Ethics in Life Sciences

Catalog description

Ethical issues invariably arise when conducting research in, and generally thinking about, the life sciences. How should human and animal cells be used and when? What harms, risks and benefits might be associated with advances being made in synthetic biology or in the genetic modification of organisms? How does our understanding of microbiome alter our notions of an individual or of a disease? Does the environment have value only insofar as it contributes to humans ends, or does it have value in itself? How much empirical evidence is sufficient before drawing a conclusion? Does what we learn in science change the nature of our ethical frameworks? This course considers these issues and others. In doing so, we'll examine some ethical theory and some recent scientific research in order to survey the scope of topics at the intersection of ethics and the life sciences.