Bioethics Centre / Te Pokapū Matatika Koiora

University of Otago

BITC201

BIOETHICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES

2014

CONTENTS

TIME 2

VENUE 2

COURSE COORDINATOR 2

LECTURERS 2

TUTOR 2

CONTACT INFORMATION 2

OFFICE HOURS 2

DISABILITY SUPPORT 3

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE 3

BLACKBOARD 3

COMMUNICATING WITH YOU 3

TIMETABLE 4

COURSE OBJECTIVES 6

COURSE EXPECTATIONS 6

USEFUL REFERENCES 7

ASSESSMENTS 8

ESSAYS 8

EXAMINATION 8

PRESENTATION OF ESSAYS 9

REFERENCES AND CITATIONS 9

SUBMISSION OF ESSAYS 9

EXTENSIONS, PENALTIES AND IMPAIRMENTS 9

Penalties 9

Extensions 9

Impairment 10

DISHONEST PRACTICE 10

READINGS 12

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TIME Lectures: Tuesday and Wednesday, 2-2:50pm

Tutorials: Wednesday, 3-3:50pm

VENUE Lectures and Tutorials:

Tuesdays: Burns Building, Seminar Room 5

Wednesdays: Commerce Building, Seminar Room 2.20

COURSE COORDINATOR Dr. Mike King (MK)

LECTURERS Dr. Lynley Anderson (LA)

Sandy Elkin (SE)

Associate Professor Colin Gavaghan (CG), Director of the

New Zealand Law Foundation Centre for Law and Policy in

Emerging Technologies, Faculty of Law

Professor Gareth Jones (GJ)

Associate Professor Jing-Bao Nie (JBN)

Dr. Mike King (MK)

Dr. Neil Pickering (NP)

TUTOR Mike King (MK)

CONTACT INFORMATION Mike King; Room 1.16A, 71 Frederick Street; Tel. 471 6130;

Email: mike.king@otago.ac.nz

Departmental Administrators:

Angela French; Room 1.02, 71 Frederick Street; Tel: 471

6120; Email: angela.french@otago.ac.nz

Rachel Bell Nash; Room 1.03, 71 Frederick St reet; Tel: 471

6122; Email: rachel.nash@otago.ac.nz

OFFICE HOURS Mondays & Tuesdays, 9-10am.

Room 1.16A, Bioethics Centre, 71 Frederick Street.

During these times the coordinator will be available for any

course-related enquiries, and an appointment is not

necessary. If a meeting is required outside these times,

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please discuss with the coordinator to see what may be

arranged.

DISABILITY SUPPORT If you have a disability that affects your learning in this paper, and which you would like support for,

please contact the coordinator and/or Disability Information and Support to discuss your needs

confidentially.

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE Early in the semester a class representative will be called for. This is an important role, which helps

to represent the interests of the class to the lecturers and coordinator, with the aim of fostering the

best learning environment possible. Please give some thought to whether you would like to be

considered for this role, and discuss your views freely with the class representative during the

semester, so that we can work to enhance your learning throughout the paper.

BLACKBOARD Blackboard will be an essential tool for this course:

All course related materials, including this course book, assessment details and all required

readings, will be made available on Blackboard as needed.

Distributing the Powerpoint presentations of lectures or other material that may be used in

class.

Blackboard should be used for the submission of assignments.

To log on to Blackboard you need your user ID and a password. The ITS Help Desk (479 8888) will be

able to help you if you run into difficulties.

ITS has a page which contains instructions for students working with Blackboard. If you have any

further difficulties, you can contact them for help.

COMMUNICATING WITH YOU The primary means of University communications with students is through the student email

address allocated by the University.

IMPORTANT - DO THIS NOW!

If you do not regularly use your University email address, please forward your University email

address to an email address that you do use regularly as follows (these instructions are provided

here, along with some further information):

Log into your StudentMail account using your student username and password

Click Options > See All Options

Under Account, select either the Forward your email shortcut or the Connected Accounts

tab.

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At the bottom of the screen, type in the email address you want your email to be forwarded

to. You can also choose to have a copy of these emails kept on your StudentMail account, so

please check the box if you would like this.

Click the “start forwarding” link at the bottom of the page.

