Bioethics and Human Rights

Study:	Civil Law - 9. semester Commercial Law - 9. semester Constitutional-Administrative - 9. semester Criminal Law - 9. semester International Law - 9. semester The European Union Law - 9. semester
Code:	74209
ECTS:	4.0
Course coordinators:	doc. dr. sc. Sunčana Roksandić Vidlička
Lecturers:	doc. dr. sc. Aleksandar Maršavelski - Lectures
Exam dates:	01. 02. 2021. 15. 02. 2021. 19. 04. 2021. 31. 05. 2021. 14. 06. 2021. 28. 06. 2021. 30. 08. 2021. 13. 09. 2021. Exam registration: Studomat

Literature:
Amnon Carmi // Ksenija Turković, Sunčana Roksandić Vidlička; Informirani pristanak; Unit of UNESCO Chair, Sveučilište u Zagrebu (2009), str. 1-60 Bernard M. Dickens, Rebecca J. Cook, Eszter Kismodi // Ksenija Turković, Sunčana Roksandić Vidlička, Aleksandar Maršavelski; Reproduktivno zdravlje: Analiza slučajeva s etičkim komentarom; Unit of UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (2011), str. 1-70
Optional literature:
A. Carmi, D. Moussaoui, J. Arboleda-Florez // Ksenija Turković, Sunčana Roksandić Vidlička, Aleksandar Maršavelski; Predavanja etike u psihijatriji; Unit of UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (2012), str. 1-88 Silke Schicktanz, Claudia Wiesemann, Sabine Wohlke // Ksenija Turković, Sunčana Roksandić Vidlička, Aleksandar Maršavelski; Podučavanje etike u presađivanju organa i darivanju tkiva; Unit of UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (2013), str. 1-74

Description:

The course examines ethical problems in biomedicine and, by bringing these problems in relation to human rights, it involves analysis of the development of moral and bioethical argument about the development of health law in Croatia and the world. The course begins with an overview of the Croatian health system and its constitutional and legislative framework. Emphasis is placed on the concepts of medical ethics, patients rights and efficiency and safety in health care. Particular topics which are covered include: confidentiality, informed consent, medical malpractice, modes of liability, expert evidence, medical research and experimentation, organ donation and transplantation, emergency situations, intensive care, abortion, use of pharmaceuticals and new medical technologies, nanomedicine and biotechnology regulation, stem cells and medical research, new reproductive technologies, and death and dying treatment of persons with mental disabilities etc. While dealing with different topics, the major task of the course is to learn to apply the bioethical theories to practical cases.

Cognitive Skills:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

After successfully mastering the course students will be able to:

comprehend and explain basic terminology of the institutional framework of bioethics in the Republic of Croatia, and within the EU and other countries when applicable. Likewise on international level (applicable legal acts, scope of regulation, minimal characteristics and sanctions of crimes and legal regulation, case law of ECtHR); understand moral issues and (bio)ethical theories and biomedical ethics;

differentiate moral issues in the field of bioethics and protection of human rights;

identify the impact of bioethical theories and the development of human rights in the creation of legal norms in the field of bioethics (Greek philosophers, Christian ethics and virtue, theory of natural law, Kantian ethics, utilitarism, ethics of care, medical ethics);

critically evaluate and recognize the importance of respecting of the principles of bioethics and the role of subjects and objects that occur in bioethics;

define specificities of national systems in the field of bioethics and human rights in regard to bioethics; define and differentiate bioethical issues (induced coma, passive and active euthanasia, abortion, assisted reproduction, usage of embryonal stem cells, cloning, DNA analysis and diseases, human experimentation, animal experiments, organ transplantation, persons with mental disorders and their forced and voluntary hospitalization, ethical issues and genetic diseases, AIDS and the global spread of infectious diseases, reform of the health system and its impact on individual human rights, legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights of individuals at national, regional and international level);

group the structure of bioethics and identify important characteristics of bioethical issues, and extract their specificities

extract frequent violations of human rights in the field of bioethics and differentiate the liability of individuals from the liability of service providers.

