RELG 2650

The difficulty of the class depends on the TA's difficulty

Childress is one of the most respected professionals in the field of bioethics. He literally wrote the book on the subject! He is just extremely knowledgeable, and also surprisingly nice and approachable. Just a great professor. Mark James is quite tough, but he helps you learn a lot. Overall, this was a very interesting and enlightening class.

You gotta read every week for the class. Talk to TAs about your essays and topics. Study real hard for the tests by diving up readings and having each person tackle a share but make sure you all do your work or else you will not catch everything. Reading on your own is a must. Do well on your essays on the exams as most of the weight comes from that.

All of the topics are extremely interesting - every friday during class you watch a movie (and if you miss class you can watch it on loan from Clemons); discussions are really useful because some of the assigned readings are a little dense... definitely recommend.

Possibly one of the most thought-provoking and interesting courses I've taken at UVA. Many controversial issues are discussed and from many perspectives, several outside of religious views. Childress definitely knows what he's talking about, so as long as you pay attention, do the readings, and study the guides he gives you, you will be fine. I also highly recommend Kris Norris as a TA. He was always available and made discussion worth attending and based in actual class discussion.

This class is a must-take for students going Pre-Med or are interesting in discussing controversial biomedical issues. Your views will be challenged, analyzed, and put to the test of modern biomedical ethics philosophers, teachers, and theologians. The work load consists of a great deal of reading, but the reading is interesting. You will have to write up to 3 essays as part of your discussion section. The grade in the class is mostly based on a mid-term and final. The Professor is world-renowned for what he does, and is great at giving lectures, helpful during office hours, and gives tests which are fair and reasonable.

Lecture was dry but the friday videos were interesting. Discussion was also interesting because you get to argue about certain subjects like suicide and abortion, which is always intriguing to talk about. Kris is a smart guy .

The class material is very interesting. The readings can be pretty tedious at times, but as long as you complete them eventually, you shouldn't have a problem understanding the contents. Discussions are useful- Kris is a great TA, Smart, fair, nice, fun, and approachable. The second half of the semester is a little dry in comparison to the first, but its still a class that I highly recommend.

Childress' lectures are very dry. He gives you the outlines at the beginning of the course which help. I enjoyed the discussions the most. Kris Norris was a great TA.

This class covers interesting topics, and the discussion section is meant to make the course even more exciting. However, if you have Laura Alexander as a TA, you will spend most of your time reviewing the readings (which is actually helpful for the midterm/final).