See how a Course Works: Intro to Online Learning
Description
Our stem cell course is designed to make learning affordable and convenient, whether you're a full or part time student or are already involved in this rapidly changing field of medicine. Stem cell research is helping scientists to unlock the mystery of human life and develop life saving therapies. While much hope has been generated by this research, moral concerns have been raised by the use of embryonic stem cells. An ethical debate is escalating over protecting human life and promoting medical therapies.
Imagine the ability to treat a person suffering from Parkinson’s disease with their own brain stem cells or a young boy battling leukemia with stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Imagine the ability of embryonic stem cells to grow into any cell of the human body and the potential of treating crippling disease.
The ethical debate surrounding stem cell research and therapy is centered on the following four sub-headings:
I. The development of stem cell research (science and technology).
II. The development of stem cell therapies (medicine, cure, and care).
III. The alleviation of human suffering and respect for human nature.
IV. The developing human embryo: policy implications for embryonic stem cell research therapies and therapeutic cloning.
Get the knowledge you need to advance your career with our convenient, affordable stem cell course. Register today!
Outline
Module 1: Stem Cell Research: Aligning Science with Ethics
To identify some of the reasons stem cells are important in science and medicine.
To identify some of the ethical concerns that have been raised regarding stem cell research.
To identify some ethical concerns that have been raised regarding the use and availability of stem cell therapies in the future.
To identify some of the main issues in the public policy debate on stem cell research.
To identify some of the important scientific and policy events in the history of stem cell research
Module 2: The Development of Human Stem Cells
To identify some of the main sources of human stem cells.
To identify the main sources of stem cells from developing human embryos.
To understand the characteristics that make stem cells valuable in scientific research and medicine.
To understand some of the ethical concerns associated with the procurement of human embryonic stem cells.
To understand why many scientists and physicians believe embryos and fetuses from spontaneous abortions are unlikely to be reliable sources of stem cells.
Module 3: Developments in Stem Cell Research and Therapy
To understand some of the expected benefits of conducting stem cell research.
To identify some of the major areas of uncertainty among scientists that must be overcome to make substantial progress in stem cell research possible.
To identify some of the difficulties that must be overcome before stem cell therapies can be widely tested in humans.
To understand the ways in which human stem cell research was funded during its early years.
To identify some of the potential uses of stem cells in medicine.
Module 4: Human Stem Cells and Examples of the Treatment of Disease
To identify some of the earliest use of human stem cells for which Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval was sought.
To understand some of the reasons why human stem cell therapy may be important in cardiology.
To understand some of the anticipated therapeutic uses of human stem cells.
To understand why many scientists and physicians think that stem cell therapy may provide a better alternative for patients who currently can be treated only with organ transplants.
To understand some of the main concerns that have been raised from medical or scientific perspectives regarding the use of stem cells to treat humans.
Module 5: The Development of Adult Stem Cell Therapies
To identify some of the main sources of human adult stem cells used in research.
To understand some differences between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells.
To understand some ways adult stem cells are and may be used in medicine.
To identify some diseases or conditions that are expected to be treated with adult stem cell therapy.
To understand the main concerns regarding the use of adult stem cells to treat patients.
Module 6: Creating a Stem Cell Donor via Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
To understand how pre-implantation genetic diagnosis has been used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization.
To understand how pre-implantation genetic diagnosis has been used in combination with stem cell therapy.
To identify some of the reasons that have been offered for using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis when trying to conceive a child who will serve as a stem cell donor for an ill sibling.
To identify some of the ethical concerns that have been raised regarding the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to create a stem cell donor.
To understand some of the ethical guidelines that could be followed when using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to create a stem cell donor.
Module 7: Ethics of Stem Cell Research: Policy and Alleviating Human Suffering
To understand why embryonic stem cell research has been the focus of significant controversy.
To identify some of the ways people understand the relationship between the duty to alleviate suffering and respect for the moral status of the developing embryo.
To understand how proponents of embryonic stem cell research funding have used claims about treating the sick to support their position.
To understand why some scholars are concerned with treating the duty to relieve suffering as an absolute duty.
To identify some objections to focusing the embryonic stem cell policy debate exclusively on the duty to alleviate human suffering.
Module 8: Ethics of Stem Cell Research: the Commodification of Human Nature
To understand how stem cell research might lead to the commodification of human nature.
To identify some objections to the commodification of gametes and embryos.
To identify some objections to the commodification of stem cells and their products.
To understand why it may be beneficial to allow stem cells and their products to be treated as property.
To identify how we might allow stem cells and their products to be treated as property while avoiding or limiting commodification.
Module 9: Ethics of Stem Cell Research: Access to Stem Cell Registries and Banks
To explain why some scientists object to limiting the embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federal funding.
To explain why some of the existing stem cell lines eligible for federal funding are of poor quality and may not be useful for research.
To explain why some scientists have advocated for the development of a stem cell bank in the United States.
To identify some concerns about access to stem cell therapies in the future.
To identify some challenges persons attempting to establish a stem cell bank may face.
Module 10: Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Moral Status of the Human Embryo
To understand why there is significant disagreement in society about the moral status of the early human embryo.
To identify how knowledge of human biology is used to support granting early human embryos the same moral status as full human beings.
