Online Program

287864
Incorporating values and ethics in public health law education


Monday, November 4, 2013 : 5:30 p.m. - 5:50 p.m.

Ruth Gaare Bernheim, JD, MPH, MPH Program, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
By its nature, public health law is an interdisciplinary practice, yet public health law is often taught in disciplinary silos, with law and public health students taking separate courses at their respective schools. The Carnegie Report outlines a framework for enhancing legal education and preparing students for practice that includes core competencies in the areas of knowledge, skills, and values. Using the Carnegie framework, this panel, moderated by Charity Scott, Professor at Georgia State University College of Law, is targeted to an audience of faculty who teach public health law in different disciplinary schools, practitioners who supervise students, and others involved with public health and legal education. It will examine innovative methods, benefits, and challenges of teaching public health law in an interdisciplinary manner. Undertaking and justifying particular public health activities and policies, such as an immunization requirement or a tax on sugar beverages, takes place within a particular political-legal context that both influences and reflects society's understandings at any point in time about what constitutes the common good, how we think about individual rights and responsibilities, and our notions of collective responsibility and fairness – ideas at the heart of our public philosophy and political values. Interdisciplinary education is key in helping public health professionals to mediate the many underlying tensions in our values. Using real cases from public health practice and law provides active, engaged learning opportunities for interdisciplinary courses that include students from law, public health and other graduate school disciplines.

Learning Areas:

Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Public health or related education
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Explain the way courts have interpreted and balanced competing legal and ethical claims in cases relevant to public health Describe how interdisciplinary legal education contributes to preparing public health professionals to mediate these tensions in our public values.

Keyword(s): Ethics, Public Health Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Ruth Gaare Bernheim, J.D., M.P.H., is Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, as well as associate director of the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, at the University of Virginia. She teaches courses on public health law, ethics, and policy. She currently serves as Chair of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Ethics Subcommittee; as a member of the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.