Introductory description

Will it be possible to edit our children DNA? What are designer babies and saviour siblings?
What are the ethical implications of genetic selection? Will we live in a world without Down's Syndrome? Do films such as GATTACA and Jurassic Park play a role in the perception that society has of genetics?

This module will help you to explore all of these questions and to look at this global topic in its complexity, discovering the potential of an interdisciplinary approach. It will give you an overview of the latest human genetic technologies and it will focus on the interactions between science, society, politics, and culture. In particular you will be working on the historical, ethical and societal controversies around the use of genetic selection and reprogenetics (e.g. designer babies, saviour siblings), and the relationship between science fiction movies (e.g. Never let me go, My sister's keeper) and biotechnologies.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The first part of the session will be a lecture given by the subject expert with the second part being a workshop, led by the module leader(s) together with the disciplinary expert, to facilitate the learning experience of the students.
Indicative topics and themes covered on the module include:

Week 1: Introduction to Genetics: Science & Society

Week 2: Introduction to Prenatal Testing and Genetic Editing
We will explore the history of the human genome and the progress made up to the current day. We will discuss how researchers utilise all the information encoded in the human genome for understanding diseases and for ante-natal analysis.

Week 3: History of Genetics
We will explore the history of genetics, particularly the eugenic movement to “improve” mankind, as it played out across the world. We will examine the history of eugenics in Britain, India, China, South Africa, and the United States, reflecting on the similarities and differences between national contexts.

Week 4: The Ethical Implications of Genetic Selection
We will Identify and discuss different ways in which reproductive engineering might be achieved. We will consider the strengths and limitations of permitting unregulated personal decision-making in relation to reproductive choices, including those employing technology and requiring third party assistance. We will explore the complexities entailed in making decisions involving future persons.

Week 5: Reprogenetics
We will consider the emerging reprogenetic technologies as highly gendered, relating to their reliance on / development of early medical practices that bear heavily on women’s bodies (eg. IVF). We will explore popular misconceptions about ‘designer babies’, consider the ethical issues relating to ‘saviour siblings’ and mitochondrial replacement, and examine how the latter is regulated in the UK.

Week 6: Reproductive Genetics and Law
We will consider the English Law in relation to the use of Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and the limitations and scope of this legislation including, what practices of PGD are legalised in English Law. Using case studies and law from other jurisdictions, we will critically analyse the English legislative framework, drawing out concerns from which we will create recommendations for reform.

Week 7: Field Trip

Week 8: Genomics and Society
We will explore the implicit tension at the heart of genomic medicine; that is, between disabled people (who, in the modern western world report higher quality of life and greater access/participation within society than has ever before been possible) and the advancement of high technology genomics, a field increasingly capable of permanently eradicating certain types of inherited disability.

Week 9: Genetic Age in Science Fiction Films
We will explore the relationship between science fiction movies, genetics and biotechnology reflecting on the questions and themes that science fiction films raise, including societal beliefs and concerns about human heredity manipulation.

Week 10: Genetics recap

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Display a deep and critical understanding of the multifaceted and rounded nature of ‘genetics’ and the importance of a holistic approach to it in order to have a better understanding of such a complex topic.
• Demonstrate a deep and critical understanding of abstract and complex disciplinary theories, positions and research themes related to the field of genetics.
• Critically evaluate the problems, limitations and issues connected to the theories, practices and research themes of genetics
• Appreciate the value of adopting inter-disciplinary approaches and research methods for understanding global topics such as genetics and engage in imaginative and novel attempts to find a solution to complex problems.
• Independently evaluate ideas from the different disciplinary backgrounds for exploring potential inter- and trans- disciplinary answers to the various questions that will be presented during the module and to problems that students will identify during their personal learning process and research.
• Formulate imaginative and novel questions and engage in personal and collaborative attempts to answer them through via independent and collaborative research to develop inter- and trans-disciplinary ideas.

Indicative reading list

1. Films and associate readings:

Andrew Niccols, GATTACA (1997, 106 min) – Week 2

Steven Spielberg, Jurassic park (1993, 127 min) – Week 3

Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, Still Alice (2014, 101 min) – Week 4

Franklin J. Schaffner, The boys from Brazil (1978, 125 min) – Week 6

Nick Cassavetes, My sister’s keeper (2009, 109 min) – Week 7

Mark Romanek, Never let me go (2010, 103 min) – Week 10

Kirby, D.A. (2007) "The Devil in Our DNA: A Brief History of Eugenic Themes in Science Fiction Films," Literature and Medicine, 26(1): 83-108.

Kirby, D.A. (2000) "The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in GATTACA," Science Fiction Studies, 27(2): 193-215.
Kirby, D.A. (2004) "Extrapolating Race in GATTACA: Genetic Passing, Identity, the New Eugenics, and the Science of Race," Literature and Medicine, 23(1): 184-200.

1. Readings:

Students will be divided in teams at the beginning of the module and the module leader will assign week by week to each group one of the readings suggested by the experts and reported below. At the beginning of each workshop every team will present and explain the reading (5 minutes) to the rest of the students.

Week1:
1- David Thomson (2015), How to watch a movie, ed. Knopf – selected chapters.

