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This course encourages and expects participants to read widely in order to gain a full understanding of the scope of public health ethics. Students must have a laptop computer (or equivalent).

The two set texts for the course are:

Holland S. (2014). Public Health Ethics (2nd Edition) Cambridge: Polity Press.

Kerridge, I., Lowe, M., & Stewart, C. (2009). Ethics and law for the health professions. Sydney: Federation Press.

Holland (2014) is available online in multiple copies at the Barr Smith Library, and also through UniBooks at the 成人大片, University of South Australia (City East campus) and Flinders University book shops.

Further advice on Kerridge et al. (2009) will be provided at a later time.

In addition, a reading list will be compiled which contains other required reading for the course – particularly in relation to emerging ethical challenges. This reading list is tied to specific topics and assessments. References and links will be made available on MyUni.

Various course materials will be presented in MyUni. This will comprise the following:

• Instructions/rubrics for assessments
• Announcements
• Discussion board
• Lecture PowerPoints/other materials
• Lecture recordings/videos
• Links to required readings for lectures/tutorials
• Links to additional/optional readings and websites
• Online quizzes (formative and summative)

This course is targeted at postgraduate students in public health and various other health disciplines (e.g. allied health) who have had previous experience in research, essay writing, etc. Students will have – and will be encouraged to recall via the teaching and assessment activities – previous experience with and/or knowledge of health care and delivery. Accordingly, the learning will be pitched at students who have some such understanding of health practice and some of its moral issues, but who at the same time lack a detailed knowledge of health ethics and its tools.

Students will have access to readings prior to the course. In tutorials, student attention and engagement will be promoted by group activities and discussions of cases, think-pair-share, etc. Tutor support will be of benefit for students who have English as a second language. Tutorials will explore in more detail the ideas and cases that are presented in lectures.

Support for the MCQ/short answer 1-hour test will be delivered via sample questions presented online and during lectures/tutorials. For the group presentation, students will have the opportunity to discuss their work in progress with their tutor. Direction will be provided in lectures/tutorials on essay writing.

The teaching will be specifically structured so as to scaffold and support learning. More basic subject material will begin earlier in the course, with more general introductions to ethical concepts and theories. It will then then build to higher levels of critical thinking and the application of core ideas to case studies as the course progresses.

Task 1: Online quiz (summative 5%)
A 10-minute online quiz will occur in week 4 in order to give students some early feedback on their understanding. It will be a short and low stakes assessment, worth 5% of the final mark. The quiz will consist of several MCQ and True/False questions, posted on MyUni with a time limit of several days for completion.

Task 2: Group Presentation (summative 25%) - this assessment has been removed - see replacement details below
The group presentation is a 15-minute presentation that will take place in the second half of the Semester. Students will early on in the Semester be assigned to small groups (e.g. 3-4 people). Several topics will be available, and groups will also have the option of choosing their own topic which must involve an ethical challenge in contemporary health care or delivery. Groups must determine how they will meet and communicate (e.g. via google doc online, etc.)

All group members must work together to design and present an ethical analysis of their topic. The analysis should reflect all of the learning outcomes (1-5) of the course. That is, the presentation should involve: a clear description of the ethical issues in that topic; the use of ethical theories/concepts to analyse the issues; a recommendation and justification of option(s) that address the ethical challenges or questions; team work and the clear communication of the argument to a group of peers.  

Task 3: Major argumentative essay (Summative: 50%)
Students will individually complete a 2500-word argumentative essay on a hot topic in health ethics. It will be due toward the end of Semester, but before the exam period. The essay is designed to test higher-level thinking skills, as is appropriate for postgraduate students. Accordingly, it requires students to not only identify, explain, and analyse ethical issues in the chosen topic, but also to critically develop, recommend, and justify a response to the ethical challenges. As the essay is longer piece of work, students will be expected to display a more nuanced and sustained critical analysis than in the group presentation.

Students may choose from the set topics. Possible topics will include:

1. The ethics of “nudging” patients (or populations) to adopt healthier lifestyles

2. Ethical issues and the nature of virtue in interprofessional conflict, teamwork, and patient care

3. Duties of health professionals/workers to advocate for refugee health or climate change action or developing world health or indigenous health

4. The ethics of allocating resources to preventive (including “upstream” determinants) versus non-preventative health care

5. The ethics of physical and/or mental health care in disaster zones

6. The ethics of taxing meat (or other products with both individual and global/planetary health implications)

7. Should participants in research in low-income countries be paid?

8. Other.

Additional option: Choose your own topic: Students are able to select a topic of relevance to contemporary health ethics that interests them, but they must discuss the essay question with the teacher. Students will be told that the essay question will need to be very carefully designed to ensure it meets with the learning outcomes of the course.

Students will be told (including via a marking rubric) of the requirements of the essay structure:

1. A concise introduction

2. A clear description of the case and its relevant factual details

3. Identification and explanation of relevant ethical principles/theories

4. An analysis of the key ethical issues in the case

5. Identification and explanation of possible strategies or responses

6. Recommendation and justification of a response(s) to address the ethical challenges

7. A concise conclusion

Task 4: MCQ and short answer test (summative 25%)
This test will occur either in-class later in the Semester or in the exam period at the end of the Semester. It will last for 1 hr. MCQ and short answer questions will be used to evaluate students on their understanding of key ethical concepts and theories. The short answer questions will involve case scenarios – students will need to identify the key ethical issues and concepts, briefly analyse the case, and present a strategy to respond to it.


Modified arrangements have been made to assessments and the details provided here reflect recent updates:

Removal of Group presentation and replacement with paper presentation: Each student will be assigned a paper to prepare and present in the second half of the course - the student will summarise the key points of the paper and lead discussion of it during the tutorial.