Abstracts
Below are listed the lessons presently available on MyBioethics with brief introductions and keywords. Full lessons can be accessed for free in text and audio through the application.
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Do you wish to try out an introductory lesson first?
Lessons can contain many bioethical topics, see contents. Slide headings with dilemma questions are labelled in Italic font.
Advanced level
13 slides
60 min
4 dilemmas
Slide headings:
– Historical diversity of attitudes
– Concept of moral status
– Animal rights
– Animal welfare
– Farmers and activists
– Environmental stewardship
– Animal testing
– Animal-powered biotechnology
– Human-animal interdependence
– Domestication
– Malleable humanity
Keywords:
Moral status, social contract theory, animal rights, animal welfare, utilitarianism, environmentalism, ecology, animal testing, biotechnology, organoids, xenotransplantation, breeding, self-domestication, neoteny
Advanced level
15 slides
30 min
2 dilemmas
The buying and selling of new types of things can bring up ethical concerns. This lesson explores the difference between value and price as well as the possible dangers of confusing them with each other. The replaceability of everyday commodities and the supposed indispensability of humans, rights, and things of critical social importance are discussed with case examples.
This set will be useful for anyone interested in evaluating different aspects of life, considering market-based solutions to fix problems, or being concerned about the influence of money on society.
The discussed cases of body commodification may make some readers uneasy.
Slide headings:
– Topic introduction
– Trading things of value
– Non-market values
– Too valuable to be exchangeable
– The price of a human life
– Valuing health
– Trading in our natural inheritance
– Sustaining and giving life for a price
– Our interests and ability to place value
– Turning fines into fees
– A matter of respect
– Defence of human integrity
Keywords:
Commodities, health economics, the value of life, replaceability, dehumanization, fragmentation, organ market, prostitution, self-ownership, replaceability, market priorities
Introductory level
10 slides
15 min
2 dilemmas
Introductory level
11 slides
20 min
2 dilemmas
Introductory level
10 slides
15 min
2 dilemmas
Introductory level
13 slides
15 min
2 dilemmas
Introductory level
10 slides
15 min
2 dilemmas
Introductory level
19 slides
30 min
4 dilemmas
Introductory level
20 slides
30 min
7 dilemmas
Introductory level
10 slides
15 min
2 dilemmas
Introductory level
14 slides
20 min
2 dilemmas
Slide headings:
– What type of technology are we talking about?
– Defining Neuroethics
– Autonomy: A Bioethics Approach
– (Transhumanism)
– (Multidisciplinarity and subfields)
– Neurorights
– (Equal access)
– Privacy in the Realm of Mind Reading
– Additional Considerations
– (Community concerns and individual autonomy)
Keywords:
Neurology, neurotechnology, neural data, enhancement, transhumanism, manipulation, autonomy, free will, privacy, societal implications, community voice, access, neuro rights, paralysis
Advanced level
18 slides
45 min
3 dilemmas
Some psychoactive drug compounds have demonstrated the ability to drastically alter the human experience when introduced to the body. What makes psychedelics prospective breakthrough interventions for treating depression and addiction, also makes them ethically interesting as potential means for moral bio-enhancement. The so-called mystical experience that is brought about by these compounds gives space for new interpretations while previous thought patterns and the sense of self are dissolved. Inducement of environmental and altruistic concern is discussed together with proposed risks of mental destabilisation, delusion, and social corrosion.
This set will be useful for anyone interested in mental disorders and the breaking of unhelpful social or belief structures. The ethics of self-medication are considered but the focus is more on the moral dimension of the psychedelic state itself.
Slide headings:
– Ethical prospects of psychedelics
– Historical role and ethical relevance
– Therapeutic potential
– Psychedelic self-medication
– Freedom from self-limiting habits
– Mystical experience
– Value in losing the familiar
– The expanding story and reforming self
– Psychedelics from bioethical viewpoint
– Moral bio-enhancement
– Fixing humanity
– Moral context
– Psychedelic renaissance
– Related topics to follow
– Closing comments and bibliography
Keywords:
Psychedelic, psychedelics, psychoactive, breakthrough interventions, mystical experience, thought patterns, the self, sense of self, self-medication, moral bio-enhancement, moral context, pluripotent, psychedelic renaissance
Introductory level
18 slides
30 min
3 dilemmas
Slide headings:
– What is patienthood?
– Modern patienthood
– Patienthood and technology development
– Dilemma #1
– Dilemma #2
– Patienthood is built in everyday practices
– The dimensions of patienthood
– The dimensions of patienthood (cont.)
– The dimension of Normality
– Who decides who can become a patient?
– Dilemma #3
– What happened after the decision making?
– What is the situation now?
– What could be done differently in a similar situation?
– What kind of tools related to interaction development will be needed in the future?
– Critical incident technique as a one possible reflection tool
Introductory level
11 slides
15 min
2 dilemmas
Advanced level
17 slides
30 min
2 dilemmas
In order to gain a better understanding of different scientific questions, some amount of risks might be inevitable. Research for example on neurology, pharmacology, or even an applied science like engineering at times needs willing participants to “go first”. This lesson explores the ethics of research risk distribution and the protection of scientific legitimacy.
This set will be useful for anyone interested in the phenomena of self-experimentation, involved in clinical research, or concerned about the public trust in the scientific establishment.
Slide headings:
– Topic introduction
– Past successes, harms, and oddities
– Motivations behind self-experimenting
– Absence of regulatory frameworks
– Alternative viewpoints and an extended definition
– Two arguments in favor
– Validation via publication
– Imperatives of research and treatment
– Assuredly informed participation?
– The resurgence of self-experimentation
– Supererogatory research contribution
– Allocation of risk and reward
– A symptom of scientific isolationism?
– A mindful way forward
Keywords:
Research, risk distribution, duty to participate, supererogatory participation, informed content, self-monitoring, publishing, citizen science, regulatory framework, scientific isolationism
Please note that full abstracts are presently only available for selected lessons, download the free application to gain access to our entire content. We plan to prepare more abstracts soon, as well as add abstracts of completely new lessons as these are being released in the future.
You can suggest us a topic for a new lesson by contacting our Support.
