We have looked many topics thus far in biology, and have learned how to think cr

Question

We have looked many topics thus far in biology, and have learned how to think critically. As the last assignment, a right of passage into applying scientific principles to the outside world, you will write a paper over a controversial topic in biology. You will approach the matter from a scientific perspective. This means you will have to read scientific journal articles. How to approach a topic and the information you should include: 1) What is currently known about the subject? (requires research: must be actual scientific articles not webpages, philosophical diatribes, or some shady article you found in wikipedia) 2) What areas of the topic are not well understood, or needs further research? (make sure you really do your homework, don't accept wide ranging statements made on politically driven websites) 2) Discuss where the controversy arises when the science meets society. Why does the topic really matter to the advancement of the human race? If it doesn't matter than why is it so politically charged, and why not discuss something that does matter? Bonus (10 points): Design a project or a company that could be involved in improving other peoples lives based on the information you discovered above. Be creative. Make something new and innovative. Post your ideas in the discussion board under the abstract of your paper. See instructions for submission in this folder.

Explanation / Answer

Some topic suggestions: - Use of antibiotics in farm animals: it keeps the animals from getting sick, but is giving rise to antibiotic resistant bacteria that are finding their way into human populations. - Human genome sequencing: It's possible in the foreseeable future that patients could go to a clinic and get their genes sequenced, identifying genetically-based diseases. However, this also reveals information about close relatives, since they share a significant portion of their genomes. This is a controversial issue because sequencing your own genome could infringe on the privacy of your relatives, but it could be clinically useful in identifying and treating diseases. - Prenatal/preimplantation genetic diagnosis of embryo: there was a case a several years ago of parents who had a child with a rare blood disorder. She needed a bone marrow transplant, but it was difficult to find a suitable donor. The parents ended up using in vitro fertilization, created several embryos, and genetically sequenced all of them. They selected an embryo who didn't have the condition and was a compatible donor and implanted it in the mother. After the baby was born, they were able to save their older child with a transplant from the baby. As far as I know, they are currently a healthy and happy family. Should this be allowed, however? The outcome was okay, but should people be able to pick and choose the traits of their children? In this story, you could say that the younger sibling's whole purpose of existence was as a bone marrow donor for the older child. Is that an okay thing to do?

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