Bio-Medical Ethics Midterm Review

True or False: Both the moral theories of cultural relativism and utilitarianism postulate that the same moral rules hold true for all cultures.

False

True or False: It is important to be familiar with the time line of fetal development in order to discuss possible points at which the fetus becomes a person (e.g., first movement, nervous system development, viability).

True

Warren argues that since the fetus meets none of the criteria for being a person, abortion is therefore always morally permissible. What is Warren assuming in making this argument?

Whether the fetus is a person is in fact relevant to the question of the morality of abortion

The aim of a moral theory is to specify what?

What makes an action right (or wrong).

True or False: "If fetuses have immaterial souls, then this implies that fetuses are persons. But fetuses don't have immaterial souls, so fetuses are not persons."

False

Which statement best completes the following claim: According to the Humanity formulation of the Categorical Imperative, a right action consists of treating other persons...

...as if they are autonomous beings, that is, ends-in-themselves.

True or False: According to Tooley's view, in order for an entity to have a right to not be tortured, the entity needs to have a self-concept.

False

Tooley argues for...

...distinguishing between "human being" and "person".

True or False: According to Utilitarianism, whether an action is right or wrong depends entirely on how much happiness it produces for those people that believe Utilitarianism is correct.

False

The main point of the Famous Violinist case, as related to abortion, is to show that...

...although it would be nice if you did not abort, the fetus has no right against you to remain pregnant, therefore you are permitted to abort.

According to the selection you read from Kant, what is the only intrinsically good thing in the world?

A Good Will

Suppose you form a maxim and imagine everyone acting on it. According to the Universal Law formulation of the Categorical Imperative, which outcome of universalizing the maxim requires one to reject the maxim?

A contradiction in will. and A contradiction in conception.

Which statement correctly identifies an implication of Cultural Relativism? (Suppose that Cultural Relativism is the true moral theory.)

A single culture's moral beliefs about some action, A, can vary over time—holding that A is permissible at one time and that A is impermissible at a later time—and yet their beliefs about A are always true.

What is a slippery slope argument? How should one respond to a slippery slope argument?

A slippery slope argument claims that an initial action, A, will lead to a series of intermediate consequences (which may be non-objectionable) --- B, C, etc. --- which will ultimately result in some disastrous or morally objectionable consequence, D. Therefore, do not allow A. For example, allowing one nation to remain communist (North Vietnam) will eventually lead to neighboring nations becoming communist, and ultimately all nations (or an unacceptable number) will become communist. One should respond to a slippery slope argument by trying to show that the slide towards D will not occur (because, for example, B and C can be prevented).

Why is it important to Kant that consequences are not included as part of the justification for an action's moral worth?

According to Kant's view (deontology), agents are required to do their moral duties regardless of the consequences of their actions. Consequences do not matter morally on Kant's theory for a number of reasons. Agents cannot always control the consequences of actions. Also, sometimes the consequences of actions are undesirable or morally repugnant (e.g., consequentialism can theoretically permit sacrificing a person to save others' lives). At a fundamental level, consequentialism holds that pleasure (or some other type of good) is intrinsically valuable, not persons as per Kant's theory.

Suppose a competent, well-informed patient voluntarily states her request to die. She suffers from a malignant liver tumor with a very low probability of recovery, and she's likely to die painfully over the next two months. Identify how a Utilitarian would analyze whether the patient's request should be honored.

Assuming no family members and none of the medical staff are negatively affected, and the patient would have greater overall happiness (due to negating the pain that would occur if the request were not honored), the patient's request should be honored.

Why is it the case that the moral theories of Utilitarianism, and Cultural Relativism, cannot simultaneously be true?

Because Utilitarianism is a universal theory, whereas Cultural Relativism is a relativist theory.

Why, or how, does the Valuable Future Theory not rely on the concept of a person?

Because it holds that some entity could, in principle, have a valuable future even though it is not a person.

Is the following question primarily a question regarding metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics? "How can we be justified that our perceptions match or correspond to real events and objects?"

Epistemology

Ethics, as one of the main branches of Philosophy, overlaps with questions from what other branches of Philosophy?

