Course objectives:
The course provides students with basic knowledge on bioethics. Students will have the opportunity to learn the most relevant cases concerning: agro-forestry, agro-environmental, and agro-food biotechnologies, medical biotechnologies, intellectual property, and socio-scientific aspects. The course also aims to lead students to reflect and adjudicate controversies and debates on ethics issues in biotechnology and to help them develop a bioethics decision-making model after critical ethical reasoning.
The course will contribute to the following learning outcomes: (i) The student will acquire knowledge, skills, and competencies to understand, analyze, and describe the practical implications and consequent ethical issues of biotechnology. The student will also acquire theoretical-experimental knowledge of applied ethics. All this knowledge, skills, and competencies will allow the student to understand and analyze both the fundamental elements of bioethics and the interdisciplinary ones.
(ii) The student will be able to translate theoretical knowledge into practice and to argue problems in the field of bioethics in biotechnology. Through case studies, students will acquire the ability to apply theoretical knowledge on a practical level by implementing critical reasoning and developing decision-making models of bioethics.
(iii) The student will also have the ability to interpret both basic and applied knowledge of bioethics independently. This ability will be acquired, in particular, thanks to the attendance of practical activities and interactive exercises in the classroom.
(iv) The student attending the course will be able to communicate in a critical manner and with scientific vigor, the knowledge related to ethics and bioethics. This ability will also be achieved thanks to the extensive use of PowerPoint presentations in the classroom and to the interaction, dialogue, and exchange of opinions between students and between students and the teacher both during lectures and during case studies.
(v) Students will understand and acquire methods of inquiry and critical thinking in the ethical and bioethical fields. They will therefore be able to independently deepen the knowledge and skills acquired. This ability will be developed through the active involvement of students through oral discussions in the classroom on specific topics of the course and in case studies.