To identify how knowledge of human biology is used to support granting early human embryos less moral standing than full human beings.
To identify some of the reasons offered to justify destroying early human embryos for research purposes.
To explain how it might be possible to conduct embryonic stem cell research while avoiding the destruction of early human embryos.
Module11: Public Policy in the Debate on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
To identify some key elements of the Dickey Amendment, passed annually since 1996 by the United States Congress, as a rider on federal budget legislation that restricts the use of federal funds for research of human embryos.
To identify the main limitations placed on embryonic stem cell research based on the announcement by President George W. Bush’s August 9, 2001.
To identify some of the tenets guiding the Bush administration’s policy on embryonic stem cell research funding.
To identify some of the advantages of expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
To identify some of the disagreements over federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Module 12: Human Therapeutic Cloning: the Ethics and Policy Debate
To identify some of differences between therapeutic human cloning and reproductive human cloning using somatic cell nuclear transfer technology (SCNT)?
To identify some of the ethical concerns about human cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
To understand why some ethicists argue that therapeutic human cloning is morally acceptable.
To understand why some ethicists argue that therapeutic human cloning is morally unacceptable.
To understand some of the ethical concerns regarding public policy on therapeutic human cloning.
Additional Info
- Languages
- English
- Course Length
- 12.00 hours
- Duration of Access
- Instructor
Gerard Magill, Ph.D
Professor Magill is holder of the Vernon F. Gallagher Chair for the Integration of Science, Theology, Philosophy and Law. He is a tenured Professor in Duquesne University 's Center for Healthcare Ethics in the McAnulty Graduate School of Liberal Arts. He arrived at Duquesne University in 2007.
Previously, Professor Magill was a tenured Professor in the Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University where he served as inaugural Department Chair (1996-2005) and as Executive Director (1999-2005); also, he held secondary appointments as Professor in the School of Medicine in its Department of Internal Medicine and Professor in the School of Public Health in its Department of Health Administration. During this period he served on the University's Hospital Ethics Committee and was a member of the University's Institutional Review Board for research protocols. From 1976-1996, sequentially he held teaching posts in religious ethics in Drygrange College , Scotland , in Loyola University 's theology department in Chicago , in Saint Louis University 's theology department. He holds a Ph.D. in theology from Edinburgh University , Scotland , and an S.T.L. in moral theology, an S.T.B. in systematic theology and a Ph.B. in philosophy from the Gregorian University in Rome , Italy .
Professor Magill has published five edited or co-edited interdisciplinary books: Genetics and Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Study (2004); Abortion and Public Policy: An Interdisciplinary Investigation (1996); Values and Public Life: An Interdisciplinary Study (1995); Personality and Belief: Interdisciplinary Essays (1994); Discourse and Context: An Interdisciplinary Study (1993). Also, he has published over sixty academic essays in scholarly or professional journals. He was the lead author of Ethics Consultation Liability (2004), a national report commissioned by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. From 1996-2006 he was editor of the bioethics journal, Health Care Ethics USA . He has given approximately two hundred scholarly or professional presentations at conferences etc. And he is an active member of ten professional associations.
Currently, Professor Magill is completing a book on applying the imagination to the development of health care ethics and his research agenda focuses on human genomics and stem cell research.
Ethical Expert Opinions
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UC San Francisco, Fellow of the Salk Institute
R. Alta Charo, J.D., Elizabeth S. Wilson-Bascom Professor of Law and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Rebecca Dresser, J.D., M.S., Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law, Professor of Ethics in Medicine, Washington University, Saint Louis
Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil., Founding director of the James Madison Program, President’s Bioethics Council, Former Presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Leon R. Kass, M.D., Ph.D., Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, College at the University of Chicago, Hertog Fellow in Social Thought at the American Enterprise Institute
Jeffrey P. Kahn, Ph.D., M.P.H., Director of the Center for Bioethics, and Maas Family Chair in Bioethics, Professor in the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine; Division of Health Services Research and Policy, School of Public Health; and Department of Philosophy University of Minnesota- Prerequisites/Audience
- Requirements/Materials Included
- There are no prerequisites for this course.
Minimum requirements: Windows XP Service Pack 2/Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 2.0. Recommended: Windows Vista/Internet Explorer 7.0 or Firefox 2.0. This course can be taken from either a Mac or a PC. There are no specific computer requirements other than a high speed Internet connection DSL or Cable) and email capabilities. Students will need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, Acrobat Reader or Windows Media Player which are available via free downloads.
- Certification
After completing this course, you will be able to:
1 Understand recent developments in adult and embryonic stem cell research.
2 Understand potential developments in adult and embryonic stem cell therapies.
3 Understand the tension between alleviating suffering and respecting nature.
4 Understand the policy implications of debate about the status of the developing human embryo for embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning.
5 Identify some of differences between therapeutic human cloning and reproductive human cloning using somatic cell nuclear transfer technology.
6 Identify some of the ethical concerns about human cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
7 Understand why some ethicists argue that therapeutic human cloning is morally acceptable.
8 Understand why some ethicists argue that therapeutic human cloning is morally unacceptable.
9 Understand some of the ethical concerns regarding public policy on therapeutic human cloning.
