Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics

Interviews with people who have used surrogacy and sperm donation, medical professionals who are experts in current reproductive technologies like IVF and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, and bioethicists and journalists who study the ownership and use of genetic information within human tissue are included in this law course. Additional Harvard colleagues will also provide their perspectives on themes such as reproductive technology and disability legislation.

They also show you examples of how these challenges are extremely personal and human. They will explore leading legal issues in this field throughout the course, with the participation of law students, to illuminate the types of questions the law has battled with – stretching and growing over time. They will demonstrate the ethical, legal, and rhetorical foundations that have served as the foundation for numerous court decisions over the last 20 or 30 years. They'll also look at future technologies and their societal repercussions, such as genetic improvements to boost IQ, extend life by a hundred years, or make us disease-resistant - as well as the possibility of creating animal-human hybrids, such as a mouse with a humanized brain.

This course's content is meant to be educational, demonstrating how legal reasoning has been applied or could be applied, to matters like parenting, reproduction, and other difficulties involving human genetic material. The information presented in this course should be regarded as authoritative, but it is not intended to be used as medical or legal advice.

Level: beginner level

Price: free ($149.00 Certificate Available)

Duration: 10 weeks long, 1-2 hours a week

Link: edx.org/course/bioethics-the-law-medicine-and-ethics-of-reproduct