What is Bioethics? At Strath Haven, the Bioethics class created by science teacher Mr. Tim Styer has been a popular choice for those interested in the morals behind science.
The elective that has been taught by Mr. John Lincke for the past three years, is now being taken over by Styer. This class is a branch out of Styer’s other class, Biotechnology.
“Every time we do something that involves biotechnology, there’s always an ethical implication. Should we? Shouldn’t we? We’re talking about GMOs, talking about cloning, talking about it all. It had this component that was taking more and more time away from what I wanted to do and focus on Biotech so I made another class,” Styer said.
The class is designed to go deeper into Biotech—the reasons behind the experiments they do. The students go through topics like abortion, GMOs, and the right to die. Biotech is more about the actual science aspect, while Bioethics is more about ‘well, should we be doing this?’
“I want kids to be able to analyze, critique, and evaluate a topic, and be able to think for themselves. [I want them to] know where to go, to get valid, real information, and data and research and come up with conclusions to very tough questions,” Styer said.
Styer initially came up with the idea for the class off the top of his head. He went to the University of Pennsylvania with science teacher Ms. Katie Shepherd and worked with professors on developing the class.
“I’m not going to teach you what to think at all. You derive that on your own. I’m going to give you the science right down the middle,” Styer said. “I just give them the science and then they usually have an assignment. Sometimes debates, and I want them to be able to make good, solid decisions about very important topics.”
The class is designed for the people who are more into the “why” behind the science and not the chemical things. People have taken it for medical fields, because they had no interest in science, or just didn’t want to take physics.
“I hope [Bioethics] empowers them to help make change and if it’s not what they want and to help or reinforce it if it is something that they do want,” Styer said. “It is the world you’re going to inherit. I want you to have a firm understanding of what it is. And then, you take action as you want to take action.”
