Bioethics in Daily Life

C. Mulligan, Copyright 2011All rights reserved

Bioethics in Daily Life

Day 7Prof. 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)

• 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


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


What is life?


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."


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


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


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


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)


How to assess the accuracy of information


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


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?


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


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.


How to read a journal articleHow to read a journal article


Parts of an article Parts of an article

• What is an abstract?What is an abstract?

• What information goes into an Intro?What information goes into an Intro?

• What information goes into Results?What information goes into Results?

• What information goes into Disc?What information goes into Disc?


Parts of an articleParts of an article

• What is an abstract?What is an abstract?– A summary of points presented in skeletal formA summary of points presented in skeletal form– Opportunity for authors to specify what they think Opportunity for authors to specify what they think

are the most important pointsare the most important points







• What information goes into an Intro?What information goes into an Intro?– Background infoBackground info– Foreshadows DiscussionForeshadows Discussion– All Intro material should be followed up later in articleAll Intro material should be followed up later in article







• What information goes into Results?What information goes into Results?– Just ResultsJust Results– No interpretation, no discussionNo interpretation, no discussion




• What is an abstract?What is an abstract?• What information goes into an Intro?What information goes into an Intro?• What information goes into Results?What information goes into Results?• What information goes into Disc?What information goes into Disc?– Interpretation and significance of resultsInterpretation and significance of results– Opportunity for authors to focus on what they think is Opportunity for authors to focus on what they think is

most important about their resultsmost important about their results– Should pick up on info in IntroShould pick up on info in Intro– Can be very dependent on what topics are currently Can be very dependent on what topics are currently

‘hot’ so Discussion can become outdated even if ‘hot’ so Discussion can become outdated even if Results are still relevantResults are still relevant


How to read a journal articleHow to read a journal article• Note year of publicationNote year of publication– Anything more than 5 yrs old is fairly old in my fieldAnything 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 Can use an old article as a starting point, but look to see what

has been published more recentlyhas been published more recently• Note authorsNote authors– Have you read anything else by this lab?Have you read anything else by this lab?– AuthorAuthor et al. et al. YearYear is the best way to refer to a paper is the best way to refer to a paper

• Refer to articles this way in Questions/Comments, Journal Analysis, Refer to articles this way in Questions/Comments, Journal Analysis, exam, etcexam, etc

• General strategy for reading an article General strategy for reading an article – Read Abstract, then Intro and then DiscRead Abstract, then Intro and then Disc– M&M is usually too complicated unless you want a specific M&M is usually too complicated unless you want a specific

piece of infopiece of info– Results is generally pretty cut and driedResults is generally pretty cut and dried– Re-read abstract after you read paperRe-read abstract after you read paper

• See what authors presented as the take-home messageSee what authors presented as the take-home message


Discussion


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

Documents

Bioethics in Daily Life