PHIL 433A (with Dr. Johnna Fisher)
- Course Taken: MWF 12pm (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
- Format: Lectures are very informal, with lots of discussion (depends on your class though).There are three 1-hr “midterms” worth 20% each and a final worth 40%. The first midterm is open ended, short answers. The last two midterms are case-studies. The final is a combination of a case study and open-ended, short answers.
- Textbook: “Biomedical Ethics: A Canadian Focus” It is written by Dr. Fisher herself. The textbook is actually a composition of varies articles on different stances on biomedical ethical issues with a summary-like introduction at the beginning of each chapter. It doesn’t matter which edition you buy.
- Class Average: 73%
- Personal Experience: Dr. Fisher definitely has very strong opinions in biomedical ethical issues, but she is extremely open-minded in terms of listening to your side of the argument as well. Just be prepared to argue back with strong logic! Her TA is also great at marking (fast, pretty fair). I found this class interesting and I enjoyed most of the readings. Dr. Fisher believes in answering any/all questions the students have, so sometimes it may get frustrating if “irrelevant” questions are asked. There are a lot of science students in this class, and Dr. Fisher acknowledges that. This isn't like a typical 400-level philosophy class in terms of amount of essay writing, and she marks on a bell-curve so that the average for each midterm is around 70%.
- Advice: I highly recommend this class for anyone science students interested in topics such as abortion stances, allocation of resources, and end-of-life decision making etc. In exams, Dr. Fisher is looking to see if you understand the main conflicts in each topic, so it is important to add definitions of everything. For example, if the case study is talking about physician assisted suicide, I would suggest adding the definitions of euthanasia and suicide, voluntary and involuntary as well. I found writing the case studies very similar to writing analysis to science data.
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