For this assignment you will imagine yourself to be a professional in an administrator capacity who is in charge of researching and advocating in regard a certain health science issue that has a bioethical dimension to it (is the subject of debate, controversy, disagreement, unclarity, ambiguity, etc.). You will be first writing an argumentative paper that stakes out a clear thesis statement and makes a clear stand with regard to the bioethical position, as supported by the research that you have done. You will then compose a 250+ word memo to your fellow administrators in the office or institution in which you work explaining what motivated you to decide on this bioethical position.
Pre-Writing: First you will read a number of short articles about your bioethical issue from web sources (op-eds, editorial articles, scientific research) and identify some of the primary arguments that guide the discussion around your topic (both for and against). You will design an outline that compares and contrasts these dominant arguments and from that outline you will determine a thesis statement that articulates your own stance/position based on your research.
Writing: You will use organizational strategies discussed in the textbook to create a combination argumentative essay/informative manual that identifies several of the major “issues of contention,” points out some of the evidence guiding these issues of contention, and proposes your understanding about what these issues show about the topic of debate, i.e. what your conclusions are based on what you have seen. The essay must include an introduction, conclusion, and several different “sections” that highlight the various perspectives and interpretations regarding the topic.
Post-Writing: You will revise so that you are able to connect both your overall argument to the research sources you have done, weaving in the evidence you have pulled form your sources with your own unique claims that clarify and expand that evidence. In other words, you will revise to make a clear balance between your sources’ arguments/claims and your own arguments/claims. That is one of the goals of professional writing.
Model Outline:
· Introduction: context, audience (of administrators implicated in bioethical issue), purpose (thesis/main argument)
· Problems Section: Identify (in separate sections) how subject violates certain bioethical principles
–i.e. Gene Editing’s violation of Patient Autonomy; Gene Editing’s Protection of Beneficience
· Methods Section: Identify how bioethical problem can be better managed or addressed with administrator action (investment, research, legal regulations)
-i.e. Preventing Abuses of Gene Editing Through Legislation
· Solutions Section: Identify how following methods section would lead to a better/more ethical system for health science subject
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