Home/Guidance material for university and general education teachers/Bioethics in Islam: dilemmas, perspectives, questions/Methodical explanation

Methodical explanation

This module pursues the following goals:

  • giving the students opportunities for practice interpersonal, communication, and moral reasoning skills.
  • providing information what and how to teach if the topic is sensitive, due to the complexity of the subject itself and its relation to religion

 

Teacher’s guide for individual reflection:

Think about the contemporary world and the dilemmas that increasingly arise:

  • can I accept a transplant if I follow a particular religion?
  • can I terminate a pregnancy if the foetus is terminally ill?
  • can I support animal experimentation?
  • do I have the right to decide when I want to end my life?

Ethical issues affect everyone. Sooner or later many people will face similar dilemmas.

  1. Before tackling the topic in class, try to play the roles of both supporters and opponents of different approaches to bioethics. Consider what arguments your students might use while discussing abortion, euthanasia, in vitro, animal testing, implantation of electronic chips, etc.
  2. Consider whether a controversial topic related to these dilemmas was covered recently in the media, in order to prepare a reference point familiar to students.
  3. Read first theory and then the concept of the tasks and exercises. Prepare yourself to answer students’ questions.
  4. Consider writing students’ questions on a flipchart and discussing them together.
  5. Explain this topic from multiple perspectives in a student-centred way focusing on diverse representation and issues.


Ethical considerations

This module touches on issues of bioethics, which may require some preparation. The module itself address family planning, abortion, in vitro and cryopreservation, surrogacy, euthanasia and suicide, transplantation, genetic engineering/research, animal testing. Students might need to be prepared or sensitized to some topics before this module. It is important to pay attention to the language, differences (social, cultural, religious, gender) and to demonstrate how important the context and perspective are in discussing these issues.