Biolaw
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
Through frontal lessons each dedicated to a specific subject, the course provides the student, with the legal concepts related to the progress of scientific and technical knowledge in the field of biomedicine.
Expected learning outcomes
1) Knowledge and understanding.
At the end of the course, the student must be able to know and to use, even original and with a proper legal language, the legal concepts, institutions, and sources of law related to the progress of science and technology in biomedicine, with a specific focus on the beginning and the end of human life; the relationship of care; the transplants; the neurosciences; the human enhancement and genetic editing; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical devices; the vaccination prevention.
2) Applying knowledge and understanding.
At the end of the course, the student must be able to resolve legal questions, even innovative and hypothetical, concerning the legal personhood of the embryo; the criteria and methods for ascertaining legal death and for the organs' donation; the informed consent and the living will, including medical assistance in dying; the transplant, aesthetic and enhancing medicine, including genome editing; the assisted reproduction and abortion; the forensic neurosciences; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical devices; the vaccination.
3) Making judgements.
At the end of the course, through lectures and discussion of cases, the student must be able to elaborate and defend, with proper logical-legal arguments, an independent reading of the concepts, institutes, and sources of bio-law, with particular reference to the medically assisted procreation and abortion; the autonomy of the patient about medical treatments, including the end-of-life decisions and the protection of the vulnerable and older adult; the transplants; the forensic neurosciences; the human enhancement, including the genetic engineering; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical drugs and devices; the vaccination prevention.
4) Communication skills.
At the end of the course, through frontal lessons and discussions in the classroom with slides, the student must be able to present to a specialized and non-specialized audience, in a technical-legal language and with full knowledge, the concepts, institutions, and sources of biolaw with particular reference to the beginning and the end of life; the neurosciences, the transplants; the human enhancement and genetic editing; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical drugs and devices; the vaccination prevention.
5) Learning skills.
The course allows the student to autonomously continue studying the legal implications of scientific and technological progress in biomedicine by participating in the cultural, political, and social debate and eventually by deciding to prepare the M.A. Thesis also in view of the choice, after graduation, of master courses in the biolaw discipline, or the search for employment in areas where bio-legal knowledge is particularly required.
At the end of the course, the student must be able to know and to use, even original and with a proper legal language, the legal concepts, institutions, and sources of law related to the progress of science and technology in biomedicine, with a specific focus on the beginning and the end of human life; the relationship of care; the transplants; the neurosciences; the human enhancement and genetic editing; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical devices; the vaccination prevention.
2) Applying knowledge and understanding.
At the end of the course, the student must be able to resolve legal questions, even innovative and hypothetical, concerning the legal personhood of the embryo; the criteria and methods for ascertaining legal death and for the organs' donation; the informed consent and the living will, including medical assistance in dying; the transplant, aesthetic and enhancing medicine, including genome editing; the assisted reproduction and abortion; the forensic neurosciences; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical devices; the vaccination.
3) Making judgements.
At the end of the course, through lectures and discussion of cases, the student must be able to elaborate and defend, with proper logical-legal arguments, an independent reading of the concepts, institutes, and sources of bio-law, with particular reference to the medically assisted procreation and abortion; the autonomy of the patient about medical treatments, including the end-of-life decisions and the protection of the vulnerable and older adult; the transplants; the forensic neurosciences; the human enhancement, including the genetic engineering; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical drugs and devices; the vaccination prevention.
4) Communication skills.
At the end of the course, through frontal lessons and discussions in the classroom with slides, the student must be able to present to a specialized and non-specialized audience, in a technical-legal language and with full knowledge, the concepts, institutions, and sources of biolaw with particular reference to the beginning and the end of life; the neurosciences, the transplants; the human enhancement and genetic editing; the clinical trials; the marketing of medical drugs and devices; the vaccination prevention.
5) Learning skills.
The course allows the student to autonomously continue studying the legal implications of scientific and technological progress in biomedicine by participating in the cultural, political, and social debate and eventually by deciding to prepare the M.A. Thesis also in view of the choice, after graduation, of master courses in the biolaw discipline, or the search for employment in areas where bio-legal knowledge is particularly required.
Lesson period: Third trimester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Third trimester
Course syllabus
The course, after introducing the characteristic of the legal rule applied to the evolution of biomedicine and the system of sources and formants of biolaw, will examine, from the point of view of constitutional, legislative and deontological discipline, and with particular attention to the protection of fundamental rights to dignity-identity, life, self-determination, advance care planning, and health, the following topics: the legal status of the embryo and the preemie; the criteria for identifying legal death and the discipline on the use of body parts after death for transplantation or scientific research and teaching purposes; the informed consent in the health-care relationship; the compulsory health treatments as part of public health measures; the shared care planning and the advance directives; the protection of the vulnerable patient: minor, incapacitated, elderly; the medically assisted procreation and abortion; the access to pain therapy and palliative care; the end-of-life decision making process: refusal or waiver of life-sustaining treatment, aid in dying, euthanasia; the neurosciences with particular referral to the forensic neurosciences and the brain-computer interfaces; the human enhancement and genetic engineering; the clinical trials and the marketing of drugs for human use; the clinical trials and the marketing of medical devices; the vaccine prophylaxis and measures to protect individuals in pandemic health-emergencies.
Prerequisites for admission
There are no specific prerequisites for taking the exam additional those necessary to be enrolled in the M.A. degree course.
Teaching methods
The lessons are held only on campus, in Italian language and in the form of frontal teaching (academic lectures taught in class), with the active participation of students who will be invited to ask specific questions and formulate their own solutions on theoretical-practical cases related to the topics dealt with in the lesson.
The recording or the web-streaming of the lessons is not available.
The recording or the web-streaming of the lessons is not available.
Teaching Resources
Attending students study for the exam only on the lecture notes taken by themselves during class and on further resources that will be further notified.
Non attending students study for the exam on the following book: A. Santosuosso e M. Tomasi, Diritto, Scienza e Nuove Tecnologie, III edizione, Wolters Kluwer-CEDAM, Milano, 2022 (ISBN: 9788813376963).
A student is considered as "non attending" if he/she attends less than sixteen lessons.
Non attending students study for the exam on the following book: A. Santosuosso e M. Tomasi, Diritto, Scienza e Nuove Tecnologie, III edizione, Wolters Kluwer-CEDAM, Milano, 2022 (ISBN: 9788813376963).
A student is considered as "non attending" if he/she attends less than sixteen lessons.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The examination is conducted exclusively in oral form and in the Italian language (without exceptions). It consists of some questions, each of them related to any of the topics of the program, aimed at ascertaining the student's actual achievement of the expected learning outcomes of the course. The result, expressed in thirtieths, takes into account the level of knowledge and fluency of the matter, and the ability to expose it with analytically and in a logical-systematic way, with properties of technical-legal language and correctness of legal references, possibly even debating new phenomena or case studies.
Students are called to the exam according to the order in which they register for the exam. During the exam, the student is not allowed to use texts or notes of any kind.
Students are called to the exam according to the order in which they register for the exam. During the exam, the student is not allowed to use texts or notes of any kind.
IUS/09 - PUBLIC LAW - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Pizzetti Federico Gustavo
Shifts:
Turno
Professor:
Pizzetti Federico GustavoProfessor(s)
Reception:
Wednesday, h. 3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
At distance on MS Teams via direct call