CORE021 Bioethics II: Borderline Options

Faculty of Science
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
prof. RNDr. Renata Veselská, Ph.D., M.Sc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. Renata Veselská, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Department of Experimental Biology – Biology Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: RNDr. Pavel Lízal, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Experimental Biology – Biology Section – Faculty of Science
Prerequisites (in Czech)
!TYP_STUDIA(ND) && !FORMA(C) && (!PROGRAM(B-UCB) && !PROGRAM(B-UCC) && !PROGRAM(B-UCF) && !PROGRAM(B-UCM) && !PROGRAM(B-UCZ) && !PROGRAM(B-LGM)) && (!Bi0021)&&(!NOW(Bi0021))
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 100 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/100, only registered: 9/100, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/100
Course objectives
The goal of the subject is to provide graduates with an interdisciplinary insight into selected ethical dilemmas that are historically or currently perceived as controversial and for which there is currently no social consensus regarding the correct solution. The chosen topics are connected primarily with advances in biomedical research and clinical medicine, but in some cases there will also be overlaps in other fields. Methodologically, it will not be the establishment of a (single) morally correct approach, but the identification of individual ethically relevant moments of a given situation and, in particular, the critical evaluation of various moral positions.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to: - Identify and describe the major ethical dilemmas in selected controversial areas of biomedicine and health care, including their historical context; - Understand and justify different types of arguments in model case studies; - Provide a basic overview of relevant ethical codes and standards.
Syllabus
  • 1. EUGENICS: A LESSON FROM HISTORY (definition of eugenics, positive and negative eugenics, historical context of the origin and development of eugenics, theory of racial hygiene, eugenics in the present).
  • 2. CHILDREN ON ORDER (principles and methods of assisted reproduction, donation of gametes and embryos, surrogate motherhood, age limits, non-medical availability of assisted reproduction).
  • 3. HELLO, DOLLY! (production of hybrids and chimeras, principles and methods of animal cloning, history of cloning, reproductive cloning, cloning for research purposes, human cloning).
  • 4. PLAYING GOD (principles of transgenosis and gene manipulation, genetically modified organisms, genome editing, interventions in the human genome, gene therapy).
  • 5. BRAVE NEW WORLD (transhumanism and its historical context, definition of enhancement, types of enhancement, biohacking).
  • 6. FIRST LAW OF ROBOTICS (historical context of artificial intelligence ethics and roboethics, autonomous vehicles, chatbots, humanoid robots and androids).
  • 7. STORED TISSUE ISSUE (purposes of biobanking, sources of biological material, identifiability of samples, national biobanking projects, biobanking of stem cells)
  • 8. THE GIFT OF LIFE (history of transplantation medicine, sources of organs and the principle of presumed consent/dissent, the concept of brain death and its criticism, waiting lists, principles of organ allocation)
  • 9. MERCY KILLING (concept of mercy killing, definition of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, historical context, current practice).
  • 10. THE BLACK PASSENGERS (history of vaccine development and vaccination, elimination and eradication of infectious diseases, herd immunity, mandatory vs. voluntary vaccination, anti-vax movement)
  • 11. FAIR PLAY (scientific integrity, scientific misconduct, publication ethics - authorship and plagiarism, predators in science, protection of research participants, role of ethics committees)
Teaching methods
Lectures with the possibility of discussion. The course is taught in a contact form and individual lectures will be streamed. The recordings of the lectures will then be made available in the IS MU via an interactive outline together with other supplementary materials. For additional questions, it will also be possible to use subject-specific discussion forum in IS MU.
Assessment methods
Colloquium in online mode via the MS Teams application (capacity of 6 students each term, duration 90 minutes). Each student is required to submit a brief personal description (essay) of an ethical dilemma selected from the topics discussed in the course prior to the colloquium. Before the actual colloquium, students will familiarize themselves with their essays and discuss them during the colloquium. If the registered student fails to submit his or her paper prior to the colloquium, the student will be deemed to have failed the colloquium if the submitted paper is found to be inauthentic, or if the student is found to have a fundamental ignorance of the subject matter covered during the course.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
General note: Pro zápis předmětu nejsou vyžadovány prerekvizity, kvůli znalosti základního kontextu se však doporučuje předchozí absolvování některého z úvodních kursů bioetiky či lékařské etiky, případně předmětu SUZ CORE015 Bioetika: etika života.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/spring2025/CORE021