Bioethics

What is Bioethics?

Strategies for Bioethics

The Bioethics of Jurassic Park

Giants of Philosophy

Introduction

Ethical issues are seldom neat and tidy. The issues pose questions or dilemmas that have no clear-cut, easy answers. They involve questions about which even well-informed people who want only the best for themselves and others often reasonably disagree. In this series of exercises, students will be asked to look up some definitions, to begin to address some ethical issues in biology, to explore what the stategies are for facing the issues, and finally to engage in classroom discussion of these issues. After completing this activity, students should feel that they have improved their understanding in the field of ethics, have clarified some of their own ideas about what they believe, and have listened to others as they, too, explore ethical reasoning and decision-making. In addition, students will have the opportunity to read a summary of the philosophies of three great thinkers from this century and discus a bioethical dilemma using their philosophical framework.

Objectives

When students have completed these exercises, they will be able to:

• identify some of the ethical problems inherent in biotechnology;
• assess the factual information available;
• consider who will be affected and in what way;
• identify the options available to the decision maker;
• think about what values are at stake, such as freedom, truth-telling, fairness, respect, growth of scientific knowledge, the ecology, human and animal well-being;
• consider the process for bioethical decision-making: the law, the family, and society;
• practice a working model that has application for the issues you will face throughout your lifetime;
• learn the important elements needed for decision-making when looking at social and ethical issues;
• analyze the important elements inherent in the novel to better understand the author's thesis and point of view.

Class Time Needed

This lesson, in total time, would take approximately three class periods, but the activities can be spread out over several days.

Materials

Student hand-outs

• What Is Bioethics?
• Strategies for Bioethics
• The Bioethics in Jurassic Park
• Giants of Philosophy: Herbert Marcuse, Abraham Maslow, and John Rawls

Dictionaries

Procedure

• Go over the directions for the What is Bioethics student hand-out. Since ethics is such a personal topic, it is important to spend some time talking about the basic rules for dicussing philosophy or ethics, which are listed at the bottom of the student hand-out 7-2. The quotation at the bottom of 7-1 would also be appropriate to discuss with students so they understand that there are no "right" answers.
• Have students look up the words in a dictionary, either in class or at home.
• Discuss the definitions and the answers to the questions, again reminding students that they will have different opinions.
• Lead students through the Decision-Making Model on 7-3.
• Decide on an issue for the class to practice as a whole, and lead them through the model, answering questions as they arise.
• After the class feels confident answering the questions posed in the Decision-Making Model, have them work through the process on a bioethical issue in the novel Jurassic Park as detailed on 7-4.
• This process can be used as a pre-writing step for an essay in which they discuss a bioethical issue in the novel.
• Students can use the handouts on the Giants of Philosophy as support for their discussion of the issue they choose.