TIMETABLE

Lecture Human experimentation and the birth of bioethics

1 Wartime experimentation JBN Tuesday 25 February

2 The Unfortunate Experiment SE Wednesday 26

February

Tutorial 1 MK & AL Wednesday 26

February

The regulatory challenge of science and technology

3 Tensions and disconnections CG Tuesday 4 March

4 Targets and tools CG Wednesday 5 March

Tutorial 2 MK & AL Wednesday 5 March

Ethical theories

5 Utilitarianism, virtue ethics MK Tuesday 11 March

6 Deontology & principlism MK Wednesday 12

March

Tutorial 3 MK & AL Wednesday 12

March

Science & the environment

7 Environmental values MK Tuesday 18 March

8 Climate change science & skepticism NP Wednesday 19

March

Tutorial 4 MK & AL Wednesday 19

March

ESSAY 1 DUE Friday 21 March,

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5pm

Animals in science

9 Ethics of animal experimentation MK Tuesday 25 March

10 Manipulation of animals in science MK Wednesday 26

March

Tutorial 5 MK & AL Wednesday 26

March

Scientific responsibility

11 The responsibilities of scientists MK Tuesday 1 April

12 Scientific fraud GJ Wednesday 2 April

Tutorial 6 MK & AL Wednesday 2 April

Science and embryos

13 IVF: its rise and ethical debate GJ Tuesday 8 April

14 Moral status of the embryo MK Wednesday 9 April

Tutorial 7 MK & AL Wednesday 9 April

15 Abortion MK Tuesday 15 April

16 Sex-selective abortion in Asia JBN Wednesday 16 April

Tutorial 8 MK & AL Wednesday 16 April

MIDSEMESTER BREAK

17 Regulation of assisted reproductive technology in NZ LA Tuesday 29 April

18 Stem cell research GJ Wednesday 30 April

Tutorial 9 MK & AL Wednesday 30 April

19 Preimplantation genetic diagnosis to avoid disease GJ Tuesday 6 May

20 Preimplantation genetic diagnosis to enhance GJ Wednesday 7 May

Tutorial 10 MK & AL Wednesday 7 May

ESSAY 2 DUE Friday 10 May, 5pm

Science & the brain

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21 Treating the brain GJ Tuesday 13 May

22 Manipulating the brain GJ Wednesday 14 May

Tutorial 11 MK & AL Wednesday 14 May

Use of dead humans and their tissue

23 Respecting the dead human body GJ Tuesday 20 May

24 Preserving the dead human body GJ Wednesday 21 May

Tutorial 12 MK & AL Wednesday 21 May

Emerging issues in science

25 Bodily and moral enhancement GJ Tuesday 27 May

26 The complex role of science in enhancement MK Wednesday 28 May

Tutorial 13 – course wrap-up MK & AL Wednesday 28 May

COURSE OBJECTIVES The main aim of this paper is to introduce students to different ways of thinking about

contemporary ethical issues, beyond the confines of particular disciplinary perspectives.

The paper will encourage students to:

• Be able to identify key ethical concepts

• Identify moral claims and distinguish them from other sorts of claims

• Identify reasons given in support of particular moral claims

• Compare and contrast alternative analyses of topics

• Identify strengths and weaknesses of alternative analyses of topics

• Review key approaches and literature relating to bioethics of the biosciences, including

topics concerning the beginning of life

• Use reasoned argument to present preferred analysis/approach

• Begin to recognize implications of ethical reasoning for scientific practice

COURSE EXPECTATIONS Studying bioethics is exciting and rewarding. It is also demanding and needs commitment,

enthusiasm, and hard work. In general, you are expected to be an active learner, rather than a

passive receiver of information.

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Any reading required for a lecture will be provided in advance on Blackboard. This will generally

contain a summary of the ideas being discussed in the lecture. It is expected that you will have read

this before the lecture, and begin to reflect on what you’ve read.

The summary will often quote liberally from one or two readings, which will also be provided for you

on Blackboard. It may also list further reading that you can do to increase the depth of your

understanding of the topic. The more of this reading you can do, the greater your understanding will

be, and this will likely be reflected in the quality of your work and the mark it receives.

