Program: Minor in Health, Ethics, and Society - University of Virginia

Apr 03, 2025

Undergraduate Record 2023-2024

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Health, Ethics, and Society is a field of intellectual inquiry that examines moral questions at the intersection of biology, medicine, law, public health, policy, and ethics - all broadly construed. Unlike the traditional fields that contribute their respective problems and perspectives to this broadly based inquiry, bioethics is not a unitary “discipline” with its own distinctive methods and credentialing institutions. It is an interdisciplinary “field” populated by scholars, teachers, and clinical practitioners from a wide variety of traditional disciplines, such as philosophy, religious studies, law, medicine, nursing, social work, public health, the medical humanities (literature and history), and social sciences (politics, sociology, economics, anthropology).

Requirements

Required: 21 credit hours

Basic Courses

1. One course at the introductory level – regular courses offered that would fulfill this requirement are ANTH 2280 - Medical Anthropology , RELG 2650 - Theological Bioethics or PHIL 1740 - Issues of Life and Death

2. ANTH 3290 - Biopolitics and the Contemporary Condition

3. 6 credit hours in ethical and/or political theory (Two courses, one of which must be in ethics and one must be at the 3000 level or higher)

Electives

4. The electives would consist of 9 credit hours at the 3000-level or higher in bioethical or closely related courses. Approved courses will be listed each semester.

While most electives should be at the 3000-level or higher, some exceptions will be approved. Which courses will so count will be up to the discretion of the Program Director and will be posted on the schedule of courses on the website.

The type and number of courses that will be eligible for double counting for each student will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the Program Director in collaboration with students and their academic advisers. The Director of the Health, Ethics, and Society Minor will work closely with related departments (e.g., Anthropology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies) to ensure that appropriate limits are set on the number of electives that may count towards their respective majors.

Additional Information

For more information see www.virginia.edu/bioethics.