focusing on ethical reflection, negotiation, and decision making in clinical ethical scenarios. Theoretical frameworks, concepts, and applied analytical strategies will be examined in light of their usefulness for practice.

Over 2/3rds of clinical ethics dilemmas involve end-of-life decision-making. End-of-life care and palliative care are growing fields. This course will engage the essential ethics issues involved in end-of-life care. Clinical cases and medical knowledge will be explored. The prevailing procedural ethics of our time will be utilized to discuss ethical dilemmas.

The main goal of this course is to explore the historical roots of the field of bioethics. The course will be divided into a few main parts, including a broad survey of key figures and movements in medical history from antiquity to modernity, including the Hippocratics, Galenic medicine, the birth of dissection, Christian hospitality, Medieval medicine, modern surgery, the age of antibiotics, etc.

This course is designed to allow students an in-depth study of one of the most troubling periods in the history of medicine the active participation of physicians in the Holocaust. We will attempt to understand the distorted rational behind this genocide by ordinary men and women. We will also discuss, in depth, analogies to today’s medical practice.

This course focuses on key ethical issues surrounding women’s health and the pre, peri, and post-natal care of the mother and the newborn, including but not limited to ethics of: pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, prenatal diagnosis, maternal decision making, invetro fertilization, prenatal diagnosis, fetal treatment/surgery, neonatal care, genetic counseling, gene therapy, and genetic testing.

This course addresses the discourses and interplay of secular, religious, and theological perspectives in the field of bioethics. One central goal of this course is to identify the thought and language of secular, immanent bioethics in comparison/contrast with religious, transcendent bioethics without glossing the thick plurality of religious differences and perspectives in the major religions

This course will survey the writings of the various president’s bioethics councils beginning in 1974 to the most recent bioethics commission established by President Obama.

This course will delve deeply into the text of the Belmont Report, including reading essays in the appendices of the report and additional outside material.

This course serves as a theory-intensive overview of the major topics of animal bioethics. Students will study the foundations of the field by examining arguments about moral status, normative frameworks, and the metaphysical characteristics of non-human animals. The course emphasizes the application of these motifs in the clinic space, the laboratory, and the larger context of animals in society.

Students will explore the variety of methods used to address ethical concerns surrounding clinical care, biomedical research, and health care policy. The course will equip students with analytic and practical skills to engage in research of their own.

Disasters and humanitarian crises raise a host of ethical issues that are often distinct from those in clinical settings. This course will examine some of these issues as they arise during pandemics, natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

This course emphasizes learn-by-doing approach to conflict resolution through online and on-site elements. The course familiarizes participants with a ‘toolbox’ of skills essential to conflict resolution applicable to bioethics consultations. Pre-req: 6020, or permission of instructor.

The course aims to give students the ethical background to lead in an ongoing national dialogue about the ethical, legal, and social implications of advances in genomic technology, reproductive health and the professional responsibility of counseling.

This course of directed readings provides additional research preparation for a particularly high-level MA Thesis. Admission to this course requires a sponsoring faculty member and approval from the Director of the MA program. The Syllabus for this course will be written in conjunction between the student and sponsoring faculty member and approved by the Director of the MA program. Pre-req: 6000-level BioEthc course, or approval of Program Director.

Alongside the MA Thesis Project, the Ethics Practicum is one of two possible capstone projects in the MA program. Having selected the Ethics Practicum, students have two options or fields of focus for the practicum: clinical ethics or research ethics. Both areas of focus for the practicum are based upon a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) developed in collaboration with a supervisor. Pre-req: BioEthc 6000-level course.

The master’s thesis is a carefully argued scholarly paper of approximately 12,000 to 13,000 words (roughly 50 pages). Students will work under the supervision of a faculty adviser to craft and write an original argument with sources. The thesis must have a substantial research component and a focus on a suitable topic within the field of bioethics as a final element in the master’s degree.