Bioethics and Policy:
Bioethics and National Security
BIOE 570
Fall 2007
Jonathan D. Moreno
morenojd@mail.med.upenn.edu
Office 215-573-0245
Cell 267-283-7744
Office hours by appointment
Course description:
Bioethical issues play a critical but largely unrecognized role in national security policy.
These issues are also important, though again rarely understood, for a full appreciation of
the history and pre-history of bioethics. In this seminar we will explore the intersection
of bioethics and national security through the history of human experiments for military
purposes, the development of human experimentation policies by national security
agencies, the ethics of medical expertise in interrogation, ethical issues in mass casualty
medicine, bioterror events and public health measures, and emerging challenges such as
the place of breakthroughs in genetics and neuroscience in national security planning.
Use of Blackboard:
The syllabus and some of the required readings are available on Blackboard
(https://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/). Please check as soon as possible that you have
access to Blackboard. Once you have access you should check the site regularly as
announcements and/or links to interesting Websites, news stories, etc., may be posted.
Required reading: books—These may be purchased at the Penn Book Center:
Annas G. and Grodin M., The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in
Human Experimentation (Oxford 1992).
Gross M., Bioethics and Armed Conflict: Moral Dilemmas of Medicine and War (MIT
2006).
Moreno J.D., In the Wake of Terror: Medicine and Morality in a Time of Crisis (MIT
2002).
Moreno J.D., Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense (Dana 2006).
Trotter G., The Ethics of Coercion in Mass Casualty Medicine (Johns Hopkins 2007).
Required reading on Blackboard:
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), The Human
Radiation Experiments, Part II (Oxford 1996).
Dickinson F.R., “Biohazard: Unit 731 in Postwar Japanese Politics of National
“Forgetfulness”, in LaFleur W.R., Bohme G. and Susumu S., Dark Medicine:
Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research (Indiana University Press 2007).
Endicott S. and Hagerman E., The United States and Biological Warfare (Indiana
University Press, 1998).
Marks J., “The Silence of the Doctors,” The Nation, 28 December 2005.
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_121405C.shtml)
Miles S., “Medical Ethics and the Interrogation of Guantanamo 063,”
The American Journal of Bioethics 7(4):5, 2007.
(http://ajobonline.com/journal/j_articles.php?aid=1140)
Moreno J.D., Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans (W.H. Freeman 1999,
Routledge 2000).
Schmidt U., “Cold War at Porton Down: Informed Consent in Britain’s Biological and
Chemical Warfare Experiments,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 15 (2006),
No. 4, 366-380.
Secondary reading--some suggested complementary sources at your discretion:
Alibek K., Biohazard (Delta 1999).
Barenblatt D., A Plague upon Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis Japan’s Germ
Warfare Operation (Harper Collins 2004).
Caplan A.L., When Medicine Went Mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust (Humana 1992).
Ketchum, James S., Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten
http://www.forgottensecrets.net/ 2006).
Lifton R. J., The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (Basic
Books 2000).
Lindee S.M., Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima
(University of Chicago Press 1997).
Miles S., Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror (Random
House 2006).
Eric Olson, Frank Olson Legacy Project (http://www.frankolsonproject.org/),
Tanaka Y., Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (Westview 1996).
Regis E., The Biology of Doom: The History of America’s Secret Germ Warfare Project
(Henry Holt 1999).
Walzer M., Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (Basic
Books 1977).
Videos on the Web:
Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. "Darpa Tech: The Extended Cut"
(http://www.10news.com/video/13870211/index.html, 2007).
Public Broadcasting System, “American Experience: The Living Weapon”
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weapon/program/index.html, 2006).
Space Cadet, “LSD Testing (British Troops)” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrWnQphPdQ&mode=related&search=)
Assignments:
1. Seminar presentation
Each member of the seminar will be assigned one reading to be presented during the
appropriate meeting. The presentation should be both a summary and analysis of the
material. Depending on the nature of each presenter’s assignment it may be
appropriate to relate the material in any particular presentation to other materials in
that or another session.
2. Write-up of presentation
Written summaries of the presentations (in essay not outline form) should be handed
in at the next class following the presentation. They should be typed, double-spaced
and no more than 6 pages long. Citations to the text and other references are
optional.)
3. Take-home final examination
Final examination questions will be distributed on the last day of class. The answers
are due in my Penn e-mailbox no later than December 14, 2007 at 5pm. Further
instructions (length, format, etc.) will appear on the exam.
Grading:
Participation: 10%
Seminar presentation: 20%
Write-up of presentation: 30%
Final examination: 40%
Seminar expectations:
A graduate seminar is a professional environment. Therefore presence and
preparedness, along with other professional virtues such as respect for colleagues and
seriousness of purpose (but not necessarily seriousness), are expected of all participants
in the seminar.