Course PM

BBT010 Ethics in biotechnology lp1 HT2021 (7.5 hp)

The course is offered by the department of Biology and Biological Engineering in collaboration with the department of Technology Management and Economics

The course PM can be downloaded here.

 

Teachers and examiners:

Calle:  Carl Johan Franzén  (BIO)          franzen@chalmers.se          772 3808

Karl:    Karl de Fine Licht  (TME)            karl.definelicht@chalmers.se

Heidi:  Heidi Carmen Howard (BIO/Lund Univ)  heidiho@chalmers.se

 

Guest lecturers:

Henrik Aronsson henrik.aronsson@bioenv.gu.se

Yvonne Nygård yvonne.nygard@chalmers.se

Matty Janssen mathias.janssen@chalmers.se

 

Purpose and aims

Biotechnology has enormous potential for improving human health and providing sustainable solutions for providing nutrition, energy and chemicals to society. At the same time, many of these technologies interact with basic processes of life, may affect the personal integrity of individuals, and may have unclear effects on the environment. A problem is that technological innovation and its effects are hard to predict in detail, so decisions will have to be made under uncertainty.

The course aims to develop the students' understanding of ethical aspects that appear when biotechnologies are developed and applied. Students learn a systematic and nuanced way to reason around and to reach well-founded answers to questions regarding how society and individuals should act during the development and application of different technologies. The main emphasis is on the analysis of a number of cases by, among others, theories in normative ethics. Additionally, the course aims at making students aware of laws and rules that regulate biotechnical research and development activities.

 

Learning objectives

After completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• identify and critically discuss ethical issues that occur in biotechnology, orally and in writing in English;
• adequately apply basic moral philosophical theories and concepts on existing ethical problems;
• assess the validity and relevance of arguments that are used in the debate on ethics and biotechnology, argue for different standpoints and take position in a well-founded and transparent way;
• account for generally accepted and generic policies and guidelines for research ethics and professional ethics;
• in a nuanced way reflect on her/his professional role from an ethical perspective;
• account for laws, statutes and established routines that regulate experimental and industrial use of biological samples, animals and humans.

Study plan on the student portal.

 

Course-specific prerequisites

Biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, and microbiology corresponding to a bachelor's degree in biotechnology, bioengineering, or similar.

 

Course design: Organisation and teaching modes

The course is organized in the form of lectures, seminars and group work. Students are also expected to read relevant literature and other resources. Formative assessment of assignments is also an integral part of the course design.

Lectures are not compulsory but students are expected to be present or view recorded lectures. In 2021, lectures will be given on campus in lecture halls KA or KC (see schedule), with due respect to Covid-19 measures. The lectures will also be recorded.

Seminars and group work on Wednesday afternoons are compulsory. In 2021, due to Covid-19 risks, the seminars will be done digitally using Zoom (pwd Ethics010). Group work will be done in breakout rooms.

Most of the practical learning is expected to take place during the seminars, when students discuss specific cases in study groups and develop their analysis and argumentation skills. The student groups will be assigned by the teachers.

If a compulsory seminar is missed, the student will be given an individual assignment on the same topic as the missed seminar.

 

Examination

Examination is based on formative assessment, and consists of attendance at seminars, several hand-ins, a final quiz, and a final take-home essay-style exam.

Students must submit two group assignments, consisting of ethical analyses in the form of essays on a specific biotechnological topic, and on a topic within the scope of the professional role in research and development. These essays should be written by groups of three to five students, assigned by the teachers.

For each of these assignments, students are required to submit 1) a brief individual draft argument as preparation for the group work; 2) the actual group assignment report; 3) an individual peer review of a text written by another group; and 4) a revised group assignment report. Students will receive formative feed-back on the assignment report, and on the ethical analyses therein, from the teachers and other students, via the peer reviews. The revised report will be graded by the teachers, but that grade is only for information and learning; it will not be included in the final grade. Detailed instructions and an evaluation form will be given with the assignments. 

Grading is based on a final take home exam. The take-home exam must be written individually, that is, all forms of communication, collaboration and discussion on the take home exam questions are prohibited. The exam consists of two parts. The main part is an essay on an ethical problem relevant to a given topic within biotechnology. The second part is a multiple choice test on rules, regulations and academic integrity.

Students are allowed to use all sources of information when writing the essay and doing the multiple choice test, except discussing, in any mode, the exam with anyone except the teachers. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden; all essays will be assessed for plagiarism. All sources of information used in the essay must be adequately referred to.

To pass the course, students must answer at least 75% of the multiple choice questions correctly, and provide an adequate essay. Differentiation between grades 3, 4 and 5 will be done based solely on the essay.

Assessment criteria for the essay and expected style and format will be explained during the course.

The take home exam and quiz will be handed out on Wednesday, October 20, and must be submitted by 17.00 on Friday, October 29.

