POLITICS 741 : Ethics and Health Policy

Arts

2025 Semester Two (1255) (15 POINTS)

Course Prescription

Considers the intersection between theory, policy, and problems in health. Topics include: defining health and its value; the role of government and markets in providing health care; allocating resources in a government health system; justice, inequalities, and health; coercion to control the spread of disease, whether caused by pathogens (e.g., pandemic influenza) or lifestyle.

Course Overview

Should organs be allowed to be sold? Should alcoholics get liver transplants? Should smokers get expensive heart surgery? If an influenza pandemic threatens New Zealand, should the government force infected people into quarantine? Should the government force people to be healthy? Should it manipulate them? Are people who smoke or get fat really making free decisions?

Political theorists think about rights, justice, and the good life. Governments everywhere struggle with ethical problems in health. Public policy is all the better for being informed by political theory, and political theory is all the better for thinking about what ought to happen in the real world. One focus is scarcity: how should resources be allocated in a government health system? We consider organs for transplant, expensive treatments, and holding people responsible for their own health. Another focus is public health; we consider coercion to control the spread of contagious disease, and how the government should try to reduce `lifestyle’ diseases attributed to e.g. obesity. This is an applied political theory paper, and it would suit politics students of political theory and public policy, and non-politics students interested in health policy, population health, and applied ethics.

Course Requirements

No pre-requisites or restrictions

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 3: Knowledge and Practice
Capability 4: Critical Thinking
Capability 6: Communication
Capability 8: Ethics and Professionalism
Graduate Profile: Master of Arts

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Understand leading ethical problems in health policy (Capability 3, 4, 6 and 8)
  2. Apply ethical principles to factual problems (Capability 3)
  3. Communicate health policy problems and answers to those problems (Capability 3)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Assignments 20% Individual Coursework
Assignments 5% Individual Coursework
Essay 35% Individual Coursework
Essay 40% Individual Coursework

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 12 two hour seminars.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

This course is not available for delivery to students studying remotely outside NZ in 2025.

Seminars will not be available as recordings.
The course will not include live online events 
The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable.

Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

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Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

Class Representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Published on 24/10/2024 08:34 a.m.