Career Connections at SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 3 – Science and Ethics of Genome Editing (Rising 7th)
Today we focused our class time on genetically modified plants and animals. We started the day by discussing if we thought gene editing in these organisms “good” or “bad”, tying these opinions back to the ethical theories we learned about yesterday. We also had a guest speaker come to the class. Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton is a professor of Pediatrics, professor of law, and the co-founder of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University. We read news and scientific journal articles about genetic modification of plants and animals, building our knowledge base for the final debate on Friday. We also identified different stakeholders, their points of view, assumptions and implications when debating the issue “Are GMO foods safe”?
Parents- here are some discussion-inducing questions you can ask your student over dinner:
– How do the point of view, assumptions, and implications of a farmer differ from those of a consumer of GMO plants? How do these differ from that of scientists?
– How can we as a society decide whether something is good or bad to eat? Has this been established for GMO crops?
– Does your family eat GMO plants? Is this an active choice?
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