SYLLABUS
Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics
An introduction to the study of bioethics and the application of legal and ethical reasoning.
Faculty: I. Glenn Cohen, Harvard Law School (Meet more members of the course team!)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Bioethics provides an overview of the legal, medical, and ethical questions around reproduction and human genetics and how to apply legal reasoning to these questions.
This law course includes interviews with individuals who have used surrogacy and sperm donation, with medical professionals who are experts in current reproductive technologies like In Vitro Fertilization and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, and bioethicists and journalists who study the ownership and use of genetic information within human tissue. Additional Harvard colleagues will also share with you their thoughts on topics such as disability law as it relates to reproductive technology.
While the law and ethics surrounding these technologies are a central component to this course, we also show you examples of the deeply personal and human side of these issues. Throughout the course, and with the help of law students, we will discuss leading legal cases in this field, which will illuminate the types of questions the law has struggled with stretching and evolving over time. From the famous Baby M surrogacy case, to cases on the paternity of sperm donors, to a case related to the ownership of human tissue turned into a commercial product, and others. We will show you the ethical, legal, and rhetorical underpinnings, which have served as the basis for various court decisions over the past 20 or 30 years. We will also explore potential future technologies and their implications for society: genetic enhancements to increase our intelligence, let us live a hundred years longer, or make us immune to diseases and the possibility of creating animal-human hybrids, for example a mouse with a humanized brain.
The content within this course is intended to be instructive, and show how legal reasoning has been applied, or could be applied, to questions related to parenthood, reproduction, and other issues surrounding human genetic material. The material organized within this course should be considered an authoritative overview, but is not intended to serve as medical or legal advice.
GRADING
Practice Your Legal Thinking (quizzes that appear at the end of each week): 40%
Final Exam (scenario based, collaborative, writing and multiple choice questions): 40%
Homework (polling and quizzing that appears within videos; discussion board posts): 20%
The deadline for all graded assignments is the last day of the course, Tuesday, October 25, 2016!
COURSE DURATION
Content for this course will be posted every Tuesday for seven weeks. However, you have 8 weeks to complete the course. Release dates are listed below. Week 1 is available on Tuesday, September 6 and Week 7 is available on Tuesday, October 18.
ID-VERIFIED CERTIFICATE
Earning an ID-verified certificate is based upon earning a final course grade of at least 70% by Tuesday, October 25, 2016.
If you register for an ID-verified certificate, and your score is 70% or above, you will receive a certificate. Certificates will be issued automatically by edX upon course completion, and will appear on your personal dashboard page roughly two weeks after the course ends. Certificates are not mailed.
The last day to enroll and earn an ID-verified certificate is Thursday, October 20, 2016!
READINGS
All readings listed within each week of the course are optional. Graded assessments are not based upon specific content found within the optional readings.
KEY TERMS
Key terms with definitions are provided within each week of the course, as well as a central repository for key terms from the entire course.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discussion questions are designed to incite participant discussion and in depth exploration of course content. These questions will be monitored by course staff, but will not be visible on your progress page.
The discussion forum is a unique opportunity to engage with learners from all over the world. Our community is diverse in experience, knowledge, language, and culture. This provides us with an incredible resource of viewpoints, and we want to make sure the discussions are meaningful and fun! Please consider the following when you post:
Guidelines
- Have faith that course participants are acting with best intentions. We’re all here to learn!
- Posts should be written in your own words. If you include a quote or reference, when possible also provide a citation (book, URL, etc).
- Participate! You will get out of the discussions what you put into them.
- Before posting, search the Discussion for similar questions or comments. You can always respond and/or click on the green plus button to upvote a post.
- If you disagree with a post, respond using evidence and reasoning instead of personal attacks.
- Before posting a comment, consider: would you say it to someone’s face? If not, we encourage that you revise it.
- Use correct grammar and spell-check your posts. Also, please do not use ALL CAPS.
- Avoid slang and abbreviations, as these vary across cultures.
Logistics
- Please limit your posts/responses to 200 words or less (by request of edX).
- Use the search and engagement tools (upvote, follow for updates, flag for misuse) on the Discussion Home to find and contribute to the conversations.
- A blue star on a post means a member of the course staff has endorsed it.
- If you see an inappropriate post, flag it instead of adding your own commentary.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- How the reproductive technology industry works, and issues raised related to buying and selling human reproductive materials
- The law and ethics of surrogacy and cases of switched embryos
- Civil lawsuits when things go wrong with reproductive technology: wrongful birth and wrongful life lawsuits
- The law and ethics of sperm donation such as the legal status of sperm donors and sperm donor anonymity
- Ethical and legal issues raised by human enhancement
- The law and ethics of mixing human and animal genetic material
- The ownership of human tissue and its underlying genetic information
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1: Buying and Selling Reproductive Materials
(available Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Identify the major technologies, terms, and concepts relevant to understanding the buying and selling of reproductive materials. Identify key moral objections and potential legal solutions commonly applied to buying and selling eggs, sperm, and embryos. Discuss the moral objections and legal solutions to buying and selling reproductive goods as compared to other taboo trades (selling organs, prostitution, etc.).
Week 2: Surrogacy
(available Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Identify the major terms and concepts relevant to understanding surrogacy. Evaluate the degree to which surrogacy contracts should be legally enforceable. Discuss the legal reasoning behind real and hypothetical surrogacy cases, including cases of embryo mix-ups.
Week 3: Wrongful Life and Wrongful Birth
(available Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Identify major terms and concepts from the law in this area such as damages, remedies, and liabilities. Identify the difference between claims to wrongful birth and wrongful life. Discuss issues with employing the conception of “harm” or “best interests” to reproduction.
Week 4: Sperm Donation
(available Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Discuss when can a sperm donor be held to be the legal father of, or assert such fatherhood over, children produced from his genetic material. Identify and discuss key similarities and differences among related cases involving sperm donation.
Week 5: Sperm Donor Anonymity
(available Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Identify and discuss key ethical debates related to anonymous sperm donation. Understand the way various countries around the world do or do not permit anonymous sperm donation. Identify the rights of donor-conceived children. Discuss obligations of anonymous sperm donors to support the resulting child.
Week 6: Enhancement
(available Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Identify and evaluate different types of pre-birth and post-birth human enhancements. Discuss legal options available to regulate limit, or expand enhancements. Evaluate the difference between enhancing oneself versus choosing enhancements for another, such as a child.
Week 7: Human-Animal Hybrids and the Control and Ownership of Human Tissue and Genetic Information
(available Tuesday, October 18, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. UTC)
Identify and discuss seven different examples of human-animal hybrids and the moral and ethical ideas that suggest regulating, limiting, or expanding hybrids. Discuss key issues related to the control, ownership, and use of human tissue and its underlying genetic information. Identify key terms relevant to theories of property and default rules.
HONOR CODE
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RESEARCH STATEMENT
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NONDISCRIMINATION/ANTI-HARASSMENT
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