Bioethics: who owns a body?
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Debate whether studying human anatomy on real specimens is ethical, and defend your stance with a claim-evidence-reasoning post.
1. Open your materials
2. Start the work
Read the Philosophy-for-Kids prompt: should medical students learn anatomy on donated human bodies, or only on models?
Show all 5 required steps
- Read the Philosophy-for-Kids prompt: should medical students learn anatomy on donated human bodies, or only on models?
- List two reasons a person might donate their body and two reasons a family might object.
- Take a side and write a one-sentence claim with your strongest reason.
- Debate in your John Carroll bioethics group, recording the best counter-argument you heard.
- Post a short CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) response to the class board.
Lost your place? If you lost your place, reread the prompt and your last sentence, then finish your CER: claim, evidence, reasoning.
Check your work before submitting
- You can state a clear ethical claim about anatomical donation.
- You can name a counter-argument and respond to it.
3. Turn in your work
DueCheck Schoology- Hand in
- One-paragraph CER posted to the class board taking a position on anatomical donation for education.
How to submit and name your file
Post to class board and screenshot your post as proof of submission.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
PDF upload helpYou get two school days for every day you were absent, so this deadline moves with you.
Choose your Schoology section. Open only one assignment.
Check the section number beside Human Anatomy and Physiology in Schoology.
Assignment: Wk2 CER: Bioethics: who owns a body?
Link will not open? Open Schoology, choose your section, and find the assignment title above.
How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: A baseline pretest is not a test you can fail. It shows where you start so we can measure how far you grow. Today: Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect.
Unit 1 guide: what to keep and use nextOptional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Need help? Warm-up, timing, and directions▸
💡 Big idea: Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect.
- 0-5Intro and framing of the bioethics prompt
- 5-20Independent reading and two-column reason list
- 20-35John Carroll bioethics group debate
- 35-50Draft one-sentence claim and strongest evidence
- 50-70Write and post CER to class board
- 70-80Whole-class share-out of best counter-arguments heard
- • Good morning. This week we launch Human Body Systems, a course that covers , physiology, and pathophysiology.
- • Today is not a vocabulary day. It is a thinking day. We are going to wrestle with a real question: who has the right to study a human body after death?
- • Before we argue, I want you to notice that this question has no clean answer. Your job is to build the strongest case you can for one side.
- • By the end of class you will have posted a CER. That is a claim, a piece of evidence, and your reasoning. That format will follow us all year.
- • Anatomical donation requires and serves educational and research purposes.
- • Bioethics weighs benefits to society against individual rights and dignity.
- • A CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) is the standard scientific argument format used throughout HBS.
PLTW connection and today's work
Open Activity 1.1.1 Meet the Patients (Lesson 1.1 Beginning With Bones) in myPLTW and complete the introductory online activity for the course launch; use it to ground a fact in your bioethics CER about anatomical donation.
Today's stopping point: You have not yet started Lesson 1.1; by the end of today you should have the course-launch task checked off and your CER posted.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Course connection
- Activity 1.1.1 Meet the Patients
Use the turn-in directions at the top of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
Need help? Choose a starting point
Lesson resources: reading, slides, and vocabulary▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Generated from this lesson's canonical data with a red-team citation check.
A is not a test you can fail. It shows where you start so we can measure how far you grow.
Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect.
A review board sorts scientific evidence, stakeholder needs, possible benefits, possible burdens, and uncertainty before choosing a policy.
- Which statements are scientific evidence?
- Which statements express a value or priority?
- Who receives the benefit and who carries the burden?
Use science to estimate consequences, then state the value judgment and tradeoff that determine the decision.
A review-board model organizes reasoning but does not make one ethical principle automatically outweigh every other principle.
- • Evidence cards map to source-backed findings.
- • Stakeholder cards map to affected people and priorities.
- • The recommendation maps to an explicit tradeoff with a named uncertainty.
Driving question: A body donated to science teaches a hundred future doctors. What did that person, and their family, have to agree to first, and what do we owe them in return?
What you already know: A is not a test you can fail. It shows where you start so we can measure how far you grow.
New idea: Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect.
Visual or model: F1. F1. A lesson illustration or teaching diagram for Bioethics: who owns a body?. Use it with E1-E3; it is a model or context image, not experimental or patient data. What to notice: Trace the labeled structure, movement, or system relationship that connects form to function.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in today's lesson.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: Use science to estimate consequences, then state the value judgment and tradeoff that determine the decision.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: A body donated to science teaches a hundred future doctors. What did that person, and their family, have to agree to first, and what do we owe them in return?
What the evidence supports: E1-E3 and F1 support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : The study of the body's structure and how its parts are arranged, from whole organs down to individual tissues and cells.
- • physiology: The study of how the body's parts function and work together to keep an organism alive and healthy.
- • : The body's ongoing process of keeping internal conditions like temperature, blood sugar, and pH steady despite changes in the outside environment.
- • : A direction term meaning toward the front of the body, such as the chest being to the spine.
- • : An anatomical direction meaning toward the back of the body or behind another structure.
- • : A direction term meaning closer to the point where a limb attaches to the body, such as the elbow being to the wrist.
- • : An anatomical direction meaning farther from the point where a limb attaches to the body or from the origin of a structure.
- • CER: Use the lesson context and glossary entry to explain CER in your own words.
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
A defensible biomedical decision separates scientific evidence from value judgments, identifies who may benefit or be burdened, and states the uncertainty and tradeoffs that remain.
