Syllabus (As of 2/6/12, 8:15 p.m.
—watch for frequent updates)
Spring 2012
TR
11:00 a.m.-12.15 p.m.
Willard Hall, Room 319
School of Education
University of Delaware
|| Objectives
|| Course
Requirements || Grading ||
Writing
Fellows ||
|| Policy
on Cheating || Policy on
Illness ||
|| Quick
Calendar of Assignments || Weekly
Schedule of Reading and Writing ||
|| Required
and Recommended Readings ||
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Instructor: |
Linda S.
Gottfredson |
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Office: |
Willard Hall 219B |
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Phone: |
(302) 831-1650 |
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Office Hours: |
Tues., Thurs. 1:00-2:00 and by appt. |
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Writing fellows: |
Alex D'Angelo (adangelo@udel.edu) |
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Suggestions: |
Clicking on the date in the calendar will take you to that date's readings and P/F writing assignment. (Clicking on the day in the Weekly Schedule, further below, will also take you to that day's assignment.)
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Paper 1 |
Paper 2 |
Paper 3 |
This course is a Freshman Honors Colloquium. As such, it emphasizes class discussion and requires considerable writing. The aim is to develop your thinking and writing skills while sharing an intellectual adventure into a contentious arena—the ethics of genetic research.
By 2003, just 50 years after discovering of the double
helix, scientists had mapped the entire human genome. This is one of the
scientific triumphs of the Twentieth Century, yet it also poses some deeply
unsettling political and moral challenges. Some people welcome its possible
benefits to human health and well-being, but others fear that the new genetic
knowledge and technologies will threaten our freedoms and degrade our humanity.
This course will examine the wide range of ethical issues associated with
genetic research and technologies. Students will first get a basic grounding in
different ethical philosophies, from early
We will carefully distinguish the scientific search for facts (what “is”) from the moral and political debates over how we should respond to them (what “ought to be”). This is very important. When reviewing the science, we will assess whether claims about facts are supported by evidence and logic, not wishes and presumptions. How citizens and policy makers ought to deal with the facts is an entirely different matter, however. There are always different possible choices, and citizens and policy makers will inevitably disagree about which ones are best, depending on their own interests and values. The new genomic knowledge and technologies are creating very difficult choices for us. Science can help us understand what our choices are but it can never tell us which to choose. That is what the democratic process is for—negotiating our choices. We will therefore explore alternative moral perspectives on the choices that we, individually and collectively, ought to make.
Reasonable people can disagree on the choices we will discuss. Regardless of the conclusions you reach, I want you to be able to defend them with strong logic and evidence. My major objective is to see your minds at work!
SCIENTIFIC ENTHUSIASMS, PUBLIC HOPES AND FEARS
Day 2 (2/9) Portraits of hope and fear in the media
Day 3 (2/14) What are ethics?
Day 4 (2/16) Divergent reactions to genomic “advancement”: Is it good or bad for us?
Day 5 (2/21) Historic pursuit of medical utopias
Day 6 (2/23) What do we value? Is science neutral about 'the good'?
Day 7 (2/28) Do real people seek and value what the medical utopians do?
Day 8 (3/1) Beware what you seek?
Day 9 (3/6) To what extent does the human genome define “humanness”?
Day 10 (3/8)"Brave New World"—How relevant today?
EMPIRICAL REALITIES
Day 11 (3/13) The genome: Chromosomes 3-7 (History, Fate, Environment, Intelligence, Instinct)
Day 12 (3/15) The genome: Chromosomes X/Y-11 (Conflict, Self-Interest, Disease, Stress, Personality)
Day 13 (3/20) The genome: Chromosomes 12-17 (Self-Assembly, Pre-History, Immortality, Sex, Memory, Death)
Day 14 (3/22) The genome: Chromosomes 18-22 (Cures, Prevention, Politics, Eugenics, Free Will)
SPRING BREAK
NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NOVEL CHOICES & ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Day 15 (4/3) Genomic ethics
Required reading:
Day 16 (4/5)
Genetic
anthropology
Team: Dr. Gottfredson
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 17
(4/10) Genetically-altered crops
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 18
(4/12) Criminal forensics
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
DUE: Paper 2
Day 19
(4/17) Genetic testing
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 20 (4/19) Genetic counseling
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 21
(4/24) Reprogenetics
Team:
Required reading:
Recommended readings:
Day 22 (4/26) Pharmacogenics and body parts
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
DUE: Rewrite 2
Day 23 (5/1)
Androids
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 24 (5/3) Cloning
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 25 (5/8) Life
extension and euthanasia
Team:
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 26 (5/10) Humanity: What's lost, what's gained with the new genomics?
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Day 27 (5/15) Humanity: What's lost, what's gained--cont.
Required readings:
Recommended readings:
Paper 3: DUE: May 18, in my office or mailbox by 4:00 p.m.
· Note: You must turn in the first versions of Papers 1 and 2 on time, or I will subtract points from your grade for the rewrite.
This course, like other Freshmen Honors Colloquia, participates in the Honors Program's Writing Fellow Program. Writing Fellows are UD undergraduates who have taken a special course in peer tutoring of writing.
Paper 1:
· You will turn in two copies of your paper, one to me and one to your writing fellow. You will also bring with you a completed Writer Response form for your fellow. It gives the fellow helpful information when going through your paper.
· NOTE: Your first version is not a "draft!" It is your first best effort. If it's not, then you are wasting my time and the fellow’s, and you are less likely to end up with a satisfactory result.
· One week after you turn in the paper, you will get feedback on it from the writing fellow. Fellows do not give any grades.
