1. Most students don't know what a salamander or sea urchin is. In my introductions to fertilization (when I discuss these creatures), I often bring in the adult even if we're not going to do any experiments with the beasts.
2. There's a lot of "down" time in many developmental bio. and embryology labs. We wait for the cleavage of the urchin or the imaginal disc to evert, etc. This is a good time to introduce students to some of the ethical and philosophical issues of developmental biology. Some topics (and references to give to the student) include:
(A) Germ-line gene therapy
Danks, D. M. 1994. Germ-line gene therapy: No place in the treatment of genetic disease. Human Genet. Therap. 5: 151 - 153.
Wivel, N. A. and Walter, L. 1993. Germ line modification and disease prevention: Some medical and ethical perspectives. Science 262: 533 - 538.
(B) Pre-conception sex selection
Peter, A. T., Jones, P. P., and Robinson, J. P. 1992. Fractionation of bovine spermatozoa for sex selection: A rapid immunomagnetic technique to remove spermatozoa that contain the H-Y antigen. Theriogen. 40: 1177 - 1185.
Shushan, A. and Schenker, J. G. 1993. Prenatal sex determination and selection. Human Reprod. 8: 1545 - 1549.
(C) Gendered metaphors of fertilization and meiosis
Biology and Gender Study Group 1988. The importance of feminist critique for contemporary cell biology. Hypatia 3: 61 - 76.
Martin, E. 1991. The sperm and the egg. Signs 16: 485-501.
Small, M. F. 1991. Sperm Wars. Discover (July): 48 - 53. (Blatant examples)
Gross, P. R. and Levitt, N. 1994. Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science. Johns Hopkins University Press. (Exerpts of Ch. 5). (They think this whole critique is wrong).
(D) Alcohol as a teratogen
Does one have the right/moral responsibility to go over to a table in a restaurant and stop a pregnant woman from drinking alcohol? Michael Dorris says you do. Chapters from his book The Broken Cord (Harper and Row) can stimulate vehement arguements in the lab.
Comments to Scott Gilbert: ([email protected])
Swarthmore College
08/10/95
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