BioEthics In Action: Initiatives

Initiatives - Teacher Training Institutes

Biotechnology and the Design of Human Life: Future Hopes and Challenges

If you are interested in the BEIA Teacher's Institute Program, please let us know at teachersinstitute@bioethics-in-action.org. We will add your name to a notification list for future offerings in your area.

Dear Teachers and other interested members of the public,

Thank you for your interest in BEIA's Teachers' Institute Project, entitled Biotechnology and the Design of Human Life: Future Hopes and Challenges.

We recognize that teacher's time is valuable, but we believe this Teacher's Institute will be unique. In a new and fundamental way, it helps teachers to engage their students in the ethical dilemmas and challenges that biotechnology will present to students and all citizens throughout the 21st Century. Our goal is to engage teachers in collaborative inquiry as thoughtful citizens as well as professional educators.

Each institute session explores the primary and emerging ethical issues posed by biotechnology, by reading and discussing articles, films, and literature. The Institute is designed to give teachers tools and practical training to help students uncover the fundamental issues raised by the advancing ability of science to alter the biological basis of human life, and then to use literature, essays, and film to reflect and discuss these issues more deeply.

What issues are addressed at an institute session?

You undoubtedly have heard something about issues related to biotechnology in human beings, issues ranging from mood control of children to cloning. Our program focuses on ethical challenges across three areas:

Extending human life;
Enhancing human performance and capacity; and
Modifying moods and social behavior.

Does BEIA have a religious ideology or policy agenda driving the course?

No. BEIA takes all thoughtful opinions seriously, including those based in religion. The institute teaches better and deeper ethical inquiry; we do not pre-determine or pre-judge the results of that process.

What is unique about the BEIA approach?

Most education modules in bioethics emphasize presentation of competing or conflicting points of view. BEIA's approach takes this to a deeper level. Since we focus on the aims, rather that the techniques of biotechnical interventions, teachers learn to guide their students to the basic assumptions about the nature of human life that underlie typical and familiar policy conflicts. On this level, we find that discussion of short selections from literature and philosophy can empower students to connect their coursework with exploring basic, but essential, questions about the world they occupy.

This approach is rooted in our belief that one mode of effective teaching is to integrate contemporary issues with vivid intellectual engagement in texts. We seek this experience for all alike: throughout the Institute, teachers engage as co-participants, interactively exploring issues of bioethics. Participant teams develop curricular models based on a specific bioethics topic for use in their classrooms, and these models become part of a curricular bibliography made available to the entire group. Participants also will be invited to join an ongoing network for the further development of curricula and resources through Bioethics-In-Action and its contacts in the bioethics field.

How can I stay informed about future institute sessions?

If you are interested in the BEIA Teacher's Institute Program, please let us know at teachersinstitute@bioethics-in-action.org. We will add your name to a notification list for future offerings in your area.

Click Here to see a Sample Downloadable Brochure We will add your name to a notification list for future offerings in your area.

Typical Daily Schedule for a five-day session:

Sunday

Arrival, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Reception and Dinner, 6:30 PM

Monday

Introduction to the three issue areas in human bioengineering: life extension, performance enhancement, and social control.
The state of technology in each area. Review of current arguments for and against using the anticipated technologies.
Placing current ethical debates in the context of deeper questions about human happiness, assumptions about human "nature," and the uses of scientific power.

Tuesday

Historical overview of the modern scientific project and its relation to society. Tensions between the pursuit of knowledge and the "conquest of nature" for the "relief of man's estate" (Francis Bacon).
The relationship of the scientific revolution to modern democratic principles such as individual choice and distributive justice.
The impact of science on deliberation about ethical "limits" and the public good.
Evening Film on Life Extension

Wednesday

In-depth examination of Life Extension in light of current and proposed technology.
What is the impact of finitude on how we live our lives? How would human experience be different if we lived much longer? Should unwanted death be eliminated? How would society be impacted by the significant extension of life?

Thursday

In-depth examination of Performance Enhancement in light of current research and future technology.
How will society decide what constitutes "improvement" as opposed to "therapy"? Will competitive pressure make performance-enhancing technology necessary for everyone? Is a good human life-for an individual or an entire society-one that is immune to psychic distress? Is the development of irreversible enhancements fair to our posterity?
Evening Film on Social Control

Friday

In-depth examination of behavior modification and social improvement
Is genetic or pharmaceutical modification different from education? Would human life or society be impoverished or improved without the inclination towards self-assertion that can result in violence? Would social goals such as resource conservation justify biotechnical modification so that humans become more cooperative as part of a social "system"?
Final Reception and Departure, 4:00-6:00PM

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