Bear in mind that this paper does not have lengthy labs to occupy your time – you only have three

contact hours each week. It is expected that you’ll devote further time during the week to reading

and working on your assessments. This likely means that you will be doing more reading than you

might in some of your other papers. Although you have numerous demands on your time, I strongly

recommend that you do set aside the time for this paper outside of your contact hours, and use it

effectively.

USEFUL REFERENCES While the required and recommended readings are available on Blackboard, you are recommended

to make use of other relevant sources in your work (especially your assignment work), such as these

bioethical textbooks and anthologies reserved in the Medical Library and/or Bioethics Centre Library.

These may be useful as research material for your assignment work.

Ashcroft, R., Dawson, A., Draper, H. & McMillan J.R. eds. 2007. Principles ofHealth Care Ethics, 2nd

Edition. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Beauchamp, T.L. & Childress, J. F. 2012. Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 7th Edition. Oxford: Oxford

University Press. (The 2008 6th edition is also very good.)

Bulger, R.E., Heitman, E. & Reiser, S.J. 1993. The Ethical Dimensions of the Biological Sciences.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kuhse, H. & Singer, P. eds. 2006. Bioethics: An Anthology. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Khuse, H. & Singer, P. eds. 2001. A Companion to Bioethics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Mepham, B. Bioethics: An introduction for the biosciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Post, S. G. ed. 2003. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 3rd Edition, (5 Volumes). New York: Macmillan

Reference USA.

Singer, P. 1993. Practical Ethics, 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Steinbock, B. eds. 2007. The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

There are many bioethics journals include Journal of Medical Ethics, Hastings Centre Report,

Bioethics, American Journal of Bioethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. These journals are

available online and/or physically from the University of Otago Library.

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NOTE: The Bioethics Centre Library (Room 116 in the Bioethics Centre) is a departmental reference

library, not a lending library. You are welcome and encouraged to read the publications in this library

but not allowed to borrow any item. You can scan material for free and email it to yourself using the

photocopier outside the administrator’s office. Instructions are on the wall by the photocopier.

Please see the administrators if you have problems.

ASSESSMENTS You will be assessed by your performance in two essays and a final exam:

Assessment Word Length* Due Date %

Essay 1 1500 5pm Friday, 21st March 15%

Essay 2 1500 5pm Friday 10th May 35%

Examination TBA 50%

* ±10%

ESSAYS

Essays will be returned within 3 weeks of their submission.

Word lengths for essays are ±10% (150 words). So the acceptable word limit range is 1350-1650 for

both essays. You will be penalized 5% if your word count is outside this range. Word count does not

include reference list.

Essay questions and further details for the first essay will be provided on Blackboard in the first week

of semester.

Instruction on how to research and write a bioethics essay will be covered in your tutorials and a

learning module on essay writing is provide on Blackboard in the library resources section. There you

will also find details on how to make best use of the library in your research.

EXAMINATION

The exam is designed to develop and assess the student’s understanding of bioethical issues covered

in this course and his or her skills of bioethical analysis. Questions will be drawn from the material

taught during the course. The exam will conclude the course, and you will be notified of the place,

date and time when it is set. The exam will be 2 hours in length and will contribute 50% of your total

mark for the paper.

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PRESENTATION OF ESSAYS

All assignments must be typed. Use 1 ½ or double line spacing.

• Include a coversheet for your assessment (a template will be provided on Blackboard), with your student ID as your identifier, not your name. It is preferred that the authorship of assessments remains anonymous for marking purposes.

• The coversheet should also contain the following: paper code, paper coordinator, assignment question or title, and assignment due date.

• Number each page. Put your ID number at the top right corner of each page.

• Check that the word count complies with the assignment limit. Word limits for essays do not include the reference list.

• Proof-read your final copy carefully. Ensure that spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct, language is appropriate and expression is clear.

• FINALLY: KEEP A COPY! All care is taken with your assignments, but they can get lost.

REFERENCES AND CITATIONS

You need to search and refer to literature in completing your course work, especially for research

essay. There are many different referencing (citation) styles. They all contain details of author, title,

publisher details and date of publication. Sources include books, journals & periodicals, the internet,

and occasional publications such as technical reports. All sources must be acknowledged in short

form within the text and in full standard bibliographical form under a heading “References” at the

end of the assignment.

