A Three-Tiered Approach to Enhance Undergraduate Education in Bioethics

Integrating a Bioethics Course Into Undergraduate Biology Education

“…Nor are future scientists and teachers systematically introduced to important issues in the professional practice of science and technology, such as scientific integrity, research ethics, dissemination of information, and research on animal and human subjects, etc. (49). In response to the lack of exposure to ethics in science programs, there have been efforts to enhance the significance of ethics in bioscience degree programs and promote faculty development such as the introduction by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of their Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program (EESE).…”

“…Within these courses, students are not usually exposed to moral, ethical and human values discussion while learning biology (4,46,49). Certainly, students may learn ethics in courses on philosophy or related humanities, but this part of their training is rarely integrated with the requirements of bioscience disciplines.…”

“…Taking into account the growing significance of bioethics for the biosciences, it is not surprising that it has been included as a core or optional subject in the undergraduate biology and science education in many colleges and universities around the world. In the literature dedicated to teaching in bioethics there have already been presented many successful examples of courses at the undergraduate level both for bioscience student groups (7,15,18,25,38,39,43,47) and for cross disciplinary groups (3,49). In addition, there is also a large body of research set within the context of science education, which discusses the ethics of scientific investigations and the assertion that bioscience is not value-free (1,23).…”

Education of Ethics of Science and Technology Across Cultures

“…For example already in 1993 it was found that ethics of science was being widely taught in science classes in Australia, Japan and New Zealand Macer et al 1996), India (Pandian and Macer, 1998), and in 1997 in Singapore chemistry classes (Macer and Ong, 1999). Universities are also introducing ethics subjects to varying degrees, from general courses to specialized courses (Zaikowshi & Garrett, 2004). COMEST (2004) recommended that all universities introduce ethics teaching as elementary ethics for all students, advanced courses for specific subjects in postgraduate education, and courses that lead to postgraduate degrees in ethics.…”

Teaching broader impacts of science with undergraduate research

“…In contrast, most undergraduates receive little to no exposure to ethical issues related to science [3,4]. When ethics is taught, it is often as an unconnected add-on to a course or in a separate course [5].…”