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

4. Explain that as homework tonight, students will record their initialreactions to the cases (Round 1) on Master 6.3, read the cases againfocusing on the factual descriptions of harms and benefits, anddecide where they would place each case in the matrix on Master 6.4.5. Show the transparency of Master 6.3, and read the directionstogether. Tell students that they will be using this worksheet laterin the module, too.Students should place their initial, gut reactions in the Round 1 column.They should check “yes” if they would recommend proceeding withthe described modification, “no” if they recommend prohibiting themodification, or “maybe” if they are not sure what to recommend. Afterstudents finish Round 1 on Master 6.3, they should complete Master 6.4.6. Show the transparency of Master 6.4, and read the instructionstogether.Master 6.4 is a blank table labeled with the magnitude of benefits tohumans (three columns—small, medium, large) and the magnitude ofharms to animals (four rows—small, medium, large, unknown).The homework assignment is to write the name of each case in the mostappropriate cell of the table. This will create a visual display of how thecases vary in terms of degrees of human benefit and animal harm. It is fineto have more than one case in each cell, or no cases in some of the cells.The master instructs students to make an asterisk (*) next to a case nameif they think there is an alternative that brings the human benefit withoutthe animal modification. Considering less harmful alternatives is animportant part of assessing whether a government should allow peopleto make a modification to an animal. The fact that an alternative is lessharmful to animals may not be a sufficient reason to seek the alternative,however. Other considerations to take into account include the cost of thealternative, how difficult achieving the alternative is, and how beneficial tohumans it is compared with the original case.7. Ask students, “Do you have any questions about the facts of the casethat have not been fully addressed—or addressed at all—whoseanswers might change your mind?”If the class runs out of time, tell students to research their questionsfor homework. Make sure they understand that for some of thesemodifications, scientists do not yet know what the degrees of humanbenefit and animal harm might be. If that is so, the case descriptionstates that these benefits and harms are unknown. Later, when studentsreassess the acceptability of these modifications, they will have to considerhow important this uncertainty is: is it reason enough to forbid such amodification, to proceed with caution, or to go ahead?Module 6 6-9AssessmentYou can use the homework as aninformal assessment.NoteEmphasize that the basic factsstudents need for each case are inthe case descriptions. Somestudents may believe they needmore information. If so, ask them todo further research on their own.Explain that in some cases, the factsare not yet known. In others, factfinding is a way to forestall orpreempt the need for ethicaljudgment. Students willnevertheless have to decidewhether to proceed with amodification even in cases wherethe facts are uncertain.123456