The Bioethics major at American Jewish University is a pre-medical, pre-health major that prepares students for careers as physicians as well as other health professions.  This major combines pre-medical preparation with a humanities based core curriculum focusing on the study of Jewish, Western and non-Western civilizations.

Students complete pre-medical science classes such as Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Calculus and Statistics and electives in science.  In addition, they take a series of bioethics classes with pre-eminent scholars, culminating with Case Studies in Bioethics.  This seminar focuses on bioethical issues related to actual medical cases and is taken at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with the chair of the Bioethics department.  The Department of Bioethics is chaired by Dr. Elliot Dorff, an internationally known bioethicist who has testified before the U.S. Congress on issues related to cloning and serves as an advisor to the government on the development of bioethics standards for research.

Students also have a unique opportunity for advanced lab study through an internship arrangement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  Students spend one year in an advanced lab of their choice, learning the latest research and lab techniques in one particular medical field. Some students have become second authors on presentations and papers related to the research in which they became involved.

Students completing the major and planning to pursue medical careers, have been admitted to medical schools at USC, University of Texas, New York University, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Ohio, Virginia Commonwealth, UC Berkeley Optometry, Western University of Health Science in Osteopathic Medicine among others.  Other bioethics students interested in this major but not wishing to pursue medical degrees have gone to graduate school in health care administration and law school.