Module Information
Module Identifier
RS30410
Module Title
ANIMAL BIOETHICS
Academic Year
2010/2011
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 1
Course Delivery
Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
---|---|
Lecture | 1 x 2 hour lecture per week |
Seminars / Tutorials | 3 x 3 hour seminars during semester |
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | ETHICAL MATRIX PROJECT | 50% |
Semester Exam | 2 Hours WRITTEN EXAMINATION | 50% |
Supplementary Exam | 2 Hours WRITTEN EXAMINATION | 100% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Discuss the remit of bioethics, its definitions, and its historical perspective, specifically with regard to animals.
2. Discuss developments in ethical theory
3. Apply the ethical matrix to examples in animal science
4. Discuss the ethical status of different forms of animal farming, animal experimentation, animal biotechnologies and
animal domestication
Brief description
The module will consider the nature of bioethics and the history of attitudes and philosophies regarding wild and domesticated animals. It will also consider the ethical and legal position of animals as experimental models, as providers of meat and other animal products, and as providers of companionship.
Content
- Defining bioethics and exploring the source of human ethics
- Ethical theory: Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue theory and others
- The theory and application of the ethical matrix as a framework for ethical analysis
- The history of human attitudes to animals ? monism vs dualism
- The ethics of animal production
- The ethics of animal experimentation, including a consideration of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986.
- The ethics of advances in biotechnology
- The ethics of animal domestication
- The application of the principles of animal bioethics into wider areas
Module Skills
Skills Type | Skills details |
---|---|
Communication | Exam, Ethical Matrix Project |
Improving own Learning and Performance | Exam, Ethical Matrix Project |
Information Technology | Ethical Matrix Project |
Research skills | Ethical Matrix Project |
Reading List
General Text(1995.) Issues in agricultural bioethics /[edited by] T.B. Mepham, G.A. Tucker and J. Wiseman. Nottingham University Press Primo search (2008.) The animal ethics reader /edited by Susan J. Armstrong and Richard G. Botzler. 2nd ed. Routledge Primo search Baggini, Julian (July 2006) The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten:100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher Plume [Imprint] Primo search Chalmers, A. F. (1994.) What is this thing called Science? :an assessment of the nature and status of science and its methods /A.F. Chalmers. 2nd ed. Hackett Pub. Co. Primo search Cheeke, Peter R. (c2004.) Contemporary issues in animal agriculture /Peter R. Cheeke. 3rd ed. Prentice Hall Primo search Mepham, T. B. (2008.) Bioethics :an introduction for the biosciences /Ben Mepham. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press Primo search Recommended Text
Gensler, H J (1998) Ethics. A contemporary introduction Routledge Primo search LaFollette, H and Shanks, N (1996) Brute Science: Dilemmas of animal experimentation Routledge Primo search Marie, M et al (2005) Animal bioethics: principles and teaching methods Wageningen Academic Publishers Primo search
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6