Undergraduate

CBSS staff contribute to undergraduate training in a range of ways, including through course organising. Our flagship programme is an undergraduate degree in Bioethics, Law and Society. 

BMedSci (Hons) Bioethics, Law and Society

Programme Director: Ingrid Young

An understanding of the wider ethical, legal and social context of biomedicine is increasingly recognised as an essential element in the practice of medicine and medical professional development. Our programme offers intercalating medical students an opportunity to gain in-depth and interdisciplinary knowledge of bioethical, legal and social science approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedicine and health. It is undertaken in Year 3 of the MBChB programme by undergraduate medicine students at Edinburgh Medical School and external students wishing to intercalate in Edinburgh.

Weekly teaching on our core modules includes contributions from CBSS members, as well as our research and community partners. Through discussions, group activities and in-depth independent research, our students grapple with pressing issues such as:

• What rights do we - or should we - have to new biotechnologies and what are the implications for social inequalities?
• What does reproductive justice look like in the context of limited resources and an increasingly hostile environment?
• How have - and should - governments, health systems and communities respond to public health crises, such as COVID-19?
• Who owns genetic information and why does it matter?
• We welcome medical students from the university and beyond to join us in exploring key issues in biomedicine and health.