For this assignment you will write an oped in which you take a stance on a medical ethics conundrum and persuasively explain your position. In preparation for this assignment, you should read a number of Op-Ed (Opinion/Editorial) essays published in leading journals such as the New York Times, The Guardian, New Yorker, The Atlantic etc. on medical issues. Familiarize yourself with your intended audience and then focus on conveying the position that you take with regards to the ethical conundrum in the medical sciences to your readership. You should build your essay around a pre-planned purpose and with a well-researched grasp on the context of that issue.
In planning your paper and building your argument, consider the following questions:
What is the ethical question?
What are the relevant facts?
• Scientific
o Social scientific (psych, soc, anthro, his, pol, econ, etc.)
Who or what could be affected by the way the question gets resolved? What are the relevant ethical considerations?
o respect for persons o minimizing harms while maximizing benefits
o fairness and justice (avoiding discriminatory practices / bias)
In your argument, use at least 5 sources (at least 2 of these should be peer-reviewed sources).
o These can be from your annotated bibliography, or you can switch out for some new sources if you think it would be useful. (For example, if you were arguing that we should increase the number of supervised injection sites in New York State, you might want to bring in letters to the editor or newspaper articles to show examples of public opinion on the topic)
o Situate your position within the many conversations happening around your topic. Include voices that align with your own views, in addition to those that differ (counterargument, naysayers).
For this assignment you will write an oped in which you take a stance on a medical ethics conundrum and persuasively explain your position. In preparation for this assignment, you should read a number of Op-Ed (Opinion/Editorial) essays