Epistemology and Metaphysics

Suppose every competent, conscious patient with a fatal disease has the moral right to end their life-sustaining treatment (that is, they have the right to refuse further medicines or technologies that keep them alive). Suppose further that there is no moral distinction between killing and letting die (that is, suppose that Rachels is right). Given these suppositions, which of the following statements is most accurate? (Ignore the role of the physician in this question: just focus on the rights of the patient.)

Every competent, conscious patient, besides the moral right to end life-sustaining treatment, also has a moral right to active euthanasia.

True or False: Marquis' strategy in arguing that abortion is immoral is to identify the particular feature of fetuses that makes it wrong to kill them, whether or not this particular feature is what makes killing adults and children wrong.

False

True or False: One rival theory about the wrongness of killing that Marquis explicitly discusses and rejects in defending his Valuable Future Theory, is the Utilitarian-based theory that killing does not maximize happiness.

False

True or False: The argument below is valid. (P1) If embryos are sentient, then they have moral rights. (P2) Embryos do have moral rights. (C1) Hence, embryos are sentient.

False

True or False: The conclusion of a valid argument, when its premises are in fact true, is likely to be true, but not guaranteed to be true.

False

True or False: The official position of the American Medical Association regarding physician-assisted suicide is consistent with (that is, compatible with) the state of Oregon's position on this issue as specified in its Death with Dignity Act?

False

True or False: Warren argues that since fetuses have the potential to possess some of the five criteria she claims are important for being a person, abortion is not morally permissible.

False

True or False: Whereas Mill's Utilitarian moral theory contends that only the the consequences or results matter in assessing the rightness of actions, Kant's moral theory contends that both the intentions (that is, the reasons or the maxims) and the consequences for the well-being of humanity matter in assessing the rightness of actions.

False

What is the only intrinsically good thing, according to Utilitarianism?

Happiness (pleasure)

Suppose that someone objects to Utilitarianism by arguing that it is too degrading to humans, because it allows, in principle, that a pig's life could possibly contain more happiness than a human's life. Which of the following best captures the essence of Mill's response to this objection?

Humans, unlike pigs or other non-human animals, are capable of a higher, intellectual type of pleasure.

Suppose someone argues that since adults are persons now they must have also been persons when they were fetuses, and since it is wrong to kill a person, it would be wrong to kill a fetus. What is the most problematic feature of this argument?

It assumes that individual entities do not change from one kind of thing to another kind of thing over time.

According to the "human fetus argument' for the conservative view on abortion, the fact that a fetus is genetically human implies that the fetus has a right to life and therefore abortion should not be done. What assumption does this argument make that makes it ineffective in establishing its conclusion?

It assumes that the fetus having human genetics implies that it is a human person.

Tooley suggests that infanticide is important to discuss when thinking about the morality of abortion. Why?

It forces one to specify, even more so than when considering abortion, the exact nature of persons.

Consider this argument: "If Darwin is right that evolution by natural selection occurs, then all species are the product of natural forces. Darwin is right that evolution by natural selection occurs. Therefore, all species are the product of natural forces." Which statement best describes the above argument?

It is a valid argument.

Which statement best captures the type of course that is Bio-Medical Ethics?

It is primarily an applied ethics course.

Why is logic important to bioethics?

Logic is important to bioethics for a number of reasons. For instance: 1. Logic helps us form valid arguments about bioethical topics, so that we know the conclusion of an argument is true if the premises are true. 2. Logic helps us evaluate our own and others' ethical arguments, e.g., by helping us spot fallacies. 3. Logic helps us organize our ideas into coherent, convincing formats. 4. As mathematical rules are to numerical reasoning, logical rules are to verbal reasoning. 5. Progress in bioethics depends on exploring new ideas, and logic helps us do so in a more rigorous and dependable way.

One of the physicians interviewed in the last two chapters of the documentary, "Living Old," argues that the longer we can keep people alive (particularly older people) due to technological advancements, the greater the chances of creating a 'medical catastrophe'. Given that such a catastrophe for the patient is harmful in some way, would Utilitarianism necessarily imply we should we avoid keeping people alive longer in such cases?

No, it depends on the total consequences for everyone concerned.

According to the Moral Symmetry Principle (as advanced by Tooley) which of the following is most accurate? (Let A be an action that can start C, where C is a causal process that will lead to an entity, E, with a serious right to life; B is an action that can stop C, once C has started, thus preventing E from coming into existence.)

