Ethics of Reproduction and Access

This unit examines ethical tensions at the intersection of access to basic healthcare, cultural and spiritual beliefs, parental responsibilities, and reproductive rights and technologies. Students build on foundational ethics concepts to analyze real-world cases and prepare to develop policy and advocacy responses in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze competing ethical frameworks and apply them to case studies involving allocation of limited basic healthcare resources, justifying recommended distribution decisions.
• Evaluate how spirituality, cultural beliefs, and community values influence care preferences and communication, and propose culturally responsive care adaptations for diverse patient scenarios.
• Apply legal, ethical, and professional guidelines to situations involving parental authority, minor consent, and maternal-fetal conflicts, determining appropriate actions and documentation.
• Demonstrate the ability to analyze stakeholder interests and ethical concerns in assisted reproductive technologies and surrogacy cases and formulate ethically defensible care or policy recommendations.