Exam 1

Question 1

What is an argument? What are some questions to keep in mind when evaluating arguments?

Answer 1

• An argument is a set of sentences. It has premises and a conclusion.
• Some questions to keep in mind:
  
  1. What are the premises?
  2. What is this conclusion?
  3. Do the premises support the conclusion?
  4. Is the argument question-begging?

Question 2

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 2

Ability to understand a culture on its own terms and to not make judgements using standards of ones own culture

Question 3

How does cultural relativism differ from “personal” or “individual” relativism?

Answer 3

They differ because personal/individual ethical standards vary from person to person

Question 4

What is the argument from cultural relativism and why does James Rachels reject it?

Answer 4

-Argument from cultural relativism:
1. Different cultures have different moral codes
2. Therefore, there is no objective truth in morality. Right and wrong are only matters of opinion, and opinions vary from culture to culture\
- He rejects it because the truth of the premise does not support the truth of the conclusion.

Question 5

What is the ethical theory (or “normative” ethics)?

Answer 5

attempts to uncover general guidelines, principles, or rules which allow us to distinguish right actions from wrong actions

Question 6

What is the difference between evaluative and non evaluative judgements?

Answer 6

• Evaluative: somehow expresses a person’s values, commitments, likes/dislikes, etc.
• Non evaluative: statements

Question 7

What are ethical judgements?

Answer 7

• evaluations of human actions, practices, or character traits

Question 8

Difference between consequentialist and deontologist approaches to normative ethics? What is utilitarianism?

Answer 8

• Consequentialist: hold that right actions are those that promote or leads to good consequences
• Deontologist: hold that right actions do not depend on consequences
• Unitarianism is the same as consequentialist

Question 9

What does “primum, non nocere” mean? Why does it not go far enough in defining the responsibilities of medical providers?

Answer 9

• Means “First, do no harm”
• This does not go far enough in defining the responsibilities because one could avoid harm by doing nothing at all

Question 10

What are the ‘narrow’ vs ‘wide’ views when it comes to ‘benefitting’ a patient?

Answer 10

• Narrow view: medical professional should ONLY be concerned with a patient’s physical health; other goods are outside the purview
• Wide view: medical professional should take into consideration a patient’s OVERALL WELL-BEING, where this includes goods in addition to physical health

Question 11

What are the three different ways of weighing harms against benefits?

Answer 11

1. Arithmetical
2. Ratio
3. Avoiding harm

Question 12

Arithmetical approach

Answer 12

• one could pursue those actions that are expected to produce the greatest net good
  
  • view benefits as pluses and harms as minuses

Question 13

Ratio approach

Answer 13

-one should try to maximize the benefit/harm ratio rather than maximize the net goods
* A has twice the expected benefit and twice the expected harm compared to B.
* according to this A and B would be treated as equally attractive

Question 14

Avoiding harm approach

Answer 14

• the duty to avoid harm is more stringent that the duty to help
  
  • one is morally free to try to help ONLY WHEN one is sure that harm will not be done

Question 15

What is the current legal status of abortion in the US?

Answer 15

Roe v Wade overturned. States may now impose various restrictions (even outright bans) on abortion.

Question 16

What is the distinction between ‘human’ in the “genetic” sense and ‘human’ in the “moral” sense?

Answer 16

• Human (genetic): An individual that shares our genetic makeup; a member of our species at any stage in its development
• Human (moral): an individual who has FULL AND EQUAL MORAL RIGHTS including a right to life

Question 17

What is the Doctrine of Double Effect? How might one utilize this principles to argue against the permissibility of abortion in a wide range of cases?

Answer 17

• DDE= it is sometimes permissible to cause harm as a side effect of bringing about some good result even though it would not be permissible to cause such a harm as a means about the same good end
  
  • One might utilize this to say it is ok to get an abortion as it is bringing a good result to someone who might not want a child

Question 18

In the beginning of her paper “A defense of abortion”, what does JJ Thompson grant for the sake of argument? Why does Thomson grant this (controversial) claim?

Answer 18

She grants “An unborn child is a person from the moment of conception”. She grants this because how else are “we supposed to get from there to the conclusion that abortion is morally impermissible”

Question 19

In JJ Thomson’s paper, she discusses the violinist case, the “rapidly growing child” case, and the “people seeds” example. Explain each of these. How does Thomson utilize these examples in order to argue for the permissibility of abortion?

Answer 19

• Violinist: That you have to stay hooked up to a violinist because a persons right to life outweighs what happens in and to your body.
• rapidly growing child: Mother and child are not like two tenants in a small house, by an unfortunate mistake, been rented to both: the mother OWNS the house
• Peoples seeds: suppose it were like this: people-seeds drift about in the air like pollen, and if you open your windows, one may drift in and take root in your carpets or upholstery. You don’t want children, so you fix up your windows with fine mesh screens, the very best you can buy. As can happen, however, and on very, very rare occasions does happen, one of the screens is defective; and a seed drifts in and takes root. Does the person-plant who now develops have a right to the use of your house? Surely not-despite the fact that you voluntarily opened your windows, you knowingly kept carpets and upholstered furniture, and you knew that screens were sometimes defective.

