Teaching Ethical Issues in Biology

Abstract

A MAJOR CRITICISM of public education in the United States is its failure to teach values. The reason for not explicitly teaching ethics below the college level is reasonably understandable: in attempting to provide students with a set of ethical values, educators run the risk of being charged with inculcating the youth with religious or other ethical concepts contrary to those of their parents or community. To avoid political and economic repercussions, public school teachers and administrators tend to shy away from controversial subject matter. Even on the college level, the teaching of ethics and values is primarily relegated to sociology, anthropology, and philosophy courses; the faculty of other disciplines are presumably too involved in teaching facts to be concerned with the ethics associated with their subjects. Yet, despite the problems associated with teaching ethics, the rapid scientific and technological advances made by our society are forcing us to reconsider our position in teaching ethics. The biomedical advances of the past century, especially those within the past two or three decades, have raised some profound ethical questions specifically related to the question of human experimentation. It is in this area of human experimentation that I believe both high school and college students, and particularly biology students, can be challenged to examine some of their deepest ethical beliefs. Providing students with an atmosphere in which they can search for answers to ethical questions I believe offers a more productive and insightful educational experience than does forcing upon students a set of prepared values.