NSC 110  Fall 2009...W 1-2pm in WCH 1.110
Prof:  Dr. Stuart Reichler  (sreichler @ mail.utexas.edu)
Office:  Bio 6
Phone:  471-1074
If you have any questions about class, or topics you would like to discuss, please feel free to contact me.

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Class Material:
(I will post the topic/speaker schedule as well as links of introductory material for each presentation as they are sent to me.  When available, lecture slides can be accessed by clicking the hyperlinked dates.)

9/2  Strong Inference
Strong Inference:  The Article (pdf)

9/9  Personal Responsibility, how far can you be held responsible for your actions?
Imposing Personal Responsibility for Health
Robert Steinbrook, M.D.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/8/753

Steinberg, L., & Scott, E. S. (2003). Less Guilty by Reason of Adolescence: Developmental Immaturity, Diminished Responsibility, and the Juvenile Death Penalty.  American Psychologist, 58, 1009-1018.
http://psycnet.apa.org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/journals/amp/58/12/1009.html


Schlenker, B. R., Britt, T. W., Pennington, J., Murphy, R., & Doherty, K. (1994). The triangle model of responsibility.  Psychological Review, 101, 632-652.
http://psycnet.apa.org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/journals/rev/101/4/632.html


9/16  Colleen and Vishu-  The effect of politics on science, (in areas such as funding and censorship) and whether or not this is a good thing.
The Political Resources of American Science (1971) Ezrahi. Social Studies of Science 1: 117-133
also see:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml

9/23  Brennan and Wenly-  Healthcare...Right or Responsibility
see http://www.jstor.org/stable/3560359 and http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,540943,00.html

9/30  Cate and Emily will present about genetic testing on fetuses and the use of that information.  See http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?list=type&type=82 for background information.

10/7  Adithy and Jessica will talk about the ethics of animal testing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8161253.stm and http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v1n3/cures.html

10/14  Miranda and Sarah-  extending life expectancy
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215291/page/1 - "The Case for Killing Granny"

10/21  Miles and Omar will talk about Organ Selling and Transplantation.
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v1n2/kidneys.html


10/28  Daniel, Patrick, and Paul will present about stem cell research.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stem-cells/

11/4  GM crops: Battlefield from Nature  461, 27-32 (2009)
see:  http://www.nature.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/news/2009/090902/full/461027a.html (You will need to acess this article from campus or via the library website.)
Papers suggesting that biotech crops might harm the environment attract a hail of abuse from other scientists. Emily Waltz asks if the critics fight fair.

11/11  Min-Jeong and Stephen

11/18  Daniel C. and Brian will talk about ethical dilemmas in automated technologies. One example that everyone can relate to is the soon-to-be-widespread use of fully autonomous cars. This will happen and it will be an overall good thing for well designed and programmed cars to do the driving instead of us, but  personal injury lawyers will go nuts over it for years (since even awesomely programmed and brilliantly engineered cars will crash every now and then).

http://www.automatinginvention.com/archives/ethics/

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/312772/Autonomous+machines+prompt+debate.htm?nl=TE_NL&dep=webops&dte=210809

11/25  no class (Thanksgiving)

12/2  Wrap up

Page last updated on 12 November 2009