This course will equip you to critically analyse practical ethical and legal dilemmas in healthcare and academic ethical and legal work. We also offer the opportunity to develop qualitative research skills, culminating in an ‘empirical bioethics’ dissertation project.

The course attracts students from other Universities in the UK as we are one of only 4 programmes nationally to offer Health Care Ethics and Law as an intercalating degree.

• To provide you with a systematic understanding of contemporary issues in health care ethics and law.
• To enable you to evaluate opposing arguments, to formulate and consider the best arguments for different views and to identify the weakest elements of the most persuasive argument (i.e. critical analysis skills)
• To enable you to develop precision of thought and expression in the analysis of complex problems within health care
• To enable you to identify how your own personal moral values affect your approaches to decision making
• To enable you to identify new themes and emerging issues in contemporary health care
• To provide you with an integrated approach that combines the disciplines of medicine, law and philosophy.
• To provide a learning environment that supports originality in more able students
• To enable and encourage sufficient independent learning in ethics and law for continuing professional and personal development
• To develop in you the confidence and ability to identify and challenge unprofessional behaviour in clinical practice, and be able to provide practical solutions
• To encourage you to identify and develop a range of transferable skills.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme, you should have knowledge and understanding of: 

• A broad range of contemporary issues in health care ethics and law
• Central ethical theories, principles and arguments relevant to contemporary health care ethics
• Core health care law including central legal principles, Statutes and case law
• The inter-relationships between ethics, law and health care practice
• Relevant texts and authors important in the field of health care ethics

Student testimonials

“Very Challenging. Very rewarding and instructive experience”
“It has made me a much more independent learner and has given me more confidence in both reading research and negotiating my own”
“Broadened my knowledge and perspective”
“Teaching was great and interactive”

Semester 1

During Semester one you will undertake three specialist modules in:

Biomedical Ethics and Law (30 credits)
In this module you will cover the basics of moral and legal theory. You will learn about ethical theories (such as deontology, virtue theory, utilitarianism etc.) and key issues in applied ethics (such as abortion, ethics at the end of life, public health ethics, reproductive ethics etc.). You will also cover key topics in medical law (such as negligence, body as property, the Mental Health Act, human rights. This module is assessed by two essays- (one on ethical theory and one on applied ethics), and a legal case presentation.

Research Methods in Bioethics (30 credits)
In this module you will be introduced to the various kinds of methodology used in medical ethics and law, covering the following key skills:

Writing philosophical and legal essays
How to analyse and construct a good argument
Searching legal databases
Empirical methods in bioethics (how to integrate empirical and ethical analysis)
This module is assessed by two mini-assignments (essay planning and analysing and analogy), an interview based empirical bioethics project, contribution to a formal debate, and a research protocol.

Ethics in Research (10 credits)
In this module you will cover key issues in research ethics, including: research on vulnerable populations; informed consent; research governance; research in developing countries; payment, risk and exploitation; the use of animals in research. This module is assessed by a single essay.

Semester 2

During Semester 2 you will undertake a unique research project (worth 50 credits), supervised by a member of staff. Research projects are selected at the start of semester one, and you will normally begin setting up during that semester. In fact, many of the semester one assignments are designed to help you develop your research project. You can choose a research project that focuses on philosophical ethics, law, or a combination of empirical data collection and ethical/legal analysis. . 

This is the module list for 2012, but the programme continues to evolve and you should check the website regularly for any changes for next year.

Standard Fees Apply

All students are entitled to reclaim up to £500 project expenses for conduction of their research. Claims must be accompanied by original receipts. Further to this students who incur travel costs are eligible to apply for an Arthur Thompson Travel Award (up to £500). Applications for these awards will be considered at the end of the programme of study and are not guaranteed. These sources of funding are available to all students irrespective of their primary University of study.

Internal bursaries:

All students who are registered on the MBChB or Dental Programmes at the University of Birmingham are eligible to apply for a bursary to support them during their period of study. The intention to apply should be indicated on the application form and students expressing an intention will receive further information. Bursaries are currently set at £3,000 and are limited. Students with an overall mean mark of <65% in year 2 of their programme of study are unlikely to be awarded a bursary.

Our funding sources mean that we are unable to offer bursaries to students from outside of Birmingham.

External bursaries:

The College usually receives an invitation each year from the Royal College of Physicians to submit a limited number of applications for their Wolfson intercalated programme. The deadline for this is usually the end of March which means the programme needs to shortlist by mid-March. Bursaries are up to £5000 and are nationally competitive. Our students have a very good record in securing such awards. Any student interested in applying needs to contact the Admissions Tutor (Dr Lesley Roberts, l.m.roberts@bham.ac.uk) by the 31st of January in the year in which they plan to apply.

Eligible students should:

Demonstrate a consistent and outstanding academic track record (an overall mean mark >70% in year 2 and consistently high marks in other years). N.B. Because of the need to show consistent academic achievement it is expected that students will be in year 3 or 4 at the time of application. A second year applicant who can demonstrate excellence may be considered but should contact the admissions tutor at the earliest opportunity to discuss this).

Be applying for an intercalation in one of our science programmes (International Health, Psychological Medicine or Public Health and Population Sciences). As this bursary relates to science projects students on humanities programmes (Health care ethics and law and History of Medicine) should not apply (but should make contact with the relevant programme lead to enquire whether there are any discipline specific bursaries currently available nationally).

Have a research focus or area of interest (Support will be given during February to develop this into an application).

Be prepared to work on their application (including designing a research project) during February and early March.

All eligible students who express an interest will have the opportunity to meet with the Admissions Tutor to discuss the application and receive guidance in drafting an application. Further to this there will be the opportunity to submit one draft application by the 28th February for comment. All students will then be required to submit their application by the specified deadline (varies annually but likely to be mid-March). Students will be informed if their application has been selected for submission to the Royal College within 2 weeks. Any student submitted will receive an early and unconditional place on the programme. Unsuccessful applicants will be able to use their work in their application for an internal bursary.

International students:

To apply, please down load and complete the application form.

You’ll be assessed in a variety of ways, and these may be different with each module that you take. You will be assessed through coursework which may take the form of essays, group and individual presentations, laboratory-based work (depending on your chosen degree) and formal exams.

At the beginning of each module, you’ll be given information on how and when you’ll be assessed for that particular programme of study. You’ll receive feedback on each assessment within four weeks, so that you can learn from and build on what you have done. You’ll be given feedback on any exams that you take; if you should fail an exam we will ensure that particularly detailed feedback is made available to enable you to learn for the future.