Eubios Ethics Institute

Eubios Ethics Institute

office@eubios.info

Bioethics Education

This is an ongoing collection of materials that are available to use and adapt for bioethics education. We invite persons to send more materials, and make more translations/adapted materials for different groups (see additional information here). The language of materials included in this page include Indonesian, Chinese, English, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese.

A bioethics dictionary in English is also available.

The materials were published in January 2006, as Macer, DRJ, Cross Cultural Introduction to Bioethics ; and are availabe in a more interactive and revised form as Bioethics Across Cultures, available for free download from Apple iTunes book store, can be used for many curriculum, and one example is shown below for the unit numbers of UNESCO Bioethics Core Curriculum. All these materials are available in MSWord format for teachers to modify and edit according to their local needs and audiences. A teachers resource with explanation is available also through the weblinks.

There is also anInternational Network on Bioethics Education .

Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights [ENGLISH, CHINESE, INDONESIAN, JAPANESE, KOREAN, RUSSIAN, THAI, VIETNAMESE]

UNESCO Bioethics Core Curriculum

Section 1: Syllabus Ethics Education Programme [pdf, 1417 kb] | Section 2: Study Materials [pdf, 385 kb].

A Regional Bioethics Action Plan on Bioethics Education is available in several languages, including goals of bioethics education and a series of recommendations: [ENGLISH, INDONESIAN, CHINESE, JAPANESE, KHMER, THAI, URDU, VIETNAMESE].

Example of UNESCO CORE CURRICULUM UNIT & LEARNING OBJECTIVES

TEACHING MATERIALS & CASES

Chapters are from Macer, DRJ, Cross Cultural Introduction to Bioethics

Core Curriculum Unit 1: What is ethics?

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to recognize and distinguish an ethical issue from other issues.
• Students should be able to reason about ethical issues.

A1. Making Choices, Diversity and Principles of Bioethics:

English [.doc 270KB]/Chinese[.doc 278KB]/Japanese [.doc 293KB]/ Indonesian [.doc 282KB]/ Urdu [.doc file]/Vietnamese[.doc 300KB]

Case study 1-1: Lifeboat
Case study 1-2: An Environmental Activist who takes a shower three times a day

A2. Ethics in history and love of life: English [.doc 324KB]

Core Curriculum Unit 2: What is bioethics?

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the difference between medical ethics and bioethics
• Students should be able to differentiate bioethics, law, culture, and religion
• Students should be able to explain the principles of bioethics and how to balance these principles in practice

Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (A1.1, A2.4, A3)

English [pdf 52KB] / French [pdf 57KB] / Japanese [pdf 246KB] / Chinese [pdf 440KB] / Arabic [pdf, 400KB]

A1. Making choices, diversity and principles of bioethics

English [.doc 270KB] Chinese [.doc 278KB] / Japanese [.doc 293KB] / Indonesian [.doc 282KB] / Urdu [.doc file] / Vietnamese [.doc file]

A3. Moral agents: English [.doc 120KB]

E5. Prenatal diagnosis of genetic disease: English [.doc 45KB]

Case study 2-1 : Prenatal diagnosis and abortion

Core Curriculum Unit 3: Human dignity and human rights (Article 3)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain and apply the concepts of human dignity and human rights
• Students should understand the relevance of these concepts in the context of bioethics

Casebook on Human Dignity and Human Rights, Bioethics Core Curriculum Casebook Series, No. 1. UNESCO, Paris, 2011: English [.pdf 1.98MB]

G4. Human Rights and Responsibilities: English [.doc 85kb]

F1. Revisiting the Body: English [.doc 91kb]

Case study 3-1: Donor Sibling
Case study 3-2 : Conflicts of living will and family’s wish
Case study 3-3: Hysterectomy of handicapped child
Case study 3-4 : Voluntarily active euthanasia

Core Curriculum Unit 4: Benefit and harm (Article 4)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to identify harms and benefits in health care
• Students should be able to evaluate harms and benefit in health care
• Students should be able to justify decisions taking harms and benefits into account

Casebook on Benefit and Harm, Bioethics Core Curriculum Casebook Series No. 2. UNESCO, Paris, 2011: English [.pdf 2.07MB]

A1. Making choices, diversity and principles of bioethics (A1.4, A1.5): English [.doc 270KB]/ Chinese [.doc 278KB] / Japanese [.doc 293KB] / Indonesian [.doc 282KB] / Urdu [.doc file] / Vietnamese [.doc 300KB]

