CLU 201 - Literature, Medicine, and Ethics

Semester Hours: 4

This cluster approaches the human experience of illness and mortality by way of bioethics and narrative ethics. With a focus on cancer and AIDS, we will explore the biological underpinnings, successes, and challenges in diagnosis and treatment as we study the moral questions posed by authors, narrators, and characters in literary and cinematic texts depicting these diseases. This class’s interdisciplinary approach to illness seeks to deepen student understanding of the ethical responsibilities in decision-making that occurs in health care, storytelling, and our daily lives. By the end of the semester, students will have a greater sense of how the humanities and science complement one another in advancing medical treatment, theorizing mortality, promoting health, and cultivating the compassion that sustains us.

Intellectual Perspective: RP
When Offered: Alternating years