Making Decisions

In this activity students are placed in the role of a couple who are carriers of the genetic disease beta thalassaemia major. They are guided through how to make a difficult ethical decision and are introduced to IVF and the technology of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.

Students watch a short video clip showing a couple who have a child with beta thalassaemia major and a clip showing what it is like for a young child to have the illness. They then explore the difference between goal-based ethics and duty-based ethics.

Learning objectives include:

*Explain how IVF with PGD can be used to help a couple with an inherited condition to have a healthy child.

*Recognise ethical, social and economic arguments and use them to make an informed choice.

Curriculum links include:

Key Stage Three:

*Working Scientifically: Make decisions based on the evaluation of evidence and arguments.

*Inheritance, chromosomes, DNA and genes: heredity as the process by which genetic information is transmitted from one generation to the next. Reproduction in humans (as an example of a mammal), including...gametes, fertilisation.

GCSE:

*Working Scientifically: Development of scientific thinking: explain everyday and technological applications of science; evaluate associated personal, social, economic and environmental implications; and make decisions based on the evaluation of evidence and arguments.

*Inheritance: explain single gene inheritance.