Not doing A, and doing B, are morally equivalent provided that the intentions are the same for both actions.

The Universal Law formulation of the Categorical Imperative states that:

One should act only on those maxims that one can will to become universal laws.

Which of the following statements accurately describe a consequence or implication of cultural relativism?

Over time, contradictions can arise in the beliefs of a single culture. and Any contradictory beliefs between different cultures are equally true

Which statement best characterizes English's graded view of the moral justification of abortion?

Sometimes late-term abortions are justifiable, and sometimes early-term abortions are justifiable.

In the documentary, "Living Old," it is suggest by some individuals that they wish to have the right to end their life by voluntary active euthanasia. One physician states he does not know if he would ever exercise this right, but that he definitely wants it available. Which moral principle below most directly and explicitly supports the idea that people have a moral right to voluntary active euthanasia (or, for that matter, physician-assisted suicide)?

The harm principle.

Kant argues, in the assigned selection, that if a person "destroys himself in order to escape from painful circumstances, he uses a person merely as a means to maintain a tolerable condition up to the end of life. But a man is not a thing, that is to say, something which can be used merely as a means, but must in all his actions be always considered an end in himself." True or False: In the above passage, Kant is arguing that it is morally wrong to commit suicide.

True

Suppose someone argued (i) that there must be a precise cut-off point for when the fetus is a person or not, but since (ii) infants are in fact persons (as such, the fetus will certainly become a person when it becomes an infant), but (iii) we cannot say when the fetus is NOT a person, we should conclude that fetuses are persons from the moment of conception. True or False: In response to the argument above, Jane English would contend that person-hood is vague and complex, and gradually develops over time.

True

Suppose that one objects to the Moral Symmetry Principle by saying that positive duties are more important than negative duties. True or false: Tooley responds to this objection by emphasizing that when motives/intentions are the same in two actions, then there is no difference between them even though in one you do something positive while in the other you refrain from doing something. [You can assume the results of the two actions are the same too.]

True

True or False: According to Utilitarianism, all pleasures and pains should be counted up in determining what action is right, regardless of the kind or type of entity that is experiencing the pleasure/pain.

True

True or False: In arguing against the traditional view (which holds that killing is morally impermissible but letting die is sometimes morally permissible), Rachels claims that, if we assume there is a moral distinction between killing and letting die, it can lead to medical decisions that result in more total suffering by the patient than is necessary.

True

True or False: Supposing that Cultural Relativism is true, if the people of a specific culture, C, believe that euthanasia is morally permissible, then that is a moral truth for people in C regardless of what other cultures believe about the morality of euthanasia.

True

True or False: The point of Thomson's hypothetical story of a child growing without limit in your house, in which you have no escape so that the child will eventually crush you to death, is to demonstrate that you have a right to defend your life (i.e., kill the child) even if others (third parties) aren't allowed to help you.

True

True or False: The valuable future theory, as discussed by Marquis, does not exclude the possibility that some non-human animals may also have valuable futures that give them rights.

True

True or False: What is wrong with lying, according to Kant's moral theory, is that when you form the maxim that permits you to tell a lie, you are willing that there exists a universal law that is inherently contradictory: you are holding, essentially, that it is okay to attempt to deceive the person you lie to, while also holding that it is impossible for you to deceive the person you are lying to.

True

Which of the following are reasons why someone who accepts Kant's moral theory would disagree with Utilitaranianism?

Utilitarianism allows pleasure obtained from morally questionable actions to count towards the good. Because Utilitarianism is an agent-neutral theory, it does not consider the intentions of the person doing an action to be relevant to whether the action is right or wrong. Since one cannot control all of the consequences of an action, Utilitarianism unfairly makes people responsible for things that are sometimes ultimately out of their control.

Which two actions listed below do the values of Self-Determination and Individual Well-Being support as morally permissible, as discussed and argued by Dan Brock?

Voluntary active euthanasia and voluntary ending of life-sustaining treatment.

Assume the Harm Principle is true. What does the Harm Principle imply about your actions?

Your self-regarding actions are protected from interference by society. Your other-regarding actions may be regulated by society to protect others from harm.