PHL 384 ETHICS, GENETICS AND REPRODUCTION
COURSE SYLLABUS
Wednesday 6-9 – Koffler House – KP room 108
Course Description:
An intermediate-level study of the intersection of moral issues and reproductive health
services, with an emphasis on assisted reproduction. Topics include the moral status of
the human embryo and fetus; the nature and ethical significance of parenthood; attempts
to avoid disability in offspring through prenatal diagnosis and preimplantation genetic
diagnosis; current issues in infertility treatment including the creation of “saviour
siblings,” donor anonymity, gamete and embryo disposition, children’s best interests, and
restrictions on access to ART services.
Course Prerequisite:
PHL 281Y1.
Instructors and Contact Information:
Instructor
Contact Information
Office Hours
Kyle Anstey, PhD
kyle.phl384@kyleanstey.com
After class
Shawn Winsor, PhD Cand.
Shawn.phl384@kyleanstey.com
After class
Teaching Assistants and Contact Information:
Teaching Assistant
Contact Information
Office Hours
Benjamin Wald, PhD Cand.
Benjamin.wald@mail.utoronto.ca
By arrangement
with TA
Communicating with your Instructors and Teaching Assistants
Outside of lectures and office hours, communicate using only the email addresses above.
Emails to our other work addresses will not be returned. We will guarantee a response to
your email before the end of our next scheduled office hours.
Important Term Dates:
Type
Due Date
First Class
Jan 8
Reading Week
Feb 18-21
Deadline for withdrawing from this course
Feb 17
Last Class
April 2
Evaluation, Submission and Deadlines:
Type and submission
Essay 1. Submit BOTH electronically at:
essay1.phl384@kyleanstey.com
AND a hard copy at the beginning of class
Percentage of
Grade
Due
Date
Work
Returned By
50%
Feb 12
March 5
Feb 15th.
Essay 2. Submit BOTH electronically at:
50%
essay2.phl384@kyleanstey.com
March
19
April 2
AND a hard copy at the beginning of class
March 21st.
Format:
Essays are MAXIMUM 1500 words and should be double spaced with 1
inch margins in a Times New Roman font. Electronic versions should be
submitted in the .doc or .docx format used by Microsoft Word (as well as
freely available software like Openoffice)
Retention:
Please retain a copy of all submitted work until your final grade in this
course is received.
Extensions on Evaluated Work
Extensions on the above deadlines are not given without:
- Prior notification of the impending lateness and any documentation necessary to
support a legitimate reason for late submission that is beyond a student’s control, such as
medical issues.
- Documentation to support a legitimate reason for late submission that is beyond a
student’s control AND an inability to give prior notification.
If you have a legitimate, documented reason for late submission that is beyond your
control we will evaluate your work without penalty. If you do not, and/or fail to provide
the necessary notification and documentation, any submitted work will not be graded.
Accommodations for Disability
Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular,
if you have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please
feel free to approach us and/or Accessibility Services at (416) 978 8060;
accessibility.utoronto.ca.
Audio and visual recording devices may ONLY be used as accommodations for disability
to promote open discussion of the difficult and sometimes personal issues that arise in a
course of this nature. Any such use must first be discussed with the instructor.
Requests to Re-Grade Assignments
We will grade you fairly relative to your peers. If you feel that your grade is unfair, you
can appeal the grade. Such a request entails a re-marking of the work. If a re-marking is
granted, the student must accept the resulting mark as the new mark, whether it goes up
or down or remains the same. Continuing with the re-mark or the appeal means the
student accepts this condition. Students should make such requests as soon as reasonably
possible after receiving the work back, but no later than one month after it was
returned. If a TA originally marked the work, the re-marking request should go first to
the TA and any appeal of that should go to the course instructor.
Statement About Plagiarism:
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Ignorance is not a defense against plagiarism, especially
in a 3rd year university course. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
- Duplicating someone else’s phrases or words without quotation marks and accurate
footnotes or endnotes in a standard documentation format. If you need assistance with
using Standard Documentation Formats: See
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/documentation
- Duplicating someone else’s words or phrases or words with accurate footnotes, but
without quotation marks.
- Paraphrasing someone else’s ideas without accurate footnotes.
Advice on how not to plagiarize is available at:
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize
If you still don’t understand what Plagiarism is, you are required to contact
your instructors before writing your first assignment.