C2. Ethics of Genetic Engineering: English [.doc 84 KB] / Chinese [.doc 47KB]

D3. Euthanasia: English [.doc 138KB]/ Chinese [.doc 134KB] / Japanese [.doc 124KB]

Case study 4-1: Cosmetic surgery

Core Curriculum Unit 5: Autonomy and individual responsibility (Article 5)*

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the concepts of autonomy and individual responsibility and to understand their significance for the health care provider-patient relationship
• Students should understand the relationship between autonomy and individual responsibility

D3. Euthanasia: English [.doc 138KB]/ Chinese [.doc 134KB] / Japanese [.doc 124KB]

B7. Cars and the Ethics of Costs and Benefits: English [.doc 238KB]/Japanese [.doc 94KB]

F1. Advances in Neuroscience and Neuroethics: English [.doc 259KB] Japanese [.doc 350KB]

Case study 5-1 : Doctor’s concern
Case study 5-2 : Repeated attempts to commit suicide
Case study 5-3: Decision to have sex with HIV-infected partner
Case study 5-4 : Patient refuses treatment

Core Curriculum Unit 6: Consent (Article 6)*

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the meaning of ‘consent’, ‘informed’, and ‘informed consent’; they should be able to define the principle of ‘informed consent’.
• Students should be able to explain what the process of informed consent requires
• Students should be able to explain how the principle of consent is applied in different interventions, research, and teaching
• Students should be able to explain how exceptions to the principle can be justified

D1. Informed Consent and Informed Choice: English [.doc 47KB] Thai [.doc 33KB] / Chinese [.doc file] / Indonesian [.doc 48KB] / Urdu [.doc file] / Vietnamese [.doc 56KB]

D2. Telling the truth about terminal cancer: English [.doc 154KB] / Japanese [.doc 47KB]

Case study 6-1: Defensive medicine, Caesarean section
Case study 6-2: Patient does not want to make a decision

Core Curriculum Unit 7: Persons without the capacity to consent (Article 7)*

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the meaning of ‘capacity of consent’
• Students should be able to explain the criteria of capacity of consent
• Students should be able to explain how the criteria for consent are applied in different circumstances of treatment and research

D10. Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects: English [.doc 61KB]

F3. The Neuroscience of Pleasure, Reward and Addiction: English [.doc 203KB] / Japanese [.doc 305KB]

Case study 7-1: Doctor suggests certain treatment after consideration
Case study 7-2: Oral advance directive
Case study 7-3 : Ethics committee cannot make a decision
Case study 7-4 : Should tube feeding and ventilator be started or not?

Core Curriculum Unit 8: Respect for human vulnerability and personal integrity (Article 8)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the principle of respect for human vulnerability
• Students should be able to analyse the interrelationship between present day scientific medicine and human vulnerability and to illustrate the difficulties in this relationship with example
• Students should be able to specify the connections of the principle of respect for human vulnerability with the notion of personal integrity and with care ethics

E1. Lifestyle and Fertility: English [.doc 394KB] / Chinese [.doc 432KB] / Japanese [.doc 47KB]

E6. Female Infanticide: English [.doc 72KB]

G2. Child Labour: English [.doc 329KB] / Thai [.doc 1088KB]

Case study 8-1: Telling the truth or not to the terminal cancer patient?
Case study 8-2: Is the decision of family for the patient?

Core Curriculum Unit 9: Privacy and confidentiality (Article 9)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to why patient privacy and confidentiality should be respected
• Students should be able to recognize legitimate exceptions to confidentiality

C4. Testing for cancer gene susceptibility: English [.doc131KB] / Japanese [.doc 82KB]

C5. Genetic privacy and information: English[.doc 605KB] / Chinese [.doc 572KB] / Thai [.doc 41KB] / Japanese [.doc 136KB]

Case study 9-1 : Health insurance and privacy
Case study 9-2 : Minor’s request
Case study 9-3: Conversations between medical professionals
Case study 9-4: Information disclosure to the relative

Core Curriculum Unit 10: Equality, justice and equity (Article 10)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to identify and deal with the ethical issues involved in allocating scarce health care resources
• Students should be able to recognize conflicts between the health care professional’s obligations to patients and to society and identify the reasons for the conflicts

A1.3.D8. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome): English [.doc 113KB]/ Chinese [.doc 106KB]

B6. Sustainable Development: English [.doc 1345KB] / Chinese [.doc 852KB] / Thai [.doc 447KB] / Japanese [.doc 519KB]

