When Elizabeth Yoselevsky '08 asked students in an evolution and systematics class at Ithaca's Cascadilla School whether evolution or creationism should be taught in high schools, some students said evolution, some said both.

Cascadilla student Eric Choe fell into the "both" category, but added that students should have the option to attend lectures on either subject.

The debate over whether evolution versus creationism should be taught in high school biology classes has gone on for decades. Several members of the undergraduate Bioethics Society of Cornell (BSC) visited a class at Cascadilla School -- a small, private college preparatory school -- April 18, to explore the controversy, at the request of their teacher Marketa Lillard.

The outreach effort was part of BSC's new High School Readership Program that seeks to promote the discussion of ethics in the science classroom.

"I do not want to teach creationism in a science class," stated Lillard, "because there is no scientific basis for it. It's a belief."

"We wanted [the students] to think about both sides of the issue," said Ugo Ihekweazu '08, editor in chief of BSC's Ivy Journal of Ethics, who initiated the high school program to promote discussions on bioethical issues with members of the Ithaca community.

After discussing the case for nearly 45 minutes, the students supported teaching evolution in high school. Although they did not entirely dismiss the creationists' perspective, most agreed that creationism should not be taught in the context of a biology class.

More along the lines of bioethics, BSC members and Cascadilla students ended the program with a lively discussion about organ "selling," discussing a case study of an economically depressed woman who sells one of her kidneys for $20,000 to pay for her much-needed appendectomy. Students previewed the case, which is appearing in the spring edition of the Ivy Journal of Ethics, as a part of "You Decide," a new addition to the journal that highlights a controversial case study. Last month, BSC members presented the same case to 30 students at Lansing High School.

Graduate student Sandra Holley is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.