Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights

• SPH LW 740: Health and Human Rights
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or consent of instructor. - This course focuses on health and how it is closely linked to the realization of human rights. Preventable illness, infant mortality, and premature death, for example, are closely tied to societal discrimination and violation of human rights. This course explores the relationship between human rights and health by examining relevant international declarations in historical context, exploring the meaning of "human rights" and "health," and analyzing specific case studies that illuminate the problems, prospects, and potential methods of promoting health by promoting human rights on the national and international levels.
• SPH LW 830: Health Insurance and the Affordable Care Act
  policy. Health insurance pays for almost all health care in the US, strongly influencing (often dictating) who gets what care and on what terms. The class explores how the Affordable Care Act affects the design, operation, and regulation of health benefit plans, including Medicare, Medicaid, employer-sponsored group plans, and commercial insurance. Investigating contemporary regulations, students learn fundamentals of insurance, where reforms do and do not alter such fundamentals, and how reforms affect larger principles of law and public health.
• SPH LW 840: Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH719 or consent of instructor. - Health law, bioethics, and human rights converge within the field of public health at the national and global levels. This seminar explores the theoretical meaning of this convergence, engages the sources of authority for human rights, law and ethics and uses case studies to examine tools that can make public health professionals more effective in the realms of social justice and equity. Examples include the U.S. laws as well as international standards creating a "right to health;" economic, political and civil rights and their relation to health and health care; reproductive rights and technologies; standards for medical research and informed consent; environmental justice; and framing the end of life as a public health or a human rights issue. This course is taught at BUSPH.
• SPH LW 850: Public Health Law
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH719 or instructor permission. - This discussion-based seminar offers an in-depth examination of how the law impacts health outcomes, with a particular focus on marginalized, minoritized, and underserved populations. Focus primarily, though not exclusively, on case law allows the class to analyze the extent to which courts consider public health principles and empirical research. This helps better understand in what circumstances the judiciary takes account of the lived experiences of the people who their decisions most directly effect. Building off of the legal aspects covered in PH719, this course considers government authority to act in the name of public health, safety, and welfare, and how the evolution of individual rights continues to limit that authority. The material consists of classic public health measures such as vaccination and quarantine, as well as contemporary concerns of gun violence and reproductive justice. Health disparities—including gender, race, and LGBTQ+ disparities—will be especially important. Students will be evaluated based on their preparation and participation each week , along with a written and oral component.
• SPH LW 854: Mental Health Law, Policy & Ethics
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or instructor permission. - This discussion-based seminar tackles some of the most complex issues in mental health, such as involuntary confinement, adolescent disorders and decision-making, deinstitutionalization, the right to treatment and the right to refuse treatment, criminalization, substance use disorders, medicalization and the meaning of mental illness, forced treatments, discrimination, confidentiality, research, and professional ethics. The course will focus primarily on legal cases, utilizing these as case studies to explore the intersection of law, policy, and ethics to determine the manner in which we attempt to understand and regulate in the area of mental health. Students will be evaluated based on their preparation and participation each week , along with a written and oral component.
• SPH LW 951: Directed Studies in Health Law, Bioethics, & Human Rights
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or consent of instructor. - Directed Studies provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for a 1, 2, 3, or 4-credit directed study by submitting a paper registration form and a signed directed study proposal form. Directed studies with a non-SPH faculty member or an adjunct faculty member must be approved by and assigned to the department chair. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practical courses during their MPH education.
• SPH LW 952: Directed Research in Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or consent of instructor. - Directed Research provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. To register, students must submit a paper registration form and signed directed research proposal form. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.