Bioethics

Do Now Take out Carl’s Case Write a recommendation for what Carl should do. (~1 paragraph)  Use relevant facts  Stakeholders  Ethical Considerations-  Is it fair?  Does it benefit more people than harm?  Is it respectful?  Is it authentic?

Fishbowl Discussion Set up: Circle of chairs on the outside, table with 4 on the inside. Everyone sits on the outside, and 4-5 people will discuss in the “fishbowl”. There will be time to respond after everyone in the fishbowl has spoken their piece.

Fishbowl Discussion 1. Ms. Lin will read a scenario 2. You will have 2 minutes to respond to the scenario silently on your paper 3. After two minutes, you will have the chance to go to the center to respond. You must go to the center at least once during this discussion. 4. The people inside the bowl will discuss 5. People on the outside can respond. You will also receive a grade for responding at least once on the outside.

Scenario 1 Most of the food you eat is genetically modified. This means that gene is taken from a living thing and placed into a different food by a scientist, making new plants. They are made for different purposes, mostly against harmful chems or pesticides. Stay fresh longer, kill pests, produce more veggies. If you were a farmer, would you grow genetically modified foods?

Scenario 2 Cloning is the process of creating exact copies of DNA fragments or cells. Dolly was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned. There is something called therapeutic cloning, which involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research. In fact, the food and drug administration, which regulates your food, allows people to sell food from cloned animals without requiring special labeling. This means that meat and milk from cloned animals like goats, cattle etc. are no different than conventionally bred animals. Should the FDA be required to label food from cloned animals?

Scenario 3 You are a doctor at a major hospital and your job is to attend to different patients in your wing. One day, you have an elderly grandparent who signs an DNR order, which means to withhold CPR should the need arise. His family does not agree with this DNR order and wishes that he did not sign it. After a couple of weeks, this grandparent starts to undergo cardiac arrest. What do you, as the attending, do?

Scenario 4 Huntington’s disease is a rare condition that causes parts of the brain to break down or degenerate. Symptoms involve personality changes, memory loss, and behavioral changes and typically develop after the age of 40. Huntington's disease is caused by a changed, or mutated, gene. If you have a parent with the disease, you have a 50% chance of getting the changed gene and the disease. A blood test can show whether you have the changed gene. Although this test is highly reliable, no test is 100% accurate. Also, if you test positive, the test can't tell you when you will develop Huntington's disease or how quickly the disease will advance. If one of your parents found out they had Huntington’s disease, would you get the genetic test?

Scenario 5 Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. People and companies have made billions off of cloning and selling her cells. Do you think that hospitals or scientists should be able to take cell samples for research and profit from them?

Scenario 6 Stem cells are cells found in most, if not all, multi- cellular organisms. They are special because they can renew themselves through dividing and differentiating (specializing) into a diverse range of specialized cell types. Embryonic stem cells are cultures of cells derived from embryos (babies). In order to harvest these specific type of stem cells, you need to use a forming embryo so that it cannot be formed into a baby in the future. However, these cells are special because they can become any cell in the body! Do you think Congress should allow embryonic stem cell research?

Scenario 7 On the other hand, there is currently adult stem cell research. This research uses cells from adult or children’s bodies which can divide and create cells like itself or more specific cells. They have been used successfully to treat leukemia or specific bone cancers through bone marrow transplants. No one is harmed in the process of this type of stem cell research. Would you allow your sibling to undergo stem cell treatment if they had leukemia?

Scenario 8 Euthanasia is the intentional and painless taking of the life of another person, by act or omission, for compassionate motives. The word euthanasia is derived from the Ancient Greek language and can be literally interpreted as ‘good death. Central to discussion on euthanasia is the notion of intention. While death may be caused by an action or omission of medical staff during treatment in hospital, euthanasia only occurs if death was intended. Do you think people should have the ability to ask for euthanasia from a physician?

Scenario 9 A company in Canada is creating an “enviropig”, which is a genetically engineered pig whose manure would be less harmful to the environment a gene that allows it to better digest phosphorous in its food, therefore reducing the amount of phosphorous in the manure. Phosphorous can contribute to algal blooms and other environmental problems. Should a company be able to make an enviropig?