Parental duties and untreatable genetic conditions

This paper considers parental duties of beneficence and non-maleficence to use prenatal genetic testing for non-treatable conditions. It is proposed that this can be a duty only if the testing is essential to protect the interests of the child ie only if there is a risk of the child being born to a life worse than non-existence. It is argued here that non-existence can be rationally preferred to a severely impaired life. Uncontrollable pain and a lack of any opportunity to develop a continuous self are considered to be sufficient criteria for such preference. When parents are at risk of having a child whose life would be worse than non-existence, the parents have a duty to use prenatal testing and a duty to terminate an affected pregnancy. Further, such duty does not apply to any conditions where the resulting life can be considered better than non-existence. Key Words: Prenatal testing • parental duties • beneficence • non-maleficenc

How to teach science ethics Strategies for encouraging moral development in biology (and other) students through the design and use of structured exercises in bioethics

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN045005 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Impact of an ethics programme in a life sciences curriculum.

Choices in science--allocation of research funds, selection of research topics, interaction with research subjects (animals, environment, other humans), etc.--often, if not always, include some ethical considerations. Future scientists need skills to deal with and discuss ethical problems, and for that reason we have developed and evaluated one approach to including ethics in a life science curriculum. Our aim has been to support the development of students' ethical sensitivity. The key element in our teaching choices has been the importance of nurturing students' personal moral agency, i.e. their individual skills and responsibilities in moral decision-making, with an interactive teaching approach. The ethics programme was evaluated by extensive course evaluation and using three moral development measures: TESS, DIT and Perry questionnaire. The short ethics programme of three discussions was found to support the development of students' ethical sensitivity