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Bioethics in Daily Life

Bioethics in Daily Life. Day 7 Prof. Connie J. Mulligan Department of Anthropology. This week. Robots/personhood/personal identity What rights do robots/clones/unborn babies have? What does it mean to be human? Self-replication – Organisms and DNA Reading Bioethics at the Movies (BAM)

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Bioethics in Daily Life

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  1. Bioethics in Daily Life Day 7 Prof. Connie J. Mulligan Department of Anthropology

  2. This week • Robots/personhood/personal identity • What rights do robots/clones/unborn babies have? • What does it mean to be human? • Self-replication – Organisms and DNA • Reading • Bioethics at the Movies (BAM) • Chpt 3 (Homo sapiens, robots, and persons in I, Robot and Bicentennial Man) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg - Wikipedia entry on cyborg • http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v4/n7/pdf/nnano.2009.163.pdf - Relationship between humans and technology • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanorobotics - Wikipedia entry on nanorobotics • Video – Bicentennial Man • Oral presentations - Cloning

  3. Next week • Stem cells • Definition of a stem cell • Different types and uses of stem cells • Status of stem cell research • Current and potential applications of stem cells • Reading • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell - Wikipedia entry on stem cells • http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/stemcells/sctoday - Stem cell therapies today • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZWVj5mqJ1I&feature=channel – UM professor on stem cell research today • http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/pros-and-cons-of-stem-cell-research.htm - Simple and short explanation of the controversy over stem cells • http://usliberals.about.com/od/stemcellresearch/i/StemCell1.htm - Political and legal status on stem cells • http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/stemcells/scissues/ - Questions to ponder (University of Utah Learn.Genetics site) • Skim http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/stem/report.pdf - American Association for the Advancement of Science report on stem cell research (51 pages)Video • Video - PBS documentary on stem cell research • Oral presentations – Robots/personhood/personal identify

  4. What is life?

  5. What is life? • Life uses processes called metabolism to convert materials and energy for its needs • Life undergoes evolution • Living things reproduce themselves • They have both the encoded instructions and the machinery necessary for self-reproduction • Periodic crystals like sodium chloride (table salt) also undergo a kind of self-reproduction. In crystals however, the "instructions" are much simpler, they are not encoded, and they are not different from the "machinery."

  6. DNA is self-replicating • All living things have DNA • Living things are self-replicating, i.e. able to make copies of themselves • Virtually all living things have the potential to reproduce • Some creatures cannot reproduce (infertile animals), but every creature comes from reproduction • DNA is self-replicating • DNA encodes both the machinery (replication enyzmes) and the instructions (self-complementary DNA sequence) for replication • DNA replication involves the copying of existing DNA to produce new molecules with the same base sequence • Each of the two new molecules will consist of one strand from the 'parent' molecule and one new strand • http://vodpod.com/watch/4068412-dna-replication http://www.westone.wa.gov.au/k-12lrcd/learning_areas/bio_science/bio3B/content/001_dna/page_06.htm

  7. Scientists create first self-replicating synthetic life (Science, May 20, 2010) • Inserted >1 million base pairs of synthetic DNA (i.e. an artificial Mycoplasma mycoides genome) into M. capricolum cells and the cells grew as M. mycoides • Minimal genome capable of surviving • Making the genome turned out to be the easy part, harder was getting an organism to grow with the genome; similar to some of the issues with reproductive cloning • Human genome is 3 billion base pairs, i.e. 3000x bigger

  8. Cyborgs can’t reproduce themselves • But what if they could?

  9. Nanobots – could they be self-replicating? • Nanobots replacing human nerve cells with artificial nerve cells • http://www.e-spaces.com/Portfolio/trans/blood/ • ‘Grey goo’ • Hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves • Term coined by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation, stating that "we cannot afford certain types of accidents." In 2004 he stated "I wish I had never used the term 'grey goo' (Wikipedia)

  10. How to assess the accuracy of information

  11. What can you do to learn more?How to evaluate the literature • Internet is often unreliable because of lack of peer review • Check to see if internet claims are supported by peer-reviewed journal articles • Wikipedia can be great resource for peer-reviewed resources, i.e. use Wikipedia to explain a point and look up articles that are cited • Books can be unreliable for the same reason • Vanity press • Check that authors reference their claims • Should reference sources other than themselves • Data should be presented • Tables, figures, numbers, methods, etc

  12. Example - How to evaluate the literature • Race: Evolution and Behavior, by J. Philippe Rushton (Univ. of Western Ontario), 1999, Transaction Publishers, NJ • “Race is more than ‘just skin deep’. The pattern of Oriental-White-Black differences is found across history, geographic boundaries, and political-economic systems. It proves the biological reality of race. Theories based only on culture cannot explain all the data shown in Chart 1” • Lots of so-called ‘data’, but no references except the author • Qualitative measures are not real data • Where are the numbers?

  13. Peer-reviewed journal articles • Gold standard for scientific results • In 2nd half of semester, must include 1 peer-reviewed journal article per group project • For final paper, must include 3 peer-reviewed journal articles

  14. Grading policy • Participation – 100 pts • Group projects (10) – 100 pts • Learn to defend a particular point of view • Learn to research the pros and cons of an issue • Based on reason, science, research • In second half of course, each group project must include at least one scientific peer-reviewed article • Oral presentations (4) – 100 pts • Paper – 100 pts • In-depth analysis of a bioethical issue of your choice • There must be a clear scientific aspect to the issue and you must explain the science and how it relates to your chosen bioethical issue, in addition to developing the bioethical issue • You must include at least 3 scientific peer-reviewed articles • The expected length ~3000 words, or ~5-7 single-spaced pages.

  15. How to read a journal article

  16. Parts of an article What is an abstract? What information goes into an Intro? What information goes into Results? What information goes into Disc?

  17. Parts of an article What is an abstract? A summary of points presented in skeletal form Opportunity for authors to specify what they think are the most important points What information goes into an Intro? What information goes into Results? What information goes into Disc?

  18. Parts of an article What is an abstract? What information goes into an Intro? Background info Foreshadows Discussion All Intro material should be followed up later in article What information goes into Results? What information goes into Disc?

  19. Parts of an article What is an abstract? What information goes into an Intro? What information goes into Results? Just Results No interpretation, no discussion What information goes into Disc?

  20. Parts of an article What is an abstract? What information goes into an Intro? What information goes into Results? What information goes into Disc? Interpretation and significance of results Opportunity for authors to focus on what they think is most important about their results Should pick up on info in Intro Can be very dependent on what topics are currently ‘hot’ so Discussion can become outdated even if Results are still relevant

  21. How to read a journal article Note year of publication Anything more than 5 yrs old is fairly old in my field Can use an old article as a starting point, but look to see what has been published more recently Note authors Have you read anything else by this lab? Author et al. Year is the best way to refer to a paper Refer to articles this way in Questions/Comments, Journal Analysis, exam, etc General strategy for reading an article Read Abstract, then Intro and then Disc M&M is usually too complicated unless you want a specific piece of info Results is generally pretty cut and dried Re-read abstract after you read paper See what authors presented as the take-home message

  22. Discussion

  23. Do you believe that Andrew has become human? • If yes, what definition of human would you use?

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