A BRAVER, NEWER WORLD

A WebQuest for Students in Forensics

Ms. Liu

Bronx Science

 

INTRODUCTION

In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, people are genetically engineered, psychologically conditioned, and socially determined--all for the sake of progress and stability. This is a world where science has been used to determine an individual's personality, intelligence, and health--all before they are even born.

 

Some of what Huxley alluded to is already here: Depo Provera, frozen sperm, bottled embryos, in vitro fertilization, surrogate wombs, genetic screening. Already, there is a technique that allows parents to select the sex of their child. There is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which allows parents to also screen their unborn children for possible inherited diseases, such as Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia. In the future, you may screen not only for healthy children, but for children who possess as intelligence, personality, and good looks.

 

Right now, we face a potential problem: the abuse of genetic and reproductive technologies that allow us to pre-determine the genetic destiny of our children. What ethical issues surround these fast-growing technologies? Under what conditions are these technologies justified? How will these technologies affect our society? Should our government write legislation so that these technologies are not abused?

 

 

TASK

Aldous Huxley wrote, "The theme of Brave New World is not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals." In this project, you will look at one particular scientific advancement in reproductive technology could affect our society.

 

After you go through the steps below (see Process), you will give a presentation that informs and persuades your peers about a reproductive technology and what it means to them. In your presentation, you will, minimally, need to do the following: 1) Briefly explain the technology and 2) Discuss the possible advantages and disadvantages 3) Take a position for or against one of the reproductive technologies below 4) Make your own connections to Brave New World. (In other words, how did this project enhance or alter your opinion of Huxley's ideas? How did this project help your understanding of Brave New World?)

 

 

PROCESS 

1.   Before meeting with your group, each of you should do one of the following:

-Read the introduction to Remaking Eden by Lee Silver 

-Read David Shenk's essay "Biocapitalism" in Harper's Magazine     

-View "Gattaca"

2.   With your group, pick one of the reproductive technology topics that interests you.      

3.       Determine the possible threat this technology poses to society.

4.       Research the advantages and disadvantages of this technology.

5.       Determine the reasons why this technology has been developed.

6.       Hypothesize about the possible effects this technology might have on society.

7.       Research what has been done so far to prevent the abuses of this procedure. Propose legislation to prevent what you regard as possible future abuse of this technology.

 

 

RESOURCES

 

BASIC INFO YOU NEED TO KNOW:

http://www.arhp.org/cloning/  --Basic information on PGD, selection, stem cells, and cloning  

 

PRE-IMPLANTATION GENETIC DIAGNOSIS (PGD)

http://www.genochoice.com/ --an ad to prospective parents: "Thank you for considering GenoChoice to plan the future well-being of you and your family… Our probes and DNA amplifiers can identify these negative genes and eliminate them in your child... all at the pre-embryonic stage! With the special help of GenoChoice©, you can truly offer your progeny "the best of nature... before you nurture!"

 

http://www.hygeia.org/poems5.htm --Introduction to Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/designer_babies.shtml   ---"Life and Death in the 21st Century:  'Designer Babies'"

 

http://www.tecsoc.org/biotech/focusbabies.htm --Go to this website to read two different points of view on designer babies:  "How does it feel to be a designer baby?" vs "Would designer babies improve our species?" This is a great web site for looking at the arguments and the arguments against reproductive technologies, sex selection, PGD, and future "character" selection.

 

CLONING:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/tc00008e.html  --Introduction to cloning

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning/  --A collection of articles about cloning and stem cell research.

 

http://www.pathfinder.com/TIME/cloning/ethics1.html --web site from TIME magazine that introduces you to the ethical debate surrounding this area.

 

RELATED ARTICLES:

http://archive.salon.com/health/feature/2000/10/05/bone_marrow/print.html   --Go see this site for a discussion on the Molly Nash case.

 

GRADING RUBRIC

 

 

CONCLUSION

By the completion of this project, you will have accomplished several things: You will have researched and presented evidence for the support or the check of a current reproductive technology. You will have analyzed and evaluated the societal implications of new reproductive technologies and in doing so, you will have a greater appreciation for the issues Aldous Huxley presents in Brave New World. Finally, in presenting your ideas to your peers, you will be utilizing verbal and oral presentation skills--skills integral to any successful speaker. 

 

STANDARDS

 

Standard 1:  -Make perceptive and well developed connections to prior knowledge

                        -Interpret and analyze information from textbooks and nonfiction books for young

adults, as well as reference materials, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, graphs, charts, diagrams, and electronic data bases intended for a general audience

 

Standard 4:  -Listen attentively to others and build on others’ ideas in conversations with peers

and adults express their thoughts and views clearly with attention to the 

perspectives and voiced concerns of the others in the conversation