Requirements to Pass this Unit

To pass this unit you must:

Achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50%. You do not need to pass every assessment to pass the unit overall.

Detailed assessment information and rubrics

Detailed information about each of the assessments, including rubrics and submission instructions will be available in the Assessment block in iLearn. Please make sure you read the assessment information carefully. Assessment forums for each assessment will be available on the unit iLearn – if you have an assessment question please check the assessment information and the relevant assessment forum to see if your question has already been answered. If not, please post your question on the assessment forum where it will be answered within 1-2 days (weekdays). Please do not email your tutor unless you have tried all the above sources and cannot find an answer to your question.

Special Consideration

Requests for extensions must be submitted via a Special Consideration request, which is available in the http://ask.mq.edu.au portal. Your request should be submitted no later than five days after the due date and will need to be accompanied by appropriate supporting documentation. Please see the Special Consideration policy in the list of policies at the end of this document for further details. Read the policy closely as your request may be turned down if you have not followed procedure, or if you have not submitted a request in a timely manner.

Late Assessment Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern. For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration.

Late assessments are not accepted in this unit unless a Special Consideration has been submitted and approved.

Academic Integrity

Academic honesty is taken very seriously, and a range of methods, including but not restricted to the use of Turnitin, are used to detect plagiarism. Misrepresenting someone else's work as your own may be grounds for referral to the Faculty Disciplinary Committee. If you have questions about how to properly cite work or how to credit sources, please ask the convenor for help and see also the  Academic Integrity Policy https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/academic-integrity

Note: All assignments in this unit are individual assignments. Collusion (unauthorised collaboration on individual assignments) is a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy. If in doubt, contact a member of teaching staff. 

A helpful resource if you would like to know more about referencing and avoiding plagiarism is  Macquarie's Academic Integrity Module, available here: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/skills-development. You will need to complete this Module before accessing the unit content, if you have not already done so. More information is available in iLearn. 

What about ChatGPT?

In this unit, submitted content generated by AI will be regarded as not being a student’s own work. Students who submit AI-generated outputs for their assessments will be regarded as being in breach of Academic Integrity. This applies to all assessments. In submitting their written assessments all students confirm their agreement with the following:  

This assessment is not an AI-generated output. It is based on my own research and my own thinking. I understand that if I am suspected of submitting AI-generated work, I may be found to be in breach of the MQ Academic Integrity Policy and may be required to attend a live interview with the Unit Convenor/lecturers/Integrity Officer to verify my own deep understanding of the content of my assessment, my research methods, and all sources I have quoted.  

Academic Writing and Study Support

Macquarie University offers a number of services to help with academic writing, referencing and study skills. For details, see: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/skills/assignments

For information about policies related to Assessment, see Policies and Procedures section below.

COVID Information

For the latest information on the University’s response to COVID-19, please refer to the Coronavirus infection page on the Macquarie website: https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus-faqs. Remember to check this page regularly in case the information and requirements change during semester. If there are any changes to this unit in relation to COVID, these will be communicated via iLearn.

NOTE: While not compulsory, it is an expectation that students will attend all scheduled lectures and SGTAs and complete all assessment components in this unit. You do not need to have passed each individual assessment to pass the unit, but it is expected that all assessments are attempted. Due to the way in which learning is scaffolded in this unit, missing lectures and SGTAs will put a student at risk of failure.

General Submission Procedure: Written assessments must be submitted via TurnItIn at the correct link provided on the Unit iLearn site. You will not be able to view your TurnItIn match similarity report for your assessment before you submit it. You must ensure that you use the correct link for your assessment, and that you upload the correct final version of your assessment.  

DELIVERY

Lectures in this unit will be in-person (on-campus) with recordings available online via Echo360 and the unit iLearn site. STGAs will be on-campus.

Week 1 classes

There will be a full two-hour lecture in Week 1 and all students are expected to attend. There will be no SGTA's in Week 1. SGTAs commence in Week 2.

READING: 

All required readings are available in Leganto on the unit iLearn site. Supplementary reading is required for Essays. Suggestions for Supplementary Reading will be provided in lectures and on iLearn.

SECTION I: (WEEKS 1–5) FRAMEWORKS FOR AN ETHICS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

WEEK 1 (week beginning July 22):  What is ethics? What is ethical reasoning?  (A/Prof Lotz)

Required reading:

Cohen, S.: ‘What is Ethics?

• No SGTAs in Week 1

WEEK 2 (beginning July 29):  How can ethical theories help us think about bioethics and biotechnology?  (A/Prof Lotz)

Part I: Consequentialist and Autonomy-based ethics.

Required reading:

Thomson, A.: ‘Moral Principles and Moral Theories’.

Grace, D. and Cohen, S.: Chapter 1 pp.15-20, sections on ‘Consequentialism’ and ‘Nonconsequentialism’ in Business Ethics: Problems and Cases.

WEEK 3 (beginning Aug 5): How can ethical theories help us think about bioethics and biotechnology?  (A/Prof Lotz)

Part II: Rights-based, Virtue-based, and Care-based ethics.

