Bioethics Final Exam
Ethical Egoism (not synonymous with selfishness or self-indulgence)
the theory that the morally right action is the one that produces the most favorable balance of good over evil for oneself
Existentialism (Camus: Life is Absurd)
"Existence precedes essence" -there is no human nature that precedes our presence in the world; all humans individually create humanity at every moment through their free acts
PAS vs. Active Euthanasia
-AE, physician would perform action that causes death (injection of life-ending meds) -PAS, the patient performs that action, using means or info provided by physician
Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia
-Argument from Nature -Argument from Self-Interest -Arguments from Practical Effect
Beckwith Article
-Bioethics refers to fetus as "potential person" -Giubilini/Minerva: abortion is morally permissible -it is morally permissible to kill fetuses because they are potential persons, not actual persons; persons can make aims/appreciate their own life
Plato: The Ring of Gyges (The Republic) - Ethics and Egoism
-Glaucon's story is meant to show that all people believe in their hearts that injustice is more profitable than justice -Glaucon argues that the unjust life is better than the just life -Socrates says that we should choose the life of the "unsuccessful" just person because it is to our advantage to be moral
Morality of suicide
-Kantian POV: suicide is irrational and immoral/ultimate misuse of one's own humanity/perfect duty to oneself is to continue and cultivate oneself -Utilitarian POV: suicide may be rational and moral in some individual cases, under appropriate circumstances, where existence = greater harm than death, consider all affected parties
Rand: In Defense of Ethical Egoism (Atlas Shrugged)
-Selfishness is a virtue -Under morality of sacrifice, the first value you sacrifice is morality; the next is self-esteem -The achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life -Her work set forth a form of ethical egoism called objectivism (proper life for rational beings is the pursuit of their happiness; altruism and self sacrifice are incompatible with rational morality) -your life belongs to you and the good is to live it -Man's mind is the basic tool for survival -Reason is your means to survival -value: standard, purpose, and action in the face of an alternative/where there are no alternatives, no values are possible -one fundamental alternative: existence or non-existence (pertains only to living organisms) -man's life is its standard of value - proper to life = good & destroys life = evil -man's life, as required by his nature, is a life by means of achievement -the purpose of morality is to enjoy yourself and live -happiness = proof of moral integrity -pride = sum of all virtues
Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream
-Speech was a call for justice, freedom, brotherhood -call for nonviolence resistance -unearned suffering was not pointless
The Idea of Rights (Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights)
-the idea of rights does not apply to animals since "rights" is a concept appropriate only to members of the moral community and animals cannot make moral decisions -humans are of far greater value than animals, and the result of not using animals for medical experimentation would be greater human suffering
autonomy
-a person's rational capacity for self-governance or self-determination; the ability to direct one's own life and choose for oneself -in all major ethical systems autonomy is revered/admired
Physician Assisted Suicide/Dying
-aid in dying -intentional termination of one's life by active means, with assistance of physician who provides information, means of death, or both
Singer: Animal Liberation - All Animals are Equal
-argues that animal liberation today is analogous to the radical and gender injustice in the past -just as people once thought it incredible that women or blacks should be treated as equal to white men, so now speciesists mock the idea that all animals should be given equal consideration
Two contrary beliefs (Camus: Life is Absurd)
-belief in the meaning of life implies a scale of values, a choice, our preferences -belief in the absurd teaches the contrary (substituting quantity of experience for quality; what counts is not the best of living, but the most of living) -it's up to us to be aware of one's life
Criteria for Personhood (Warren: Abortion is Morally Permissible)
-consciousness: conscious of objects and events...capacity to feel pain -reasoning: the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems -self-motivated activity: activity which is relatively independent of either genetic or direct external control -capacity to communicate: messages of an indefinite variety of types -self-awareness
Epicurus: Hedonism - Death
-death is nothing to us -for all good and evil consists in sensation, but death is deprivation of sensation -a right understanding that death is nothing to us: makes morality of life enjoyable/takes away the craving for immorality -empty pain = anticipation of death -when we exist, death is not with us, but when death comes, then we do not exist -the aim of a blessed life is the soul's freedom from disturbance -the standard by which we judge every good is pleasure -excessive drinking, reveling, and luxurious eating cannot produce a pleasant life -death is nothing to us, because as long as we exist death is not with us, but when death comes then we do not exist -it is not possible to live pleasantly without living virtuously
Key points of Beckwith
-fetus is not a potential person because not a being with personal nature: capacity for personal expression, rational thought, moral agency -embryos are persons with potential
Racism & Sexism (Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights)
-he argues that racism and sexism have no rational ground whatever -but there is an enormous moral difference between humans and nonhuman animals -humans: engage in moral reflection, are morally autonomous, members of moral communities etc.
