The fall semester has started, and on Tuesday evening I went to the first session of HUMAN 007, International Film. This evening I had the first session of BIOSC 015, Human Heredity and Disease.
HUMAN 007 is dual listed as POLIT 007, but I opted for Humanities credit rather than Political Science becuase I may need to meet the new UIS general education requirements for which one humanities course must be in the visual or performing arts.
I think the course will be quite fun. We will watch at least one film every week, and analyze them in the context of international relations. I was a bit surprised that all of the films on the syllabus are fairly recent, but several of them are films I’ve specifically wanted to see, including Hotel Rwanda, Jacob the Liar, The Fog of War, and A Dry White Season. The only film on the list which I’ve already seen is Whale Rider, which I enjoyed very much. The instructor warned (and apologized) that many of the films we see will not have happy endings, but I certainly don’t mind that.
Having skimmed the textbook for Human Heredity and Disease, I was a bit concerned about the amount of material we might have to memorize, but we’ll actually have open-book exams. Tonight we had a brief lecture, then split into small groups to discuss two ethics questions. I think it’s great that the course covers ethical issues as well as the actual science.
The first question was whether we would be willing to donate samples of our DNA to medical research. In my group, all four of us agreed that in general we would be willing to donate, because we think that DNA research produces very worthwhile results (cures or treatments for diseases, etc.). But we were concerned over privacy, and in particular making sure that information on the DNA was not made available to insurance companies and employers where it could be used for discriminatory purposes. I also raised the issue that I’m strongly opposed to patents on naturally occuring genetic sequences, and feel that any discoveries of new genetic sequences in samples I donate should be made available (without personal identification) to all researchers, rather than being owned by one corporation. The other students in my team agreed.
The responses of the other teams varied from being strongly for donating DNA samples for research to being strongly opposed, largely over the same concerns. Some students thought the potential negatives of possible privacy breaches may outweigh the benefits.
The second question was a much thornier issue because it involved public policy rather than individual choice. The question was whether restrictions should be placed on reproduction by the mentally retarded, due to the costs of care, and assuming that mental retardation is an hereditary trait. My group stated that we didn’t believe that enough information had been provided to make an informed decision (e.g., the magnitude of the costs), but that if we had to decide based solely on the question as stated, our answer would definitely be “no”, that we would not favor imposing restrictions. Our reasons included concern over determination of who would be affected, whether an objective standard could be established, and the slippery slope it would establish, which could lead to political manipulation of the standard.
Interestingly enough, all the groups were opposed to imposition of restrictions, though there was some variation in the reasons. One group argued that the right to reproduce was a very fundamental civil right, and that the government should not take that right from anyone on the basis of their abilities. Several groups stated that they wanted education (counselling) to be available.
The professor said that later in the course we will study the actual process used to make ethics decisions.
Tomorrow I have the orientation meeting for the (mostly) online English Composition I class, and a week from tomorrow will be the first meeting for the (mostly) online General Chemistry I class. Of the classes I’m taking, I expect that chemistry will be the most difficult, requiring a lot of study. I took three semesters of chemistry in high school, and even received an achievement award from the ACS, but that was a long time ago and I don’t think I remember much of what I learned back then.
I think this semester will be challenging, but it should be fun and rewarding as well.