Exploring Bioethics - NIH Office of Science Education - National ...

enefits that could arise if family members knew more about mutationsthey have inherited. How much or how little sharing would be mostrespectful and would best minimize harms and maximize benefits?3. Ask students to brainstorm a list of people in Max’s family whomight benefit from knowing this newly discovered information,and write each person’s name on a different piece of poster paper.Students should bring up these names: Diane, Lindsey, Sally, Eula,Charlene, and John.4. Divide the students into six small groups (three to five studentsper group, depending on the size of your class), and give eachgroup a piece of poster paper with a relative’s name on it, one redmarker, and one green marker.Tip from the FieldWhen students are doing thisactivity, you will also want to makesure that they have access toMax’s family pedigree (Master 4.3).If you made a transparency of thispedigree, you can display it forthe class.5. Instruct each group to use the red marker to record reasons infavor of not telling that person about Max’s mutation and thegreen marker to record reasons in favor of telling that person.Give each group approximately five minutes for this task.Remind students to use both scientific facts and core ethicalconsiderations (minimizing harms and maximizing benefits, respectfor persons) as they record reasons.Teaching StrategiesYou could assign roles within the group (or have students self-assign theroles): one person to write in each color and one to three people to presentto the class.6. Give each group about one minute to present its poster to the class.AssessmentThis is a good chance for aformative assessment. Listeningto students’ poster presentationswill enable you to assess whetheryour students are able to incorporatescientific knowledge andethical considerations whenjustifying a decision.7. After each group has presented, have a brief full-class discussionabout the posters.Possible discussion questions include• Would anyone add other reasons to any of the posters?• Did anyone disagree with the reasons mentioned?Which one(s)? Why?• Are there justifications for overriding Max’s request forconfidentiality? If so, identify these justifications. If not, why not?• What if Max’s test were for an infectious disease? Would you treathis request for confidentiality any differently? Why or why not?See theIntroductionFor more discussion tips, seeTable 2 in the Introduction,pages 16–19.See Teacher Support MaterialsIf the discussion becomes too one-sided, elicit counteropinions using tips from Who Should Have Access to theResults?—available online at http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/bioethics/teacher.4-28 Exploring Bioethics