Limit: Scientific evidence can inform the options and likely consequences, but it cannot choose a single value-neutral answer.
Use science to estimate consequences, then state the value judgment and tradeoff that determine the decision.
Limit: A review-board model organizes reasoning but does not make one ethical principle automatically outweigh every other principle.
You can state a clear ethical claim about anatomical donation.
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
PLTW-HAP-2027-01-28 · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: anatomy and physiology consultant
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from today's lesson supports before submitting the claim-evidence-reasoning response named on today's page.
- • Support study on donated bodies only when the donor gave for that specific purpose.
- • Use a donated body for any purpose the school chooses, because donation already gave full permission.
- • Ask what the program tells the family afterward about how the body was actually used.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Submit it as the claim-evidence-reasoning response.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about today's lesson. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from today's lesson supports before submitting the claim-evidence-reasoning response named on today's page.
Context: Medical knowledge advances by studying real human bodies, which is why consent, respect, and dignity are built into how is taught and practiced.
- • T1: Read the Philosophy-for-Kids prompt: should medical students learn on donated human bodies, or only on models?
- • T2: List two reasons a person might donate their body and two reasons a family might object.
- • T3: Take a side and write a one-sentence claim with your strongest reason.
- • T4: Debate in your John Carroll bioethics group, recording the best counter-argument you heard.
- • T5: Post a short CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) response to the class board.
- • E1: A defensible biomedical decision separates scientific evidence from value judgments, identifies who may benefit or be burdened, and states the uncertainty and tradeoffs that remain.
- • E2: Use science to estimate consequences, then state the value judgment and tradeoff that determine the decision.
- • E3: You can state a clear ethical claim about anatomical donation.
Measurements: No patient measurement is supplied unless it appears explicitly in E1-E3 or F1. Do not invent a value.
Figure finding: Teaching diagram for Bioethics: who owns a body?. Trace the labeled structure, movement, or system relationship that connects form to function. This is a teaching model, not patient or experimental data.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Students often think once a body is donated, anything can be done with it. The trap: donation requires for specific purposes, and dignity and respect still govern how the body is treated
Claim: A healthy adult should be allowed to donate a kidney to a family member, because a fully informed, freely made choice to help a relative is the donor's right to make.\nEvidence: A person can live a normal, healthy life with one working kidney, and transplant programs require donors to pass medical and psychological screening before surgery. Living-donor programs also require documented informed consent, and they use an independent advocate whose only job is to protect the donor, not the patient who needs the organ.\nReasoning: Because the donor is screened for safety and gives consent through a process built to catch coercion, the two main ethical objections (bodily harm and pressure from the family) are directly addressed. Once those protections are in place, respecting the donor's own decision honors their autonomy, so a screened and consented living donation is justified.\nCounter-argument I heard and my response: One classmate argued that a relative might feel pressured to donate even if no one says it out loud. I agree that quiet pressure is real, which is exactly why the independent donor advocate and the private medical opt-out exist, letting a donor step back at any point without the family ever knowing the reason.
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: A short claim-evidence-reasoning post modeling the format on a different bioethics question (living organ donation between family members), so you can see the structure and depth without seeing an answer to today's own prompt.
- Write one defensible claim.
- Choose specific evidence that supports the claim.
- Explain the scientific rule that connects the evidence to the claim.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Post to the class board and screenshot your post as proof of submission.
- CER:
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: make a claim, back it with evidence, explain your reasoning.
- SOP:
- Standard Operating Procedure, the exact steps to follow (especially in a lab).
- Tracker:
- Your PLTW progress log where you record completed evidence.
- myPLTW:
- The PLTW course site where you do the online activities. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Bioethics: who owns a body?. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Play the cold open at the start of the unit to set the scene. Each recording is AI-generated and simulated (fictional callers, no real people or student data).
Hand-picked readings, videos, and interactives for this lesson, all free and from authoritative open organizations (NIH, CDC, OpenStax, Khan Academy, PhET, HHMI, and more).
A fillable, Cornell-style notebook for Unit 1: Road to Rehabilitation. Type your notes, cues, and summaries right in the PDF, or print it and write by hand. Each lesson page has a cue column, a notes column, and a summary box, plus dated lab-record pages you can turn in.
HBS Unit 1 notebook: Road to Rehabilitation Fillable PDFCornell notes + lab recordsOpenClassroom documents for this lesson are posted in Schoology. Open Clever, then Schoology, and find each one by the name shown on its card.
Use this as the classroom resource for HBS launch and body systems overview.
Placement rationale
Matched HBS launch and body systems overview by path:Human-Body-Systems/00-Course-Planning; keywords:body systems. Score 130. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Sign in to Clever with your district Microsoft account to open Schoology or myPLTW. Follow today's posted steps. If myPLTW will not open, use the posted alternative and tell Mr. Mendoza. Turn in your completed work through the Schoology assignment.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about today's lesson. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
What has to be true before a donated body can be used to teach anatomy, and what still limits how it is used?
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Run this before you touch the bench. It is built from the real lab procedure, so the decisions you make here are the ones you will make with the equipment in your hands.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
Read the linked sources on body donation, consent, and cadaver-vs-model education, then post a written CER taking a side on whether real- study is justified, citing one fact from a source.
UCSF Willed Body ProgramPost to class board and screenshot your post as proof of submission.
Class still runs. Complete the online activity above (it's self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
CDC Laboratory Safety- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Put your first and last name in the document header. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
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