· You will have one week to rethink and revise your paper. During this time you will meet for a one-half hour conference with your fellow to discuss how you want to revise your paper. You will turn in one copy of your second version, plus the fellowed copy of the first version.
· The conference for this paper is mandatory, and you must notify the fellow ahead of time, if possible, when you cannot keep your appointment. You must then reschedule it.
· I will return your revision to you in one week, with feedback and a grade.
· You may seek advice from either the writing fellow or me, or both, anytime during this process.
Paper 2:
· Exactly the same process as for Paper 1.
Paper 3:
· There is no mandatory conference, but I strongly encourage you to meet with your writing fellow because you will not be rewriting this paper.
· brainstorm thoughts for a paper and interpret the writing assignment
· revise your drafts by helping you with organization, tone, the thesis statement, proper citation, and the like
· use a variety of stylistic techniques to polish near-final drafts.
· Please familiarize yourself with the University's statement on academic dishonesty in the Student Code of Conduct, especially as it pertains to plagiarism.
· I prosecute cheating and have won all cases so far.
If you have a contagious illness, please do not come to class. Stay home and rest. Just let me know as soon as you can why you will miss, or have missed, class. Your classmates and I can help you catch up.
Required
and Recommended Readings
Note: Some readings may be deleted and others added during the course of the semester. The readings (and pass-fail assignments) for any specific class will be considered final at the time of the previous class.
Required books available at UD bookstore
Required and recommended articles (all online, most requiring your UD userid and password)
o AI (movie)
o Awakenings (movie)
o Bicentennial Man (movie)
o Caprica (movie)
o District 9 (movie)
o Dr. Moreau's Island (movie, book by H.G. Wells)
o Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card (book)
o Equilibrium (movie)
o Flowers for Algernon (movie)
o Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (book)
o Gattica (movie)
o I Robot (movie)
o Matrix (movie)
o Minority Report (movie)
o My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (book & movie)
o Next by Michael Crichton (book)
o Prey by Michael Crichton (book)
o The Island (movie)
o Wall-E (movie)
· Human Genome Project Information (HGPI) materials
o Behavioral genetics [URL http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/behavior.shtml]
o Cloning [URL:http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml]
o DNA forensics [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml]
o Gene testing (HGPI) [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetest.shtml]
o Gene therapy (HGPI) [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml]
o Genetic anthropology, ancestry, and ancient human migration [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/humanmigration.shtml]
o Genetics and patenting (HGPI) [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/patents.shtml]
o Genetics privacy and legislation (HGPI) [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/legislat.shtml]
o Minorities, race, and genomics (HGPI) [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/minorities.shtml]
o Pharmacogenetics [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/pharma.shtml]
o Potential benefits of Human Genome Project Research (HGPI) [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/benefits.shtml]
o The science behind the Human Genome Project [URL: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml
· News media, print or online
o “Born to run,” New York Times
o “Neanderthal genome hints at language potential but little human interbreeding,”New York Times, 2/13/09.
o “Political agendas in the guise of pure science,” ew York Times, 2/24/09, pp. D1, D2, by J. Tierney.
o “Slippery slope to eugenics,” Slate Magazine.
§ The report he criticizes: "Choices & Boundaries," 2006, Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority, UK
o "Sperm bank sued under product liability law," New Scientist, 4/8/09.
· Other materials
o “Ethics” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
o Medical utopias: Ethical reflections about emerging medical technologies, by B. Gordijn, 2006.
§ Chapter 2: Basic concepts (pp. 7-14)
§ Chapter 3: Medical utopian thinking (pp. 15-38).
o “The monster in public imagination,” Chapter 10 in Genomics and Society: Legal, Ethical and Social Dimensions, by Gaskell & Bauer, 2006.
o Nanotech Rx: Medical applications of nano-scale technologies, ETC Group, September, 2006 (pages 8-23 [ignore box on pages 10-11], 31-33, 36-46, glossary might be useful too)
o “Safe handling of nanotechnology,” Nature, 444(16), 267-269.
o Testing for genetic conditions, confidentiality, and discrimination (book chapter)
o “The larger world of nano,” Physics today, October 2008.
o “The upright posture,” Chapter 7 (pp. 137-165) in Phenomenological Psychology, by Erwin Straus, 1966.
· Readings from Being Human, President’s Council on Bioethcs
o “Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
o "“Burden and blessing of mortality"”
o Chapter 2: Scientific aspirations (on Archimedes, Descartes, E.O. Wilson, Richard Feynman, & James Watson)
o “Drugstore athletes” by MalcolmGladwell.
o Gattaca, excerpt from the screenplay
o “Good grief: An undertaker’s reflections” by Thomas Lyn.
o Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (excerpt on the ‘struldbrugs
o “Of death” by Francis Baco
o “On meeting death cheerfully” bySeneca
o “People like that are the only people here: Canonical babblings in peed onk” (peed onk=pediatric oncology), by Lorrie Moore
o “Witness” by Richard Selzer
· Short stories from other books
o “Fortitude” by Kurt Vonnegut
o “Harrison Bergeron” (story of the handicapper general) by Kurt Vonnegut
o “Masks” by Damon Knight
· Other websites
o Human Genome Project (U.S. Dept of Energy)
o Learn.Genetics--Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah
o Bioethics Resources on the Web, National Institutes of Health
o Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority, UK
§ Hybrids and chimeras, April 2007
§ Choices & Boundaries, 2006 (brings us "where do we draw the line" issues)
o Institute for Public Health Genetics (a major graduate program), University of Washington, Seattle
o President’s Council on Bioethics
o Program in Science, Ethics and Public Policy, University of Delaware
This page was last modified on 02/6/11.