ETHICAL DILEMMAS

¨ Set the stage. Remind the students how much they have learned so far about themselves and others in terms of making decisions based on their own ethics. Explain to them that they are now going to have an opportunity to engage in deciding how they would vote if an ethical dilemma were presented to them in a trial.

¨ The next task for the class is to decide on which ethical dilemma they wish to argue. Remind them that it will be more interesting if there are several sides to debate. Two suggestions are: Dolly the Sheep (bioengineering: is it right to clone a living animal?) and Selling Eggs on the Internet (this refers to the case wherein a models’ agent was selling their eggs to the highest bidder). A third option would be to choose from one of the cases they have already studied.

¨ Explain to the class that they will need to state the dilemma as a solution in order to argue it. Give them an example: if you were to argue about Dolly the Sheep, you might say that the Defense would claim that all cloning of  life is good. The Prosecution might argue that this is not so and should be outlawed – or outlawed except in some extreme cases (which they would have to define). This might take a full class period just to frame the question, but it is most important. Remind them to keep it as simple as possible. Be sure that they frame the topic as a question that can be debated yes or no.

¨ Hand out the information on mock trials and discuss each piece in detail. Their next step is to choose roles. If there are too many students for the roles, you might suggest that they chose alternate counsels as well as jurors. There will be one judge, two counsels (or lawyers), one to argue in favor of and the other to argue against, one person to take notes or record what is said (you might want to appoint two students to this task), at least three “witnesses” for each side, and a jury of twelve (you may use fewer if you don’t have this many students). Remind the students that the witnesses will be playing a role, pretending to be a witness for that side of the case. The rest of the class can serve as the audience and help with the topic research.

¨The next lesson – or lessons – should be research into the trial question and the trial format. The type of research will depend on your facilities. Appropriate types would be the Internet, encyclopedias, expert interviews, and so on. You need to provide each group – the pro and the con – with a set of questions in order to guide their research. This does not have to be complex. Hand out the Student Guideline to aid in this task.

¨The research into the trial format will be done by the judge and the jury. They need to know and understand the way that a trial works. They will be expected to inform the entire class before the trial begins. This type of research can also be done with books, the Internet, experts, and so on.

¨ You will set aside at least the next two class periods to hear the trial.

¨ The jury will meet after the case has been presented and argued, and they will need to reach a unanimous decision (unless you want to make it a 10/12 decision) – or declare a “hung jury”. During this period, you will ask the rest of the class to anticipate what they think the jury will decide and why they believe they will decide this way.

You could also take the class to see a real trial if that is possible in your community.

¨ What kind of topic would be fun to argue or decide? Think of the cases that you have studied. Do any of those seem as though they would be interesting to research a lot more? Is there anything that you have heard or read lately that you think would be an ethical dilemma that would be fun to argue?

¨ In order to decide on your background research, try this: imagine that you really are the President of the United States. Now you have to make decisions all the time that are going to affect many people. Think about how much you have learned about yourself and how much easier it would be for you to make those decisions. Now you are going to have a chance to try making a decision that might affect many people. How do you need to prepare for this? What kind of information do you need?

¨What role would you like to play? Think about what you are best at? Do you like to argue? Do you like to make final decisions? Volunteer!

¨Before you begin any research, make sure that you know what the questions are. Your teacher will have given you some. Can you think of any more questions that would help you? If you are going to be the lawyer, remember that you need to understand both sides of the argument in order to cross-examine.