For this paper, the Harvard referencing and citation style is preferred. To find details of the Harvard

style, visit the citation styles page at the University of Otago Library website. A guide to the Harvard

style will also be provided on Blackboard.

SUBMISSION OF ESSAYS

Blackboard must be used for the submission of essays. Essay submission will be via the SafeAssign

services in Blackboard. This automatically checks all essays for plagiarism. It also allows you to check

a draft of your essay for plagiarism before submitting. More details on how to submit your essay

using SafeAssign in Blackboard can be found on the ITS website. If you experience difficulties with

essay submission, contact the ITS helpdesk and paper coordinator immediately.

EXTENSIONS, PENALTIES AND IMPAIRMENTS

Extensions

Requests for and extension to assessment deadlines must be made in writing to the course

coordinator at the earliest opportunity. Depending on the nature of the extension request, a medical

certificate may be required. The amount of extension allowed will be made based on the student’s

circumstances, taking into account the restrictions on deadlines provided in (5). Where the

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extension requested seems likely to significantly affect the student’s satisfactory completion of

other work in the paper, the coordinator should discuss other possibilities with the student, such as

withdrawing from the paper. Any disagreement over extensions will be decided by the Centre

Director.

Penalties

Essays handed in after the assessment deadline will incur a penalty of 2% per working day, unless an

extension has been granted. This penalty will apply after extended deadlines if an extended deadline

is not met.

Impairment

Extensions should be arranged to minimize the effect of impairments on student performance in

written assessments. Despite this, where a student’s performance in a written assessment has been

impaired, this should be taken into consideration in the mark it receives. Claims of impairment must

be made in writing to the Centre Director, and must be made within 5 days of completion of the

written assessment (adapted from Administration of Examinations, Including Departmental

Responsibilities Policy, 5.2, 5.8).

The amount of certification required from the student will vary in proportion to the significance of

the assessment (with a weighting of 20% or above considered significant). “For example, should the

assignment or internal assessment test count significantly towards the final result then a formal

Health Declaration should be required […]. On the other hand, should the weighting be minor then

the issue should be dealt with entirely at departmental level with no requirement for a Health

Declaration unless the Head of Department concerned sees a special need to require such

documentation.” (Administration of Examinations, Including Departmental Responsibilities Policy,

5.8)

With appropriate adaptation, policy guiding claims of impairment in final exams (Administration of

Examinations, Including Departmental Responsibilities Policy, 5) will be applied to determine the

mark given to an essay under conditions of impairment.

DISHONEST PRACTICE

The University of Otago plagiarism statement is as follows:

Students should make sure that all submitted work is their own. Plagiarism is a form of dishonest

practice. Plagiarism is defined as copying or paraphrasing another’s work and presenting it as one’s

own (University of Otago Calendar 2011 page 224). In practice this means plagiarism includes any

attempt in any piece of submitted work (e.g. an assignment or test) to present as one’s own work the

work of another (whether of another student or a published authority). Any student found

responsible for plagiarism in any piece of work submitted for assessment shall be subject to the

University’s dishonest practice regulations which may result in various penalties, including forfeiture

of marks for the piece of work submitted, a zero grade for the paper, or in extreme cases exclusion

from the University. The University of Otago reserves the right to use plagiarism detection tools.

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All essays submitted for this paper will be checked for plagiarism using the SafeAssign service within

Blackboard. Here is more information on plagiarism, including University of Otago policy and

procedures. A helpful learning module about plagiarism is provided for you in Blackboard within the

library resources section.

