ELA, Grade 10, Unit 2, Activity 1: What Is Bioethics? Materials Needed

ELA, Grade 10, Unit 2, Activity 1: What is Bioethics?
Materials Needed:
Pandemic Flu! BLM
Ethics and Bioethics Power Point
Activity: Bioethics Simulation

Reader and Task Considerations:
Introduction
Students are introduced to the characteristics of an ethical question and learn to
distinguish ethical questions from other types of questions, such as legal or
scientific questions. Students identify an ethical question, participate in an ethical
dilemma, and examine the underlying themes that serve as a basis for their
reasoning. As the teacher moved through the stages of this activity, he or she
should use the Ethics and Bioethics Power Point to guide the discussion.
A Note to the Teacher

It is especially important to foster a safe classroom atmosphere when discussing
ethical issues that may involve conflicting moral choices. Develop a set of
classroom/discussion norms so that students will understand expectations.
Procedure
Part I What is Bioethics?

1) Tell students that the class is embarking on a short study of bioethics to
accompany their reading of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Define both ethics
and bioethics for students, as follows.
Ethics is a field of study that looks at the moral basis of human behavior (“Why do
we act as we do?”) and attempts to determine the best course of action in the face
of conflicting choices (“How do we decide what to do when people disagree about a
complex issue?”). It is a key component to living within a society in a civilized way.
Bioethics is a subfield of ethics applied to the life sciences. The discipline of
bioethics helps us, as a society, to make decisions about how to best use new
scientific knowledge, how to make policy decisions regarding medicines or
treatments, and how we should behave with each other. It explores ethical
questions such as:
“How should we decide who receives organ transplants?”

or,
“Should a terminally ill patient be allowed to end his/her life with physician-
prescribed medication?”
2) Tell students that they will begin the unit by delving into an ethical
discussion, after defining what constitutes an ethical question.
3) Ask students to pick out the ethical questions from the following list
of questions. It may be helpful to project the questions for all to see.
a. “Is it legal to sell human kidneys in the United States?” (legal)
b. “How does a kidney function inside the body?”(scientific)
c. “Should individuals who donate a kidney choose who their organ should
go to?” (ethical)
d. “What type of diet allows for the best athletic performance? (scientific)
e. “Is killing someone always illegal?” (legal)
f. “Should people select the gender of their child in advance?” (ethical)
4) Revisit the list of questions and have students identify which type of
question they represent.
Note that questions may be of more than one type, and that other types of
questions also exist.
Part II Ethical Group Discussion – Pandemic Flu

1) Ask students what type of question the following is: Who should be saved during
a flu outbreak when there is not enough life-saving vaccine available for
everybody?
2) Review the criteria for an ethical question to see that it is, indeed, an ethical
question.
3) Pass out Student Handout—Pandemic Flu BLM. Give students about 5 minutes
to read the scenario and individually make their choices about the distribution of
the vaccine. Ask students to pay close attention to how they are making their
decisions.
4) Students will record their answers on the Student Handout.
5) Discuss how (on what basis) they made the decision to give the vaccine to a
particular character.
6) Point out some common approaches that may appear during the student
discussion and write the italicized words on the board. By a show of hands, have
student show if they considered that approach when making their decisions.
Approach 1: Save the Youngest. In choosing this, students are maximizing the life
span for the most number of people.
Approach 2: Draw Straws (or any randomization technique). This option values
fairness.
Approach 3: Save the Weakest. This option considers the special needs of
vulnerable populations.
Approach 4: Save the Most Useful. Saving someone who has special knowledge
and/or may be able to save others benefits a larger number of people.
Approach 5: Respect Relationships. Honoring the dignity of human beings includes
acknowledging their relationships.
7) Tell students that these approaches reflect societal standards or codes of

conduct that we often rely on when faced with difficult decisions or ethical
questions. We will be exploring these in greater detail throughout the unit.
Part III The Need for Facts

1) Underscore for students that in considering any ethical question, it is
important to examine the facts available, and assess what additional
information is needed. In the Pandemic Flu scenario, students had very little
information from which to make difficult decisions.
2) Ask students, “What are the facts of this case?” and discuss what is known.
3) It is also helpful to define the “Unknowns” in a case: very few real-life
situations will supply all the facts for all of the people involved. Eventually, a
decision must be reached in the absence of a complete set of facts.
4) To illustrate how additional facts influence decision-making, verbally add the
following facts to the Pandemic Flu scenario. What if…?
a) The senior citizen is primary caretaker for eight of her grandchildren.
b) The mother refusing treatment is in her 60s. The son is in his 40s.
c) The doctor is a podiatrist.
d) The woman who thinks she is pregnant has been married to the orderly for
about a year. They have no children.
5) Discuss with students how, or if, these additional facts changed their
decisions.
6) Refer to the approaches written on the board. If students changed their
minds about who to give the vaccine to, did the decision still fit one of the
approaches? Are there other approaches which should be added to the list?
Closure
1) Tell students that ethical questions arise whenever individuals, with their own
values and moral codes, interact within a larger community and a decision must
be made about conflicting choices.
2) Share with students that science is a human enterprise that is conducted in a
social context—science clearly has ethical implications. Offer the following
example of an ethical question (not for discussion, merely as illustration):
 Should human clinical trials be conducted in populations that may not be able to
afford the final medication, even if that population benefits from the trial?
3) Tell students that these are real-world, ethical questions. By learning how to
recognize an ethical question, assess the facts, listen to different viewpoints,
and make a reasoned judgment about a course of action, students gain
experience in critical thinking, and grow in their understanding and respect for
other points of view. Students will be confronted with many ethical issues
related to science in their lifetimes – an understanding of bioethics and decision-
making will help them make well-reasoned and informed choices.

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ELA, Grade 10, Unit 2, Activity 1: What is Bioethics?

Activity: Bioethics Simulation

A Note to the Teacher

Part I What is Bioethics?

“How should we decide who receives organ transplants?”

Part II Ethical Group Discussion – Pandemic Flu

7) Tell students that these approaches reflect societal standards or codes of

Part III The Need for Facts

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