Background to this academic learning task:
This task is brought to you in collaboration with staff from Student Learning as an optional opportunity to identify criteria that lecturers will use to assess your written work in this, and other papers. It has been tailored very specifically to the types of writing and critical analysis required in Professional Practice and Ethics.
The task involves accessing the 15 minute presentation, using the You Tube link below. The power point slides for this presentation are also attached to this survey.
Following this, students are invited to read the 'Background to the topic' information and after accessing the reading resources, respond to the proposal presented below.
Students will have until 11.59pm Monday 21st March to respond to the proposal, after which the responses will be graded according to the criteria outlined in the power point, with feed back returned to students by the following Monday, in time for students to implement feed back into their first assessment.
While this is an optional task, it is highly recommended and has potential benefit for students of all writing abilities.
While with most Vx activities students gain access to the responses of others after submission, this activity has been set up not to offer this; each students work will only be available to teaching staff.
Thanks for your time.
Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5rn9kgw6A&feature=youtu.be
Background to the topic:
Julian Savulescu is an ethics professor at Oxford University. He is interested in cloning, stem cell research and genetic moral enhancement.
As reported in the Telegraph Savulescu claims that if possible parents using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) have a responsibility to select the best children they can, given all of the relevant genetic information available to them.
Read the Telegraph article in full here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/9480372/Genetically-engineering-ethical-babies-is-a-moral-obligation-says-Oxford-professor.html
At present parents using IVF can screen for conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis and Down Syndrome.
Savulescu claims in the media article that the next step ought to be screening for traits such as intelligence, memory, self-discipline and even patience. He argues that people have a moral obligation to select ethically better children. 'Surely trying to ensure that your children have the best, or a good enough, opportunity for a great life is responsible parenting?'
While Savulescu believes that society has a moral obligation to use genetic technologies to create 'better people', critics of his position such as Parker (2007) argue that the conditions necessary for a 'good life' are as much due to genetics as they are to the complex social, political, economic and environmental contexts in which people live' (p.281).
Task:
For this exercise you are asked to consider the following IVF screening scenario. Using at least three of the resources provided and any other resources you may wish to include, provide a 300-400 word response using the theories of utilitariansim and/or deontology to argue for or against the following proposal:
Barbara and Tim are both deaf and very active in the deaf community. They already have one deaf child, but would like to have a second child. Given that due to Barbara's age, IVF would likely be their only option, they would like to screen the embryos, not only for standard conditions such as cystic fibrosis and Down Syndrome but also for deafness, to ensure their second child is deaf. They feel that deaf selection would enable them to create a 'better person' than if they were to raise a hear-abled child.
It is proposed that screening for deafness during the IVF process should be permissible in this country.