Pixel International Conferences

Health ethics has traditionally been taught in seminar-style encounters with students and facilitators discussing, face-to-face, a range of issues pertinent to either clinical and, more recently and increasingly, public health work. One of the attractions of health ethics for students (undergraduate and postgraduate) is its application to ‘real life’ cases that they have or will encounter in their professional work. Dilemmas are raised, questioned, examined, and challenged in a supportive educational environment. But universities are increasingly turning to online ‘distance’ learning, and are also establishing themselves on the global stage as internationally competitive in both teaching and research. Teaching health ethics in these circumstances presents both opportunities and challenges. Reflecting on several years’ experience teaching health ethics in professional courses, this presentation will examine the strengths of online learning of applied health ethics; limitations to ‘doing health ethics’ in an online environment; and the implications of applying Anglo-European cannons of ethical theory to examine contemporary health issues in both domestic and international contexts. The paper will then draw on Connell’s conceptualisation of ‘southern theory’ to consider opportunities for including non-Anglo-European social theory and ethical values in curricula marketed to a global student body.