Program Overview
Applications Are Currently Open
- In-person program application deadline: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
- Virtual program application deadline: Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Rapid advances in medical technology are creating unprecedented opportunities for improved health outcomes. They have also opened the door to increasingly complex ethical questions including who will (and who should) have access to these benefits. What’s the most compassionate way to approach end-of-life care? How can insurers and social programs increase access to care, and when do they go awry? When is it acceptable to permanently alter a person’s genome? Generating responses to these vexing questions takes specialized knowledge and skills.
Harvard Medical School’s Master of Science in Bioethics provides students with rigorous academic grounding in foundational theory and in-depth exposure to tackling bioethical challenges in clinical and research practice and health law and policy. Students customize the program to meet their specific interests and career goals by selecting from a wide range of elective courses.
The program culminates in a two-semester mentored capstone experience in which each student builds on classroom learning to develop practical skills and experience in the work of bioethics. Students work with individual capstone mentors to develop tailored plans and goals for their experience. Each student also participates in a weekly seminar led by center faculty to guide skill and knowledge building. The capstone opportunities are vast, aligning with the interests and learning goals of our students from diverse educational and professional backgrounds. The common factor is a commitment to advancing biomedical possibility and responsibility in tandem, maintaining a focus on how progress is allocated justly in research and health care in advancing health and humanity.
Courses are taught at Harvard Medical School, which draws faculty from more than a dozen Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and institutions united by their passion for teaching and learning in the study and practice of bioethics.
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