Declining, Dying, Dead

BIOETH 510: Declining, Dying, Dead: will be taught on Tuesdays from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm at the Emory University Center for Ethics (ground floor of 1531 Dickey Drive).

About BIOETH 510: Declining, Dying, Dead (Spring 2026)

This course investigates critical dimensions of demise by querying whether death is conclusive, irreversible or liminal. Insofar as no one escapes life alive, death is a universal phenomenon. Every civilization, perhaps every person, vies to inscribe death with significance. They also struggle to define death, as well as what constitutes dying. Indeed, science, medicine, religion, philosophy and law complicate such meditations. 

Suitability for a Range of Students & Working Professionals

While the course is offered as part of Emory’s MA in Bioethics program, as a standalone elective it is also suitable for a range of other students.  This course is available to students seeking graduate degrees at Emory or other universities, non-degree seeking students and working professionals (including faculty and staff in all of Emory’s Schools).  Because it is a graduate course, anyone applying to take this course must have previously completed at least a bachelor’s degree.  Students who are not currently pursuing a graduate degree at Emory University will need to apply to be non-degree seeking students in special standing with the Laney Graduate School.

  • For those seeking graduate degrees at Emory, it is important that you discuss this course’s suitability to meet your degree requirements with your academic advisor and/or director of graduate studies.  This is a three credit hour course that counts as an elective in the MA in Bioethics program.  The MA in Bioethics program is not responsible for the degree requirements of other programs at Emory.
  • For those seeking degrees at non-Emory universities, it is important that you discuss this course’s suitability to meet the degree requirements from your home university.  Emory University is not responsible for the degree requirements of other universities. 
  • For those not seeking a degree at Emory, the tuition rates are determined by the Laney Graduate School.  The Laney Graduate School charges $2,711 per credit hour.  As the course is three credit hours, the tuition costs $8,133.  Students who successfully complete this standalone course may apply to transfer these 3 credit hours to the MA in Bioethics program should they later apply to and be admitted to the MA in Bioethics program.  The MA in Bioethics program requires 30 credit hours of coursework for completion. 
  • For Emory faculty and staff, the tuition costs for this course may be covered by the Emory Courtesy Scholarship.  For more information, please visit the Courtesy Scholarship webpage and contact HR. 

In order to apply to take this course without being an Emory MA in Bioethics degree student, you will have to apply as a non-degree Laney Graduate School student. For the Spring 2026 term, the non-degree student enrollment deadline is January 5, 2026.  

For more information about this course, please email: mabioethics@emory.edu.

Meet the Course Leader

Jonathan Crane is the Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar of Bioethics and Jewish Thought at the Ethics Center. He is also a professor of Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, and affiliated faculty in the Department of Religion, Emory College of Arts and Sciences.

He earned a BA (summa cum laude) from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, an MA in international peace studies from the University of Notre Dame, an MPhil in Gandhian thought from Gujarat Vidyapith in India, an MA in Hebrew literature and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, and a PhD in religion from the University of Toronto. The co-author of Ahimsa: The Way to Peace, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality, author of Narratives and Jewish Bioethics, editor of Beastly Morality: Animals as Ethical Agents, author of Eating Ethically: Religion and Science for a Better Diet, and editor of Judaism, Race, and Ethics: Conversations and Questions, he is the founder and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Jewish Ethics. A past president of the Society of Jewish Ethics, he frequently speaks and publishes broadly on Judaism, ethics and bioethics, comparative religious ethics, narrative ethics, eating, environmental and animal ethics, among other topics. He was awarded an honorary degree from Wheaton College.