Question 20

How does Don Marquis suggest approaching the debate concerning the ethical status of abortion?
What is Don Marquis’ answer to the following question: What makes killing in general wrong? How does
Don Marquis utilize his answer to previous to question to argue for the impermissibility of abortion?

Question 21

What is the “contraception objection” to Don Marquis’ argument? How does Marquis try to respond to this objection?

Answer 21

• According to the FLO account, denying an individual a future of value is wrong. However when contraception is successfully used, there is one less FLO. This, the FLO account implies that contraception is immoral.
• ” at the time of contraception there is no individual to be wronged”

Question 22

Who was Jack Kevorkian? What was he arrested for doing?

Answer 22

Jack Kevorkian was a Dr who assisted terminally ill patients in taking their own lives.
He was arrested for actively euthanizing a man who was suffering from ALS.

Question 23

Active Euthanasia

Answer 23

Killing a patient by administering a lethal dose of a drug

Question 24

Passive Euthanasia

Answer 24

withholding or withdrawing treatment which eventuates in the death of the patient

Question 25

Voluntary Euthanasia

Answer 25

the patient decides that they no longer want to live and requests euthanasia

Question 26

Non-voluntary euthanasia

Answer 26

the patient is either incapacitated or too young to make the choice, and the decision is made by someone else (family member)

Question 27

Involuntary euthanasia

Answer 27

the patient is euthanized against their will

Question 28

Physician assisted suicide

Answer 28

When a doctor provides a patient with the means to take their own life writing a prescription for a lethal drug which the patient then self administers

Question 29

What is the AMA’s stance on active voluntary euthanasia? What is the AMA’s stance of physician-assisted suicide?

Answer 29

• active voluntary: AMA states “fundamentally incompatible with physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks
• physician-assisted suicide: “according to the dictates of their conscience and without violating professional obligations”

Question 30

What is the “slippery slope” argument against the permissibility of voluntary euthanasia/PAS?

Answer 30

The worry here is that once we allow doctors to kill or assist with death, that will inevitably lead to many problematic cases

Question 31

How does Peter Singer argue for the permissibility of voluntary euthanasia and PAS? How does Peter Singer respond to the “slippery slope” argument?

Answer 31

• people normally want to stay living- if they ask to die and you do not respect it then you are denying them of their autonomy
• deprives them of the goods of the future- if they are asking to die they have already determined that their future lacks value
• friends and family will be sad- if they ask to die, the friends and family will still suffer but in cases of terminal illness this will happen anyway PLUS the family will respect their choices
• slippery slope argument: in areas where euthanasia is legal, there has not been a slippery slope

Question 32

What has Peter Singer recently said about making euthanasia/PAS available to individuals who aren’t suffering from terminal illnesses (e.g. patients suffering from untreatable depression)?

Answer 32

that it should be allowed since it is the same suffering as someone with uncurable terminal illnesses

Question 33

Why does Charles Camosy think that one should never intentionally aim at the death of an innocent person?

Answer 33

1. racial minorities, indigenous persons, elderly individuals
2. persons are “ends in themselves”. they have irreducible/intrinsic value, value that cannot be calculated for the sake of some end

Question 34

What does Charles Camosy say about appeals to autonomy in the context of the debate concerning euthanasia/PAS? What does Camosy say about the slippery slope argument?

Answer 34

-that autonomous choices of vulnerable and marginalized persons are structurally coerced
- slippery slope: who is to say what counts as a good reason for euthanasia/ PAS

Question 35

What is In-vitro fertilization (IVF)? What is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)? What are some of the ethical issues that arise in connection with IVF and PGD?

Answer 35

• IVF: a process of fertilization whereby an egg is combine with a sperm in vitro (in glass)
• PGD: genetic screening test that can be created for IVF prior to their implantation in the hose mother (can detect various genetic abnormalities)
• some ethical issues:
  -all the resources, time, money why not just adopt

Question 36

How does genetic screening differ from gene therapy and genetic engineering?

Answer 36

• genetic screening: no alterations to an organism’s genetic material; just determines the prescence/absense of certain genetic abnormalities
• gene therapy: alteration of genetic material with aim of curing or preventing a disease
• genetic engineering: alteration of genetic material with the aim of enhancement

Question 37

What are some ethical concerns associated with gene therapy?

Answer 37

• ethical concerns:
  1. discrimination objection

Question 38

What are the arguments against genetic engineering discussed in “Genetic Modification and Genetic Determinism” by Resnik and Vorhaus? How do Resnik and Vorhaus respond to these arguments?

Answer 38

-freedom argument
-argument from giftedness
- argument form authenticity
-argument from uniqueness

-they respond by saying these arguments are unsuccessful because of genetic determinism