APPLICATION

After successfully mastering the course students will be able to:

interpret terminology of bioethics and human rights in accordance with current methods of interpretation; interpret rules of bioethics and human rights;

demonstrate correlation and connection of legal norms and ethics in medical law, and illustrate the connectivity of national and EU legislation, as well as international and European treaties regarding regulation of this field;

apply acquired knowledge in the field of bioethics and human rights in practice;

use and correctly interpret rules in the field of bioethics and human rights.

ANALYSIS

After successfully mastering the course students will be able to:

analyze the relations between UN, Council of Europe and the EU, the Republic of Croatia and other countries, as well as interconnection of legal instruments and their impact on the development of rules of bioethics and human rights in Croatia;

analyze existing rules of bioethics and human rights, as well as corresponding (national and ECtHR) case law in the field;

examine the compatibility of bioethics and human rights rules with the principles of criminal law in general and international treaties

compare the state of bioethics and human rights in Croatian legal system with the appropriate systems of other countries, and examine its compliance with the law of Council of Europe, the European Union law and international law (primarily the UN treaties);

differentiate different mechanisms of legal protection and regulation of bioethical issues;

reexamine the level and extent of realization of bioethical principles and the principles of human right in the regulation of bioethical;

differentiate inadequate standards and propose amendments and improvements to the regulation of bioethics at the national and international level;

examine and categorize the acquired knowledge in the field of bioethics and human rights and their application in legal practice.

SYNTHESIS

After successfully mastering the course students will be able to:

propose necessary amendments to criminal, civil and administrative legislation in the field of bioethics and human rights;

formulate the basic features, advantages and disadvantages of the legal and judicial policy in this field and propose solutions for improving these systems;

build a methodological system to produce written assignments the area of bioethics and human rights;

design the drafting protocol of written and oral presentations, formulate appropriate hypotheses or research questions and structure written and oral presentation concepts with literature templates.

EVALUATION

After successfully mastering the course students will be able to:

reexamine the methods of regulation connected to bioethics and human rights;

asses the quality, sustainability and evaluate the quality, sustainability and feasibility of the implementation of national legislation when it comes to the regulation of bioethics and human rights; the quality, sustainability and feasibility of statutory and theoretical institutes of bioethics and human rights in practice;

select further study of individual segments of bioethics and human rights; and assess the most interesting areas for further specialization;

evaluate the existing solutions of bioethical issues in law, their compliance, with other legal norms, especially with the Croatian Constitution and the provisions of European and international law governing the field of bioethics.

Practical and Generic Skills:

After successfully mastering the course students will be able to:

publicly present the acquired knowledge and introduce learning outcomes, as well as take part in discussions regarding the bioethical issues;

express themselves legally precise and clear with an appropriate level of argumentation in regard to their own thesis;

conduct independent research of legislation and practices of European and national systems in the field of bioethics and human rights;

improve communication and analytical skills and acquired knowledge;

participate in team work while solving hypothetical and practical problems in the field of bioethics;

work in practice, which requires knowledge of the norms of bioethics and human rights.

Matching Assessments to Learning Outcomes:

Written and oral examination to verify the outcomes of learning - knowledge and understanding;

Problem tasks to verify the learning outcomes - application of acquired knowledge to specific cases;

Debate seminars, visit to courts – analysis;

Preparation of written student papers (essays) to check the learning outcomes - synthesis and evaluation;

Preparation of presentation of their own research;

Assessment will be carried out during class with the appropriate learning outcome with the written assignment and oral examination. Preformed activities obtained during the semester will be taken into account in the formulation of the final assessment, and evaluation criteria are all learning outcomes and demonstrated knowledge and understanding of bioethics and human rights, the ability to apply rules to the hypothetical and real cases from the judicial practice, the ability toanalyze and synthesize knowledge acquired during classes. Oral presentations of own research and taking part in discussions is required.

Consultations schedule:

doc. dr. sc. Sunčana Roksandić Vidlička :
Thursday at 10 a.m. Due to extraordinary cirumstances, available online: suncana.roksandic@pravo.hr
Location: Ćirilometodska 4, room Ćirilometodska 4, soba 54
doc. dr. sc. Aleksandar Maršavelski :
Tuesday at 8h via Google Meet (upon previous notification via e-mail)
Location: Gundulićeva 10, room 12