Lesson 5: Ethical Frameworks: Utilitarianism, Deontology & Environmental Ethics
Demonstrating understanding of biological responses and human implications in a socio-scientific issue.
🎯 Ngā Whāinga Akoranga | Learning Intentions
Major Western ethical frameworks used in biological evaluation: Utilitarianism (consequentialist harm/benefit balance), Deontology (rights and duties), and Bioethics (autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, justice).
Apply ethical frameworks to evaluate biotechnology decisions, construct ethical matrix tables, and articulate reasoned ethical positions.
🎥 Media Anchor & Pedagogical Scaffold
Bioethics & Decision-Making Frameworks
Video Clip: Biotechnology innovation and socio-scientific issue analysis (Runtime: 3m 8s).
The clip above covers utilitarianism only (1 min 47 s). Its two companions from the same McCombs Ethics Defined series complete the lesson's three frameworks — Deontology (1 min 57 s) and Virtue Ethics (1 min 43 s). Five and a half minutes for all three.
🧠 1. Before Viewing (Activate & Predict)
If a genetic therapy can save human lives but requires modifying natural germline DNA, which ethical principle takes precedence?
👁️ 2. After the Clip (Work With a Job)
- Kōrero: Calculate net harm vs net benefit using the Utilitarian ethical matrix.
- Kōrero: Evaluate Deontological duties: Are certain biological boundaries inherently wrong to cross?
- Kōrero: Apply bioethical principles of non-maleficence (do no harm) and environmental precautionary principle.
🗣️ 3. After Viewing & Kaiako Move (Process & Apply)
Kaiako Move: Facilitate a bioethics tribunal where student roles represent different ethical philosophy traditions.
Immediate Task: Complete Section 5 of your Biology Portfolio: Ethical Matrix & Framework Evaluation Log.
⚡ Whakaoho | Do Now: Socio-Scientific Concept Recall (10 mins)
The same act, judged three ways. Releasing a gene drive that eradicates stoats nationally.
Two minutes: write one sentence in favour that appeals only to outcomes, and one against that appeals only to a duty or a right — and does not mention outcomes at all. If your second sentence sneaks in consequences, you have written utilitarianism twice. Getting these genuinely apart is the skill.
📖 Activity 1: Biological Evidence & Ethical Analysis (25 mins)
Apply all three (15 min). Evaluate your chosen issue through utilitarian, deontological and virtue-ethics lenses. For each, state what it counts as morally relevant and what verdict it reaches. Where two frameworks agree, say whether they agree for the same reason — usually they do not.
The four principles (10 min). Map autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice onto your issue. Identify the pair that conflict most sharply, and state the trade-off in one sentence without resolving it.
📝 Activity 2: Level 3 Biology (Internal) Report Drafting & Merit/Excellence Scaffolding (20 mins)
Report — Section 5. Submit: (1) your issue evaluated through all three frameworks with each verdict and its grounds; (2) the four-principles map with the sharpest conflict identified; (3) a paragraph on which framework you find most persuasive here and what it costs you to adopt it.
🏫 Kaiako Planning & Pedagogy Notes
NCEA Level 3 Alignment: Direct preparation for NCEA Level 3 Biology — Internal (Integrate biological knowledge to develop an informed response to a socio-scientific issue). Emphasise balanced consideration of alternative perspectives and justified conclusions for Merit/Excellence grades.