2- Web link: http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles/

Week 2 and 3: TBC

Week 4:
1- Plomin, R., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2001). Genes, brain and cognition. Nature Neuroscience, 4(12), 1153–4. doi:10.1038/nn1201-1153

2- Peper, J. S., Brouwer, R. M., Boomsma, D. I., Kahn, R. S., & Hulshoff Pol, H. E. (2007). Genetic influences on human brain structure: A review of brain imaging studies in twins. Human Brain Mapping, 28(6), 464–473. doi:10.1002/hbm.20398

3- Thompson, P. M., Ge, T., Glahn, D. C., Jahanshad, N., & Nichols, T. E. (2013). Genetics of the connectome. NeuroImage, 80, 475–88. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.013

Week 5:
1- Landecker, H. (2000). “Immortality, In vitro”. History of the HeLa cell line”, Biotechnology and culture. Bodies, anxieties, ethics, Indiana university press, 53-72.

2- Nanibaa' A, G. (2013). Genomic Justice for Native Americans Impact of the Havasupai Case on Genetic Research. Science, Technology & Human Values,38(2), 201-223.

3- Callaway, Ewen. "Deal done over HeLa cell line." Nature 500, no. 7461 (2013): 132-133.

Week 6:
1- Savulescu, J. and Kahane, G. 'The Moral Obligation to Create Children with the Best Chance of the Best Life', Bioethics 23(5) (2009), pp. 274-290.

2- Sandel, M. “The Case Against Perfection”, Atlantic Monthly, April 2004. Repr. in N. Bostrom and 3- J. Savulescu (eds.) Human Enhancement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009) ch. 4.

4- Buchanan, A., D. Brock, N. Daniels, and D.Winkler. From Chance to Choice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Week 7:
1- Boardman, F. (2011) ‘Negotiating Discourses of Maternal Responsibility, Disability and Reprogenetics’, in C. Lewiecki-Wilson and J. Cellio (Eds) Disability and Mothering: Liminal Spaces of Embodied Knowledge, New York: Syracuse University Press, pp. 34 – 49

Available as an E-extract:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/search/extracts/so/so231

2- Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (2013) Mitochondria Replacement Consultations: Advice to Government, See pp. 1-31 [this is a very long document!]

Available online:
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/HFEA_Authority_meeting_March_2013_-_Mitchondria_report.pdf

3-Roberts, C. and Throsby, K. (2008) ‘Paid to share: IVF patients, eggs and stem cell research’, Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 159-169

Available as an E-journal article:
http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b1745209~S1

4- Sui, S. and M. Sleeboom-Faulkner (2010) ‘Choosing offspring: Prenatal genetic testing for thallassaemia and the production of a “saviour sibling” in China’, Culture, Health and Sexuality, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 167-175

Available as an E-journal article:
http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b1739068~S1

Week 8:
See ‘Films and associate readings’ section.

Week 9:
1- Kent, Michael. "The Importance of being Uros: indigenous identity politics in the genomic age." Social Studies of Science 43, no. 4(2013): 534-556. eScholarID:185917

2- Egorova, Y. (2009). De/geneticizing Caste: Population Genetic Research in South Asia. Science as Culture, 18(4), 417-434.

3- Schramm, K. (2012). Ancestry, Heritage and the Politics of Identity across the Black Atlantic1. Identity politics and the new genetics: Re/creating categories of difference and belonging, 6, 167.

4- Bliss, C. (2013). The Marketization of Identity Politics. Sociology, 47(5), 1011-1025.

Research element

Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to formulate relevant questions and engage in personal and collaborative attempts to answer them in an informed manner (through the use of texts, films, different primary and secondary sources, material provided during the academic lectures and group activities), developing inter- and trans-disciplinary ideas. The students will then work with the module leader on their SDA (student-devised assessment) to select their preferred topic/question and propose novel and creative solutions through undertaking their own research utilising the methodologies and the holistic approach presented throughout the course.

Interdisciplinary

Each session will include disciplinary and practice-based material as well as active learning methods (i.e. Team Based Learning; Open Space Learning) and staff from a range of departments will present material on specific topics during each week’s two-hour session. Learning will be developed in an interdisciplinary style that will help students to explore and deepen their knowledge of that week’s theories and set film/texts.

International

The topic of genetics is a global matter and students will be encouraged to recognise the complexity of the topic of genetics and its all-rounded/global nature. Students will be supported to summarise their multidisciplinary learning into a global approach to genetics-related issues and problems (= interdisciplinarity), developing their own research in a holistic way that crosses disciplinary boundaries (= transdisciplinarity).

Subject specific skills

• Appreciate the value of adopting inter-disciplinary approaches and research methods for understanding global topics such as genetics and for attempting a solution to difficult issues.
• Understand how to apply this method of approaching complex topics in relation to their core discipline and potential research.
• Independently identify and/or devise interdisciplinary connections between all disciplines - become integrative system thinkers.
• Reflect on the possibility to implement a more global approach to their own studies, work and practises.
• Comprehend how to utilise the communicative and collaborative skills used in the module in their professional life.

Transferable skills

• Active listening
• Complex problem solving
• Critical reflection
• Independent working skills
• Interpersonal and communication
• Management of learning
• Research skills
• Self-management and resilience
• Team working