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READINGS Topic: Human experimentation and the birth of bioethics Wartime Medical Atrocities Barondess, J.A. (1996) Medicine Against Society: Lessons From the Third Reich. Journal of American Medical Association 276(20): 1657-1661. Nie, J.B. (2002) Japanese Doctors’ Experimentation in Wartime China. The Lancet 360: s5-s6. The Unfortunate Experiment Skegg, David (2009) The Cartwright Inquiry and its Legacy. In Manning, Joanna, ed. The Cartwright Papers. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2009.p7-10 Topic: The regulatory challenge of science and technology Tensions and disconnections Targets and tools Brownsword, R. & Goodwin, M. (2012) Four Key Regulatory Challenges. Law and the Technologies of the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 46-71 Topic: Ethical theories Utilitarianism and virtue ethics Deontology, Rights and Principlism Childress, J.F. (2007) Methods in bioethics. In: The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics. B. Steinbock (ed.), Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 15-45. Topic: Animals in science Ethics of animal experimentation DeGrazia, D. 1999. The Ethics of Animal Research: What Are the Prospects for Agreement? Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 8: 23-34. Lecture 10. Manipulation of animals in science Thompson, P., 2008. The Opposite of Human Enhancement: Nanotechnology and the Blind Chicken Problem. Nanoethics 2: 305-316. Topic: Scientific responsibility Scientific responsibility Forge J. 2000. Science and moral responsibility: an outline. Melbourne Studies in Education 41(2): 61-71. Lecture 11. Scientific fraud Cryanoski, D. 2012. Retraction record rocks community. Nature 489: 346-347. Martonson, B.C., Anderson, M.S., de Vries, R. 2005. Scientists behaving badly. Nature 435: 737-738. Topic: Science and embryos IVF – Its rise and ethical debate ESHRE 2001. I: The Moral status of the preimplantation embryo. Human Reproduction 16: 1046-1048. Moral status of the embryo Singer, P. 1997 The Moral Status of the embryo. In: Classic Works in Medical Ethics, G. Pence (ed.) McGraw-Hill: New York, 83-92. Abortion Warren, M.A. 2012. Abortion. In A Companion to Bioethics, H. Khuse and P. Singer (eds.). Wiley-Blackwell Chichester, 140-148. Sex-Selective Abortion in Asia Nie, J.B. (2011) Non-medical sex-selective abortion in China: Ethical and public policy issues in the context of 40 million missing females. British Medical Bulletin 98: 7-20.

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Regulation of assisted reproductive technology in NZ Anderson,L. Snelling, J. & Tomlins-Jahnke, H. 2012. The practice of surrogacy in New Zealand. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 52: 253–257. Stem cell research Towns, C.R. and Jones, D.G. 2006. Stem cells: public policy and ethics. In: The Stem Cell Controversy: Debating the Issues, 2nd Edition. Ruse, M. and Pynes, C.A. eds. Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, pp. 329-341. Hammond-Browning, M. 2012. Stem cells. In: Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 2nd Edition. Chadwick, R. ed. Elsevier, pp. 227-234. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis to avoid disease Preimplantation genetic diagnosis to enhance (eugenics) Robertson, J.A. 2003. Extending preimplantation genetic diagnosis: the ethical debate. Ethical issues in new uses of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Human reproduction 18: 465-471. Savulescu, J. 2001. Procreative beneficence: Why we should select the best children. Bioethics 15: 413-426. Sparrow, R. 2007. Procreative beneficence, obligation, and eugenics. Genomics, Society and Policy 3(3): 43-59. Topic: Science and the environment Environmental values McShane, K., 2013. Environmental ethics. In: International Encyclopedia of Ethics, LaFollette, H. ed. Wiley-Blackwell. Climate change science & skepticism Jasanoff, S. (2010) Testing time for climate science. SCIENCE 328, 695-696. Topic: Science and the Brain Treating the brain McMillan, J. 2013. Psychosurgery. In: International Encyclopedia of Ethics, LaFollette, H. ed. Wiley-Blackwell. Available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee064/full Manipulating the brain Singer, P., Sagan, A. 2012. Are we ready for a morality pill? New York Times, January 28. Available online at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/are-we-ready-for-a-morality-pill/ Topic: Use of dead humans and their tissue Respecting the Dead Human Body Jones, D. G. 1994. Use of bequeathed and unclaimed bodies in the dissecting room. Clinical Anatomy 7: 102–107. Preserving the Dead Human Body Jones, D.G. and Whitaker, M.I. 2009. Engaging with plastination and the Body Worlds phenomenon: A cultural and intellectual challenge for anatomists. Clinical Anatomy 22: 770–776. doi: 10.1002/ca.20824 Topic: Emerging issues in science Human enhancement The complex role of science in enhancement Douglas, T. 2013. Biomedical enhancement. In: International Encyclopedia of Ethics, LaFollette, H. ed. Wiley-Blackwell. Available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee560/pdf