Case study 10-1 : Triage

Core Curriculum Unit 11: Non-discrimination and non-stigmatization (Article 11)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the concepts of discrimination and stigmatization in the context of bioethics
• Students should be able to identify different contexts and bases of discrimination and stigmatization and their implications
• Students should be able to identify and deal with situations where exceptions to the principle can be justified

C7. Eugenics: English [.doc 137KB]

D9. AIDS and Ethics: English [.doc 145KB]/ Chinese [.doc 145KB] / Japanese [.doc 105KB]

C Case study 11-1 : HIV test and a result report to a couple

Core Curriculum Unit 12: Respect for cultural diversity and pluralism (Article 12)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the meaning of ‘culture’ and why it is important to respect cultural diversity
• Students should be able to explain the meaning of pluralism and why it is important in the field of bioethics
• Students should be able to deal with cultural diversity and take into consideration cultural specificities (appropriate approach, positive inputs and limits) with respect to the fundamental principles of bioethics and human rights

G1. Revisiting the Body: English [.doc 91KB]

D4. Brain Death: English [.doc 128KB] / Chinese [.doc 146KB]

D5. Organ donation: English [.doc 72KB] / Chinese [.doc 51KB]

C3. Genetically modified foods: English [.doc 156KB] / Japanese [.doc 128KB]

Case study 12-1 : Baby with intersex condition
Case study 12-2 : Palm reading
Case study 12-3 : Artificial breathing to the patient after brain death

Core Curriculum Unit 13: Solidarity and cooperation (Article 13)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the development of the notion of solidarity in different societies
• Students should be able to describe the difference between solidarity as an instrumental and a moral value
• Students should be able to give examples of solidarity in the context of health care and research

C6. The Human Genome Project: English [.doc 74KB]

G3. Peace and Peace-keeping: English [.doc 326KB]

Case study 13-1: Defensive medicine, “Is there a doctor on board?” and Good Samaritan Law

Core Curriculum Unit 14: Social responsibility and health (Article 14)

Learning objectives
• Students should become acquainted with the shared responsibilities of the state and various sectors of society in regard to health and social development
• Students should understand the requirements of global justice and the notion of the highest attainable standard of health care as a right
• Students should be able to explain that health status is a function of social and living conditions and that attainment of the highest attainable standard of health care depends upon the attainment of minimum levels of social and living conditions
• Students should be able to appreciate the urgent need to ensure that progress in science and technology facilitates access to quality health care and essential medicines as well as the improvement of living conditions and the environment, especially for marginalized se4gments of the population
• Students should be able to analyse potentially exploitative social practices and or arrangements affecting public health and recommend possible solutions

B6. Sustainable Development: English [.doc 1345KB] / Chinese [.doc 852KB] / Thai [.doc 447KB] / Japanese [.doc 519KB]

G1. Revisiting the Body: English [.doc 91KB]

Case study 14-1 : Medical tourism
Case study 14-2 : Social support to care personnel

Core Curriculum Unit 15: Sharing of benefits (Article 15)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to understand the need for ensuring that scientific knowledge contributes to a more equitable prosperous and sustainable world.
• Students should be able to explain that scientific knowledge has become a crucial factor in the production of wealth but at the same time has perpetuated its inequitable distribution.
• Students should be able to explain the reality that most of the benefits of science are unevenly distributed among countries regions and social groups and between the sexes.
• Students should be able to analyse efforts that have been undertaken at various levels to promote the sharing of the benefits of scientific knowledge and research and to explore novel initiatives that may be undertaken.
• Students should be able to identify and asses potentially undue or improper inducements in different research settings/situations.

C9. Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights: English [.doc 78KB] / Japanese [pdf 29KB] / Thai [pdf file] / Turkish [pdf 98KB] / Indonesian / Vietnamese

D10. Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects: English [.doc 61KB]

Core Curriculum Unit 16: Protecting future generations (Article 16)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain the principle of protecting future generations
• Students should be able to evaluate the possibilities and difficulties in the application of the principle in practical settings

C8. Human Gene therapy: English [.doc 202]

E2. Assisted reproduction: English [.doc 254KB] / Chinese [.doc 261KB] / Japanese [.doc 79KB]

E4. Choosing Your Children's Sex and Designer Children: English [.doc 47KB]

E5. Prenatal diagnosis of genetic disease: English [.doc 45KB]

E7. Human cloning: English [.doc 124KB] / Thai [.doc 602KB]

B8. The Energy Crisis and the Environment: English [.doc 1959KB]

Case study 16-1: Brain enhancing drug use for adults

Core Curriculum Unit 17: Protection of the environment, the biosphere and biodiversity (Article 17)

Learning objectives
• Students should be able to explain how bioethics is related to environmental issues.
• Students should be able to analyse environmental issues from anthropocentric biocentric and ecocentric ethical perspectives.
• Students should be able to describe sustainable development.

