1) Course details:

 Course Description:

The course will cover ethical, social, environmental, and safety issues surrounding
important scientific advances including genetically modified organisms, animal testing,
and stem cells. It will focus on intensive discussions to develop the powers of reasoning
and judgment. Moreover, it will provide a foundation for thinking about and recognizing
the ethical dimensions of a variety of issues. We will become familiar with current ethical
debates in a range of scientific fields. Topics will include: misconduct in research,
conflicts of interest and scientific objectivity, publication and peer review,
intellectual property, and ethical decision making.

The second part of the course will cover safety issues, risk assessment and how scientists
should handle biological and chemical waste, in relation to national and international
safety regulation.

Students will engage these issues with the help of philosophical tools, apply these
tools to case studies, and be challenged to think broadly about the role of
scientists in society as well as learn how to critically assess the ethical consequences of
science for humankind.

 Course goals:

Student Learning Outcomes by the end of the semester:

1. Define rules, issues, options relevant to ethical concepts
2. Identify and analyze an ethical issue in the context of science or technology.
3. Identify the various ethical interests in a real-world situation and value of ethical decision-
making.
4. Identify ethical concerns in research, including academic integrity, use and citation of sources,
the objective presentation of data, and the treatment of human subjects.
5. Understand different types of applied ethics such as engineering, environmental and health
care ethics.
6. Analyze the main arguments, pro and con, for contract and procurement.
7. Integrate, synthesize, and apply knowledge of ethical dilemmas and resolutions to real world

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 issues.
8. Integrate ethical and professional behavior in biological and chemical waste, pharmaceutical
or other work based learning environment.
9. Safely apply techniques and instrumentation in biosafety monitoring, biohazardous waste
disposal and risk management.
10. To have a positive disposition toward continued learning about ethics and safety.

 Sequence of Learning Activities:

Week Syllabi topic Activities*

1-1 Introduction to Ethics Reading Case Study

1-2 Ethics Theories Student’s Discussions

and Moral Development

2-1 Environmental Ethics and Student’s Presentation

Engineering Ethics

2-2 Ethics in Scientific Research Oral Presentation

3-1 Ethics in Scientific Reading Case Study

Publishing Research

3-2 Ethical Issues in Health Care Assignment

4 Holiday- Oral Presentation

Ethics in Animal Subjects

5-1 Conduct Research with Stem Student’s Presentation

Cells

5-2 Legal Contracts and Corporate Reading Case Study

Ethics

6-1 Midterm

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 6-2 Basic safety-biosafety Student’s Presentation
Principles

7-1 Risk Assessment Assignment

7-2 Waste Management Student’s Presentation or Field Trip

8-1 The Environment and Human Poster

Health. Hazardous Waste

8-2 Final Exam

*Activates includes labs, assignments, projects, workshops, ..etc.

Reference Books
There is no required text for this class. However, the following resources may be of use

throughout the course, and for additional reading:

1-Ethics: An Overview By Robin Attfield

For introduction [Ch.2] and types of ethics (Normative [Ch.3] , Applied [Ch.4] and
Metaethics [Ch.5])
2- “Environmental Ethics”

What Really Matters, What Really Works

Second Edition Edited by David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott

3-“Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases”, Charles E. Harris, Michael S. Pritchard, and Michael
J. Rabins, Wadsworth Publishing; 3rd ed., 2004.

4-Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business

Chapter 5
5-Textbook of Healthcare Ethics, 2nd Edition,Erich H. Loewy, M.D.
Chapter 6

There are no prerequisites classes for this course.

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