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

4. Ask students for their preliminary views about the case.Possible questions to draw students’ responses include• Who believes that making Alba was ethically acceptable? Why?• Who believes that it was ethically wrong to make Alba? Why?• Who is not sure about what they think? Why?5. Point out that reasonable people can disagree about what is theright thing to do in Alba’s case.It can be difficult to decide whether human modification of animalsis ethically acceptable, partly because there are so many things toconsider. One way to deepen students’ thinking about this issue isto engage them in analyzing a range of cases. Through contrast andcomparison, their thinking may get more subtle and sophisticated.After they spend some time exploring a range of cases, they will havea chance to return to Alba’s case on Day 3.Activity 3:Contrasting Cases of Animal ModificationEstimated Time: 20–25 minutesIn this activity, you introduce students to a wide range of animal-modificationcases. For homework, students classify the modifications in terms oftheir expected benefit to humans and degree of harm to animals. Also forhomework, students quickly and privately record their first impressions:“yes,” the modification should be allowed; “no,” it should not; or “maybe.”Procedure1. Give each student a copy of Master 6.2: Contrasting Cases ofAnimal Modifications.2. Allow time for students to read the cases, or read them togetheras a class.See Teacher Support MaterialsAs you introduce each case, you might want to showstudents the color photograph of the animal in thePowerPoint presentation available online at http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/bioethics/teacher.3. Give each student a copy of Master 6.3: Assessment of EthicalAcceptability and Master 6.4: Assessing Harms, Benefits, andPotential Alternatives.6-8Exploring Bioethics