The Master of Arts in Bioethics will be a two-year primarily asynchronous online program, with some synchronous options. Thirty credits will be necessary to achieve the degree, with 12 core credits and 18 elective credits taken over two years.

Current UArizona students can view/enroll in the Fall 2023 courses.

MA Core/Required Courses

This course will explore the major theories in contemporary bioethics. Participants will learn the history and the application of principlism, casuistry, care ethics and virtue ethics. The approach will use bioethics — taking the student from philosophical concepts to the application of theory to key landmark cases in bioethics — and its relationship and interaction to the law and policies.

  • Course Dates: (7W1) Aug. 21 – Oct. 11, 2023
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Bioethics has been associated with issues in research ethics and clinical ethics. However, questions about the definition of death, autonomy, medical paternalism, health care rationing and abortion are a few of the current ethical issues that are at the forefront of controversial debates. This course will focus on cutting-edge controversies in bioethics.

  • Course Dates: March 13 – May 3.
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

We will explore laws surrounding patient autonomy and the right to refuse treatment alongside moral arguments for the exercise of paternalism in special cases. We will take a close, philosophical look at the notion of truth-telling to examine the claim that full disclosure can sometimes be morally wrong and, in fact, lying can be morally permissible. Although obtaining informed consent for medical procedures is automatic in practice, we will examine the claim that the very concept of informed consent is fundamentally flawed. We will learn about recent advances in genetic testing and gene therapy that give rise to new ethical concerns about conceptions of disability, enhancement and reproduction.

We will also consider how advances in life-prolonging technologies create difficult ethical questions about a patient’s right to die and physician autonomy. For our final topic, we will look at health care through a wider lens, questioning theories of justice in the distribution of health care resources.

  • Course Dates: TBD.
  • Instructor: TBD.
  • Credits: 3.

Students may choose to *either participate in a research project, along with a summary report, or complete an applied final project. For the applied final project, students must design a detailed and research-informed interdisciplinary proposal to innovate on a problem or opportunity.

  • Credits: 3.

*Only one of the above is required

MA Elective Courses

Corruption in government and typical daily life limits authentic and genuine moral and ethical foundations. There can be a commonality of corruption in governments, businesses and populations globally. Additionally, there is the ethical quagmire of truth-telling and why it is so easy to lie.

The truth can bring unpleasant and unknown dilemmas, and, unfortunately, lying can be easy to do. The law that protects the vulnerable may not always co-exist with ethics. This course will look at the differences between law and ethics and determine the ways they work together.

  • Course Dates: (7W2): Oct. 12 – Dec. 6, 2023
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Humanities, ethics and health all find themselves in different places globally, defined and designed by cultures and persons. In this course, we will explore the cultural differences as they relate to the health of persons; how cultures globally interpret medical ethics and ethical principles; and how health care and moral foundations are driven by cultures and bias.

  • Course Dates: March 13 – May 3.
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Biomedical ethics and the law sometimes do not play nice with each other. There can be a significant disconnect between the two requiring a deep dive into the reasons why and how to mitigate the disconnect. The cultural relationship between the law and medical ethics sometimes carries a bias toward one or the other, and the law as it relates to the culturally specific well-being of individuals is at stake. In this course, we will explore the reasons why there is a disconnect between biomedical ethics and the law and how it affects a person’s health.

  • Course Dates: March 13 – May 3.
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3

Ethics is thought to be universal, yet when one explores ethics, principles and moral theories, all seem to be guided by global culture, race and even language. What, then, are the reasons? In this course, we will be doing a deep dive into the quagmire of confusion related to the diversity of ethics and moral theories.

One can begin to see how individuality, bias, culture and more identify a lack of commonality. Ethics, moral theories and religion are intertwined and sometimes conflict with each other when culture serves as a foundation. Is it possible to recognize, understand and accept the blurring of ethics and moral theories related to cultural individuality?

  • Course Dates: TBD.
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Ethics is thought to be universal, and yet, when one enters into the world of aging, the ethics and — in fact — the morals are uniquely different than those of children and adults. The term “aging” becomes fluid when applied to persons — sometime age in years, age related to physical attributes and age related to competency and capacity. This course will identify the particulars of ethics and morals as they relate to the “aged” as best as it can be defined.

  • Course Dates: (5W1): Aug. 21 - Sept. 21, 2023
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

This course is intended to introduce MPH and DrPH students, as well as practitioners, to current and foundational issues in law and ethics that impact the policies and practice of public health. The goal of the course is to allow students to identify and appropriately assess legal and ethical issues that underlie the field of public health.

  • Course Dates: TBD.
  • Instructor: Leila Barraza, JD, MPH.
  • Credits: 3.

More information will be available soon.

  • Course Dates: TBD.
  • Instructor: TBD.
  • Credits: 3.

More information will be available soon.

  • Course Dates: TBD.
  • Instructor: TBD.
  • Credits: 3.

This course will explore the major ethical issues confronting the practices of clinical medicine and the how’s and why’s ethics consults are needed, asked for and prepared. You will become familiar with the process of doing an ethics consultation, considering opposing arguments and examining relevant case studies.

  • Course Dates: (7W2): Oct. 12 – Dec. 6, 2023
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Medical ethics date back millennia and dealt primarily with the physician-patient relationship and ethical values. This course will identify contributions from various cultures and how they relate to the history of medicine. The seminal events that influenced the transition will be reviewed. These events led to the change from medical ethics to bioethics in 1960.

  • Course Dates: (7W1) Aug. 21 – Oct. 11, 2023
  • Instructor: Robert Kravetz, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Learners will explore foundational concepts of Narrative Ethics — an innovative and emerging field within bioethics at the intersection of Narrative Medicine and the practice of person-centered care.

  • Course Dates: (7W1) Aug. 21 – Oct. 11, 2023
  • Instructor: Jennifer Hartmark-Hill, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Pediatric ethics has a unique character, different than that of adult ethics. In this course, we will explore the meaning of autonomy, personhood, assent and consent as they relate to the child. We will define each of the ethical principles from a pediatric perspective, address the ethical issues related to end of life, futility, religious and cultural applications in the ethical dilemmas in children, and more.

  • Course Dates: January 11 – March 3.
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

In this course, we will look at the current controversies from an ethical, moral, scientific, religious and legal perspective as they relate to the beginning of life and its end. We will explore the concepts of life and death, open the ethical debates related to each and give you an opportunity to find your own meaning in each.

This course will give you a chance to pause and reflect on your own ethics, morals, religious and legal interpretations of the beginning of life and its end. You may, at the end of the course, find yourself comforted by your perspectives, or you may find yourself walking a different path of perspectives than you thought you had. The course will be a deep dive into the our conscious and how and what we believe is the beginning of life and its end.

  • Course Dates: (7W1) Aug. 21 – Oct. 11, 2023
  • Instructor: David Beyda, MD.
  • Credits: 3.

Ethics and the Visual Arts will explore how art is used to illuminate issues in medicine and challenge our perspectives. Students will be able to create their own work of art on an issue that is of interest to them.

  • Course Dates: (7W2): Oct. 12 – Dec. 6, 2023
  • Instructor: Cynthia Standley, PhD.
  • Credits: 3.