Exam 1 Flashcards
4 Steps (A’s) to solving ethical dilemmas
- Aquire facts
- Alternatives
- Assessment
- Action
Utilitarianism
An action is considered moral if it produces the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people (and non-humans).
All creatures have interests and their interests count equally (Singer, Mills, Bentham)
Moral Agency
Humans are members of a moral community; understand this and have moral obligations to each other. Animals do not understand this, therefore, we have no moral obligation to them as they are not part of the community
Problems (Children, mentally disabled)
Social Contract Theory
Moral rights protected by contract (made by those with moral authority)
protects interests of the contractors.
Duty Ethics (Kant)
Similar to social contract theory
animals can’t be harmed/destroyed as it effects the owners
animal cruelty= human cruelty
Speciesim
Placing humans above all other species
Animals do not get moral consideration
Ranks species (dog/cat > cow/frog); dangerous to generalize about species. Diff species superior in diff tasks.
Three R’s of Animal testing
- Reduce
- Replacement
- Refinement
Stem cells potential uses
- cell based therapies
- therapeutic cloning.
- Gene therapy
- Cancer research
- Basic research
2 types of stem cells
- Embryonic stem cells
2. Adult stem cells
Source of Embryonic stem cells
Blastocyst (3-5 day embryo)
How are stem cells harvested (2 main points)
- taken from 4-5 day old blastocyst
2. Taken from the inner cell membrane of the blastocyst
2 unique characteristics of stem cells
- can regenerate
2. can specialize (unspecialized)
3 major patent requirements
- Novelty
- Utility
- Non obviousness
What can you not patent
- laws of nature
- natural phenomena
- abstract ideas
Horse Adrenaline patent
Patented because it was purified and isolated and became new commercially and therapeutically therefore patentable
