Moving Toward Bioethics in Secondary School

Ethics and Topical Issues Could Replace Traditional Sciences , writes RedNova. "Teenagers will be able to ditch traditional science studies and focus on the ethics of hot topics like cloning and MMR, under GCSE reforms outlined this week." Is this true? Feedback from partner teachers working with Penn's high school bioethics project would indicate that unless the teaching of bioethics somehow replaced the teaching of science, it would be a welcome option. Many teachers tell us they don't have the time and, some say, the training to teach bioethics in a systematic way. Nonetheless teachers fit bioethics in because they are interested, their students are interested & ask the right questions, and because by teaching basic science in a broader context they can point out the relevance of emerging technologies for students, their families, and society. -Dominic Sisti

Medicinal Marijuana in Tennessee

The poll on the sidebar of this piece about legalization of marijuana for medicinal use in Tennessee suggests that Nashville's online readers are in favor of medicinal use of marijuana. The proposal is intriging, going both further than other states and using smart and novel criteria. But maybe it isn't the most practical proposal, since Tennessee - thoroughly red - is enjoying its first republican-led legislature in more than a century. ''The important ethical issue here is that it may be that our preconceptions are blinding us to the possible medical help the substance could provide,'' said [Stuart] Finder, director of Vanderbilt's Center for Clinical and Research Ethics. ''There are some indications it could be helpful, but the only way to find out is to study it. Do we risk giving up our preconceptions to look at it?" Marijuana of regulated quality, Vanderbilt, compassion and good folk music. Maybe we should move there?