A4. Ethical limits of animal use Ethical Limits of Animal Use: English [.doc 244KB] / Chinese [.doc 240KB] / Japanese [.doc 101KB]

B1. Ecology and Life: English [.doc 512 KB]/ Thai [.doc 345KB]

B2. Biodiversity and Extinction: English [.doc 130KB]

B3. Ecological Ethics: English [.doc 198KB]

B4. Environmental Science: English [.doc 1294KB]

B5. Environmental Economics: English [.doc 1804KB]

B9. Ecotourism: English [.doc 194KB] / Japanese [.doc 143KB]

Book on participatory exercises - Darryl R.J. Macer. 2008. Moral Games for Teaching Bioethics (UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, Haifa, Israel) (book pdf file 1.8Mb; bookcover, 800KB pdf file).

A Bioethics Dictionary [in English] is also available.

We encourage readers to consider joining the Certificate in Bioethics and Global Public Health or the Masters in Bioethics and Global Public Health at the American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN), please see: http://www.au-sn.com

These cases are also linked to the Unit structure of UNESCO Bioethics Core Curriculum. Eubios Ethics Institute provides many teaching materials that may be also used as teaching materials, and are available also in Word format. http://www.eubios.info/bioethics_education

Selected Books:

Melissa Baker, Mardi Grundy, Kimberly Junmookda, Darryl Macer, Lea Ivy Manzanero, Donna Reyes, Ngo Thi Tuyen, Alex Waller, 2019, Environmental Ethics Education. Eubios Ethics Institute, 2019.

Lara López Hernáez and Darryl R.J. Macer, Education, Happiness, Mindfulness and Colonization: Reflections from Time with San Carlos Apache Nation, Eubios Ethics Institute, 2018.

Bioethics is Love of Life: An alternative textbook on cross-cultural ethics. is a revised second edition 2015 version that is also available to download as an iBook on Apple Store (202Mb). The first edition is available here: (English) / (Japanese) (1998)

Darryl R.J. Macer (Ed.). 2011. Asian-Arab Philosophical Dialogues on Culture of Peace and Human Dignity. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok, 2011, 260 pp.

Darryl R.J. Macer and Souria Saad-Zoy (Editors). 2010. Asian-Arab Philosophical Dialogues on Globalization, Democracy and Human Rights. Bangkok, Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP), UNESCO Bangkok. v + 119 p.

Darryl R.J.Macer and Souria Saad-Zoy (Editors). 2010. Asian-Arab Philosophical Dialogues on War and Peace. Bangkok, Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP), UNESCO Bangkok. v + 119 p.

Darryl Macer, Moral Games for Teaching Bioethics (English), / (Japanese) UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa, 2008); cover page

Macer, Darryl R.J., ed., Asia-Pacific Perspectives on Bioethics Education (Bangkok: UNESCO, 2008).

Macer, Darryl R.J., ed., A Cross Cultural Introduction to Bioethics (Christchurch, Eubios Ethics Institute, 2006).

Macer, Darryl R.J., et al., eds, Bioethics for Informed Citizens Across Cultures (Christchurch, Eubios Ethics Institute, 2004).

Macer, Darryl R.J., ed., Challenges for Bioethics from Asia (Christchurch, Eubios Ethics Institute, 2004).

Macer, Darryl R.J., et al., eds, UNESCO, IUBS, Eubios Bioethics Dictionary ( Christchurch, Eubios Ethics Institute, 2002). On-line: http://eubios.info/biodict.htm

Macer, Darryl R.J., Bioethics is Love of Life: An Alternative Textbook; 162pp., ISBN 0-908897-13-8 (Christchurch: Eubios Ethics Institute, 1998).

D. Macer, Y. Asada, M. Tsuzuki, S. Akiyama, & N.Y. Macer, Bioethics in High Schools in Australia, Japan and New Zealand (English) / (Japanese) (Christchurch, N.Z.: Eubios Ethics Institute 1996).

Macer, D.R.J. Bioethics for the People by the People (Christchurch, N.Z.: Eubios Ethics Institute 1994).

Eubios Ethics Institute

office@eubios.info

Bioethics Education﻿

Bioethics Education