 

Overall schedule

TimeEdit

 

Detailed course schedule

The complete schedule can be downloaded here.

LV	Day	Date	Time	Room	What	Title / Topic	Teacher
1	Wed	Sep 1	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 1	Course introduction, contents and design. Ethical thinking and applied ethics with examples. Argument analysis	Calle / Karl / Heidi
	Wed	Sep 1	13:15-17:00	Zoom Ethics010	Seminar 1	Ethical thinking and applied ethics with examples. (1 h) Argument analysis, on biotechnological case (3 h)	Karl / Calle / Heidi
2	Mon	Sep 6	10:00-11:45	KC	Lecture 2	Theory: Ethics and risk	Karl
	Wed	Sep 8	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 3	Theory: Normative ethics	Karl
	Wed	Sep 8	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 2	Normative ethics and ethics and risk with examples (3 h) Assignment 1, Biotechnological case  (1 h)	Karl / Calle / Heidi
	Sun	Sep 12	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of individual drafts, Assignment 1. (More info will come)	Student
3	Mon	Sep 13	10.00-11:45	KC	Lecture 4	Plant molecular breeding and biotechnology, the scientist’s perspective	Henrik Aronsson (GU)
	Wed	Sep 15	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 5	Ethical aspects of GMO crops	Karl
	Wed	Sep 15	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 3	Work on Assignment 1.	Karl / Calle / Heidi
	Wed	Sep 15	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of Assignment 1	Student
	Sun	Sep 19	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of peer review reports, Assignment 1.	Student
4	Mon	Sep 20	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 6	CRISPR-Cas9, technology and applications.	Yvonne Nygård (IndBio)
	Wed	Sep 22	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 7	Ethical aspects of CRISPR-Cas9 methodology	Heidi
	Wed	Sep 22	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 4	Follow-up on Assignment 1.	Karl / Calle / Heidi
	Wed	Sep 22	17:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of revised Assignment 1	Student
5	Mon	Sep 27	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 8	Theory of science. Science vs Pseudoscience. Popper, Häggström	Calle
	Wed	Sep 29	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 9	Research ethics. Academic conduct and misconduct	Calle
	Wed	Sep 29	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 5	Assignment 2. Research ethics and potential academic misconduct cases.	Calle /Heidi / Karl
	Sun	Oct 3	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of individual drafts, Assignment 2.	Student
6	Mon	Oct 4	10:00-11:45	KC	Lecture 10	Ethical aspects of genetic screening and diagnostics	Heidi
	Wed	Oct 6	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 11	Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis	Matty Janssen (ESA, Chalmers) Not confirmed
	Wed	Oct 6	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 6	13-15  Multi-criteria decision analysis, UN SDG, competition for resources (2 h) 15-17 Work on Assignment 2	Matty Janssen (ESA, Chalmers);  Not confirmed Calle / Heidi / Karl
	Wed	Oct 6	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of Assignment 2.	Student
	Sun	Oct 10	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of peer review reports, Assignment 2.	Student
7	Mon	Oct 11	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 12	EU and Swedish regulations on laboratory work with GM microorganisms and plants, animals, humans.	Calle
	Wed	Oct 13	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 13	ELSI in student research projects: ·  The Chalmers iGEM team project 2021 ·  Research Project Proposals from earlier KBT090 students	Calle
	Wed	Oct 13	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 7	Work on Assignment 2	Calle / Heidi / Karl
	Wed	Oct 13	18:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in of revised Assignment 2.	Student
8	Mon	Oct 18	10:00-11:45	KC	Lecture 14	Ethical leadership: Conflict handling. Coaching, drivers, goal setting and “lethal leadership”.	Calle
	Wed	Oct 20	10:00-11:45	KA	Lecture 15	Ethics policies; Engineer’s (and other) Code of Honour	Calle / Heidi
	Wed	Oct 20	13:15-17:00	Zoom	Seminar 8	Chalmers Committee on Ethics and Research Misconduct. Main point: Ethical leadership: Master-suppression techniques and how to deal with them. (2 h) Introduction and hand-out of final exam cases. Q&A, Wrap-up of course.	Calle / Heidi / Karl
	Fri	Oct 29	17:00	Canvas	Deadline	Hand-in: Final exam and Multiple Choice Test	Student

Course literature

The course literature consists of handouts, on-line videos, scientific articles and book chapters referred to during the course. A list of links and documents can be downloaded here. 

To avoid illegal copying, students must download required articles via the E-journals and E-books available at the Chalmers library homepage: http://www.lib.chalmers.se/.

 

Changes made since the last occasion

• Changed order of lectures and seminars.
• Updated content of some lectures and seminars.
• Restructured assignment submissions, including individual drafts and formative grading of revised reports to help students understand what is expected in the final exam.
• The list of literature, web resources and other sources of information has been updated.