Bio/Medical Ethics

There are many issues today that raise serious ethical questions. This project is intended to examine your views and challenge you to take a stand on a controversial biological/medical issue.

Project Objectives
1. To use a variety of resources to research and become knowledgeable in an important controversy in the field of Biology and/or Medicine.
2. To present the main issues and your opinion in class in 3 to 5 minute presentation.
3. To develop a rationale for defending your own personal views against opposing viewpoints.

Project Requirements and Evaluation Criteria

1. Prepare and Deliver a 3 to 5 minute presentation in class.
2. Turn in a proper bibliography using the Union Style Sheet format.
3. Do (2) peer-evaluations and a self-evaluation.

Project Instructions

1. Use the Presentation Rubric for criteria in the project.
2. Do not print directly from an Internet site or SIRS article. Copy and paste what you need to ClarisWorks.
3. If you need to copy a graphic from a web site: place the cursor on the graphic and hold the mouse down. A menu will appear giving you several options. Select "copy this graphic". Then you will be able to paste it on a ClarisWorks document (as a graphic). You must document where you copied your graphic from.

Possible Topics

1. Right to Life/Abortion vs Choice?
2. Late Term/Partial Birth Abortions/Fetal Rights (yes or no?)
3. Human Cloning Research (yes or no?)
4. Animal Cloning Research (yes or no?)
5. Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia (yes or no?)
6. Embryo/Fetal Tissue Research (yes or no?)
7. Animal Research and Animal Rights (yes or no?)
8. Invitro fertilization (yes or no?)
9. Recombinant DNA/Transgenic Manipulation (yes or no?)
10. Homosexuality (Choice or Biological?)
11. Surrogate Mothers (yes or no?)
12. Cryogenic Preservation (yes or no?)
13. Sterilization for Convicted Sexual Abusers (yes or no?)
14. Neonatal Heroic Resuscitation (yes or no?)
15. Mandatory HIV Testing (yes or no?)
16. Contraception Available in School (yes or no?)
17. Legal Marijuana and Drugs (yes or no?)
18. Performance Enhancing Drugs in Athletics (yes or no?)
19. Biological Warfare (yes or no?)
20. Other Debatable Topics of your own choosing?

Possible Resources

SIRS Researcher and InfoTrac will be good resources to use. To use SIRS, Log on to UHS file server and select "Researcher_CD", open the Researcher folder on the hard drive and double click on the "Reseracher" icon. To use InfoTrac, Log on to WBS file server as a guest and select "980212A", go to the hard drive and double click on the "InfoTrac" icon. You may also want to use the Patron's Catalog on the computer hard drive to locate books on your topic.

The Internet will also be a good resource if you are able to distinguish between the various types of information you will encounter. Not all information on the Internet is valid, useful or even accurate. Much of what you encounter will be slanted towards a particular point of view. Good Internet resources include: Hot Topics Links, Great 'Net Starting Points and Social Issues Resources .

Search Sites

Use these search tools for keyword searching.

Documentation

For instructions on documenting Internet sources, refer to Citing Internet resources.

Created by Mr. Gingrich and Mr. McCright
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