Time Schedule:
Steven G. Gilbert
BIS 411
Bothell Campus
Clarifies the scientific, political, economic, and ethical dimensions of new genetic technologies. Explores the tension between biotechnology as a source of economic opportunity and as a potential threat to the environment and human freedom, and the role of government in promoting and regulating science and technology to resolve this tension.
Class description
This course examines the ethical, legal, social issues of recent advances in biotechnology. Science and business are increasingly creating amazing new possibilities through biotechnology that are affecting environmental and human health. Management of these new capabilities requires an integration of ethical and social consideration. As Garrett Hardin pointed out in 1968 for a growing number of problems There are no technical solutions. In many ways the current U.S. election is a vote on how to address the complex situations that are affecting our society. Stem cells and cloning is but one of these issues recently addressed by Kerry and Bush. The genomic sciences are allowing us to read and potentially alter the code of life in fact we have already started down that path. What are the implications for individuals and society? What role does bioethics plays in future decision making in this uncharted territory? This course introduces students to the scientific, social, cultural, and ethical issues surrounding biotechnology and its applications.
Required Text: don't think of an elephant! by George Lakoff James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003) Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution ( (New York: Picador, 2003)
Chapters will be used from the following books: A Small Dose of Toxicology - by Steven G. Gilbert (CRC Press, 2004) The Birth of Bioethics - by Albert R. Jonsen Principles of Biomedical Ethics (4th Ed) - by Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Lecture - class discussion - reading assigned text
Recommended preparation
Consider the major ethically based decisions facing society.
Class assignments and grading
Reading, essays.
Class particpation, exam, essays
