Karl Haigler, Executive Director of Bioethics-in-Action, and Brian Michaels, science teacher at The Key School, discussed the year-long partnership and its focus on the ethical issues of biotechnology at a conference sponsored by The Independent Curriculum Group. The presentation, Bioethics: A Topic for Interdisciplinary Study in Science and the Humanities, attracted high school educators from the Philadelphia area and from schools interested in non-traditional courses of study. Information about the Philadelphia conference and presentation can be found at www.independentcurriculum.org/forums. For more information about the presentation or the use of bioethics in interdisciplinary studies in the high school classroom, contact Brian Michaels at bmichaels@keyschool.org or Karl Haigler at karlh@bioethics-in-action.org.

 

Agora Foundation Seminar in Ojai, California

Karl Haigler, BEIA’s Executive Director, co-led a seminar in a reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus based on a module from the BEIA curriculum. Among the questions examined: How does the creature cross the line from non-human to human or cyborg? Is Frankenstein, the scientist, a “modern Prometheus”? Is our modern-day equation of the “Frankenstein Syndrome” (according to Bernard Rollin) consistent with—or an exaggeration of—Shelley’s vision?  Also part of the reading and discussion were the works of commentators Bernard Rollin and Finn Bowring, who offer spirited assessments of the cases being made for bioengineering—assessments that help draw out the ethical implications of Frankenstein in a modern context. For more information on The Agora Foundation and its seminars, see www.greatbooksojai.org.