Tom Neupane

Anthropology
Reflection Assignment
What was the ethical issue you wrote about for your signature assignment? Why did you choose
this ethical issue? What did you know about the issue before doing any research? How did your
research (including the evaluation of the viewpoints, evidence, and logical fallacies) impact your
thinking?
My signature assignment for ethical issue was about prenatal genetic testing. There are
several reasons for choosing this topic. This is a new thing for my community who spend
almost 20 years in refugee camp without electricity. A life without electricity is
impossible in this modern world. Therefore, it is impossible to even think about prenatal
testing at that situation. With this poor and miserable living conditions, pregnant women
have to accept what they will get. They only know whether their child is boy or girl at the
time of domestic delivery. At this situation, a lot of women lost their and their childs life.
Here we have all the technology and insurances to pay the medical bill for most of the
people, we need to take advantages for that and start doing prenatal genetic testing to
save some new foot and caring heart. With some drawbacks, I still believe in prenatal
testing.

How might you apply the critical thinking and communicating about ethical issues skills in other
learning contexts (e.g. other courses, home, work, elections, Thanksgiving dinner, etc.)? Offer
and explain at least three specific examples of where and how you used or might use the critical
thinking and communicating skills (one example should be from this course).
In every steps of our life, we encounter a lot of ethical issues and we need to make
important decision using critical thinking and communication skills. There is always
important decision to make when it comes to ethics. Every decision on ethical issues
depend on persons social, cultural, educational, religious belief. Some of the ethical
issues we encounter are:

1. Is prenatal testing good option for pregnant women: For me, I think it is a good
idea to know about upcoming family member and make necessary plan.
2. Is it okay to laugh if a student ask stupid questions in a class: In my view, every
question and any question is very important for an individual to understand the
context. It might be simple but it is great for them who ask the question. Respect
others and their talent.
3. Can I burp on a dinner table among other family members: Burping on a dinner
table is very unethical in our culture. It might be okay to burp on a dinner table in
other culture but not everyone have same culture and avoid burping on public.
Hmm Moment: What content are you still perplexed about and why? Explain how you will
apply the skills used in the essay (e.g. research skills, writing skills, etc.) to grapple with this
content?
Till today, I havent missed any classes and I dont have any specific chapter or part that
I dont understand but every time when we have a class activity, I always have Hmm
moment at the beginning of the activity. I feel shy to join with other peoples and use to
complete it myself. I always think how may I going to complete this handout. First few
class activity was challenging but I realize later that I had to work on a group. Slowly,
when I stated joining with a group, it was quite easy than working alone. I enjoy the
activity this days and learned the power of group work.
AHA Moment: What specific AHA moment have you had in this course about human evolution
(broadly defined)? (This does not have to be the same as your Hmmmm moment).
The most AHA moment was when you go through different classification methods,
Evolutionary systematics and cladistics. I was lost at the beginning of this chapter and it
was hard for me to differentiate between shared derived and phylogenetic relationship.
With is confusion, suddenly everything started making sense when you give example of
various primates and humans. It totally make sense form that example why humans are
kept along with chimps. Also, the questions asked by the guest speakers were very
interesting and keep me thinking, we do classify anything and everything around us,
races, food, schools, teachers, etc. It is a great class. Enjoying it.