Required reading:

Rachels, J. Chapter 11, ‘Feminism and the Ethics of Care’, pp. 133-142.  

Grace, D and Cohen, S.: Chapter 1 pp.21-24, section on ‘Virtue Ethics’ in Business Ethics: Problems and Cases.

WEEK 4 (beginning Aug 12): Does biotech have lessons to learn from eugenic history?  (A/Prof Lotz)

Required reading:

Wikler, D. and Barondess, J. ‘Bioethics and Anti-Bioethics in Light of Nazi Medicine: What Must We Remember?’

Buchanan, A. et al: Excerpt from ‘Eugenics and Its Shadow’

Optional additional reading:

Buchanan, A. et al: Excerpt from ‘Genes, Justice and Human Nature.’

WEEK 5 (beginning Aug 19): How do we do ethical science and research? (Prof Lipworth)

Required reading:

Emanuel, E et al. ‘What Makes Clinical Research Ethical?’ Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), Vol. 283, No. 2 May24/31: 2701-2711.

Glass, B. ‘The Ethical Basis of Science.’

SECTION II (WEEKS 6–10): BIOTECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN HEALTH AND REPRODUCTION

WEEK 6 (beginning Aug 26): Human embryo research – Do human embryonic stem cells have moral status? What about synthetic embryos [SHEEFs]?  (A/Prof Lotz)

Required reading:

Harris, J. ‘Stem Cells, Sex and Procreation’

Pera, M. et al. ‘What if stem cells turn into embryos in a dish?’

Optional additional reading:

Aach J. et al. ‘Addressing the ethical issues raised by synthetic human entities with embryo like features’.  eLife 2017;6: e20674. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.20674

WEEK 7 (beginning Sept 2): Would anything be wrong with human cloning for procreative purposes? (A/Prof Lotz)

Required reading:

Brock, D. ‘Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con.’

Optional additional reading:

Holm, S. ‘A Life in the Shadow: One Reason Why We Should Not Clone Human Beings.’

Kass, L. ‘The Wisdom of Repugnance.’

WEEK 8 (beginning Sept 9): Genetic screening, testing and diagnosis – Is it always better to know? (Prof Lipworth)

NB: This lecture is RECORDED and will not be given in-person on campus. Please access the lecture via Echo360 in the unit iLearn site, where it will be available by the usual lecture time. SGTAs operate this week as normal. It is especially important to attend your SGTA this week so that you can ask any questions/obtain any clarifications as is normally possible in the in-person lecture.

Required reading:

Clarke, A. ‘Genetic Screening and Counselling.’

Steinbock, B. ‘Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Embryo Selection.’

 MONDAY 16 SEPT – FRIDAY 27 SEPT (inclusive): MID SEMESTER BREAK

** ESSAY DUE DATE: 11.55pm Sunday September 22

WEEK 9 (beginning Sept 30): Should we edit the human genome for future generations?  (Prof Lipworth)

Required reading:

Chadwick, R. ‘Gene Therapy.’

Smolensky. S. 'CRISPR/Cas9 and Germline Modification: New Difficulties in Obtaining Informed Consent' 

Optional additional reading:

Elias, S. and Annas, G.: ‘Somatic and Germline Gene Therapy.’

Warren, MA. ‘The Moral Status of the Gene.’

WEEK 10 (beginning Oct 7): If genetic therapy is ok, what about genetic enhancement?(Prof Lipworth)

Required reading:

Singer, P. ‘Parental Choice and Human Improvement’.

Ter Meulen, R et al: ‘Ethical Issues of Enhancement Technologies’.

Optional additional reading:

Resnik, D and Vorhaus, D. ‘Genetic Modification and Genetic Determinism’.

SECTION III (WEEKS 11-12):  BIOTECHNOLOGY IN WIDER CONTEXT – COMMERCE AND FOOD

WEEK 11 (beginning Oct 14):  Should human genes be privately ownable and commercially exploitable? (Prof Lipworth)

Required reading:

Chadwick, R. and Hedgecoe, A. ‘Commercial Exploitation of the Human Genome’

Optional additional reading:

Munzer, S. ‘Property, Patents and Genetic Material'

WEEK 12 (beginning Oct 21):  Synthetic and food biotechnology: Solving environmental and food scarcity problems? (Prof Lipworth)

Required reading:

Scott, D. 'The Technological Fix Criticisms and the Agricultural Biotechnology Debate'  

Rogers, W. ‘Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology: A Commentary’

Optional additional reading:

Thompson, P. ‘Ethical Issues in Food Biotechnology’

• No SGTAs this week

WEEK 13: (beginning Oct 28): Exam Preparation Week

• No SGTAs this week

We value student feedback to be able to continually improve the way we offer our units. As such we encourage students to provide constructive feedback via student surveys, to the teaching staff directly, or via the FSE Student Experience & Feedback link in the iLearn page.

Student feedback from the previous offering of this unit was very positive overall, with students pleased with the clarity around assessment requirements and the level of support from teaching staff. As such, no change to the delivery of the unit is planned, however we will continue to strive to improve the level of support and the level of student engagement.