Warren: Abortion is Morally Permissible
-how are we to define the moral community, the set of beings with full and equal moral rights, such that we can decide whether a human fetus is a member of the community or not
Pojman: Religion Gives Life Meaning (and is purpose/basis of morality)
-if theism is true and there is a benevolent sovereign of the universe, we have an answer to the problem of why be moral: evil is bad for you and good is good for you -if theism is true, we should live as theism is true -the argument that we cannot have autonomy and purpose in life presents a false dilemma -Atheist holds two theses: 1. more important to be free/autonomous than have grand meaning/purpose in life; 2. religion provides a grand/meaning/purpose of life, but it does not allow humans to be free or autonomous
Rachels: Active and Passive Euthanasia
-it is not correct to say that in Passive Euthanasia the doctor does nothing (he does one very important thing: lets the patient die) -proposes that AE should be accepted as morally legitimate (bc there is no morally significant distinction between AE and PE) -there is no morally significant difference between killing and letting die -to doctors: don't write the traditional distinction between active and passive euthanasia into official statements of medical ethics
Suffering (Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia)
-natural part of life -euthanasia is not just an easeful death, but also wrongful death -active euthanasia is inherently wrong because the action conflicts with natural law -the practice will lead to widespread abuse
Negative and positive rights (Thomson: A Defense of Abortion)
-negative rights outweighs positive rights because right not to be harmed has more moral right than right to be benefitted -pregnant woman: negative right not to take on risk -fetus' positive rights violate the woman's negative rights
Right to life (Thomson: A Defense of Abortion)
-not right not to be killed, but rather right not to be killed unjustly -unborn person has right to mother's body only if pregnancy resulted from voluntary act, with full knowledge of chance of pregnancy -you may detach yourself if it saves your life and costs fetus its life
Key points of Singer: Animal Liberation - All Animals are Equal
-our present attitudes toward animals are based on a long history of prejudice and arbitrary discrimination -the basic principle of equality requires equal consideration of interests -the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration is the capacity for suffering -the principle of equality requires that a being's suffering be considered equally with the like suffering of any other being -perhaps the clearest indication of our speciesism is the suffering we inflict on animals in captivity -we cannot distinguish between animals and humans by appeals to "the intrinsic dignity of human beings"
Rights are Necessarily Human (Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights)
-right: it is a claim, or potential claim, that one party may exercise against another -the possessors of rights are persons; human beings -human beings are self-legislative, and morally autonomous (*Kant)
Camus: Life is Absurd
-suicide: one truly serious philosophical problem -the meaning of the life is the most urgent of questions -concerned with relationship between individual thought and suicide -killing yourself amounts to confessing (absence of any reason for living and uselessness of suffering) -the feeling of absurdity is the divorce between man and his life (his exile is without remedy) -connection between feeling of absurdity is the divorce between man and his life (his exile is without remedy) -the daily routine...one day it's all questioned..."why?"
Key points of Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
-the "famous violinist" has no right, in many cases to the woman's body -unborn persons whose existence is due to rape have no right to use their mother's body -this woman does not automatically have a special relationship to the fetus
Key points of Marquis: Why Abortion is Immoral
-the anti-abortion principle "it is prima facie seriously wrong to kill a human being" is ambiguous -the pro-choice notion of personhood is problematic because there is no good reason to think that psychological characteristics should make a moral difference -what makes killing wrong is the loss of the victims future -his view entails that it is prima facie seriously wrong to kill children and infants
Marquis: Why Abortion is Immoral
-the assumption: the moral permissibility of abortion "stands or falls on whether or not a fetus is the sort of being whose life it is seriously wrong to end" -anti-abortionist's favored principle is too broad -pro-choicer principle is too narrow -it is wrong to kill because: loss of his/her future -this applies to fetuses - abortion is seriously morally wrong -contraception is not immoral
Warren argument's against fetus right to life
-the more like a person a being is --> the stronger is the case for regarding it as having a right to life/stronger its right to life is -a fetus (even fully developed) is considerably less personlike than the average mature mammal (even the average fish) -conclusion: a fetus's resemblance to person/it's potential for becoming a person doesn't mean that it has any significant right to life
Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand
-the paradox of egoism is that to reach the goal of egoism, one must give up egoism and become an altruist -Rand's argument for the virtue of selfishness seems flawed by the fallacy of false dilemma -Ethical Egoism is a false dilemma because it assumes absolute altruism and absolute egoism are the only alternatives (Pojman believes there are more)
Key points of Brock: Voluntary Active Euthanasia
-the possible good consequences of establishing a public policy of permitting voluntary active euthanasia outweigh the bad -the distinction between killing and allowing to die is confused
Key points of Camus: Life is Absurd
-the question of the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions -the sense of the absence of a profound reason for living is the feeling of absurdity -being aware of one's life and one's freedom is living to the maximum
3 different modes of volition and Euthanasia
-voluntary euthanasia: active or passive, performed at the patient's informed request or consent, in accordance with his or her will (own volition) -nonvoluntary euthanasia: active or passive, performed upon a patient who lacks competency to direct her own treatment -involuntary euthanasia: active or passive, performed against the competent patient's will or without his/her permission **euthanasia is performed on an incompetent patient, in accordance with an advanced directive
4 Varieties of Euthanasia
-voluntary passive euthanasia (morally/ethically legitimate in US) -nonvoluntary passive euthanasia (morally/ethically legit in US if decision in best interest of patient) -voluntary active euthanasia (Brock) -nonvoluntary active euthanasia
Key points of Warren: Abortion is Morally Permissible
-we must distinguish between two sense of human being; human in genetic sense and human in the moral sense -we have no right to assume that genetic humanity is necessary for personhood -the traits most central to the concept of personhood include consciousness, reasoning, and self-self-awarenesss -any being that satisfied none of the designated criteria is certainly not a person -the concept of a person (as defined) is very nearly universal -the potentiality of a fetus is not sufficient to show that it is a person
Key points of Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights
-whatever else rights may be, they are necessarily human -because animals are not beings capable of exercising or responding to moral claims, they therefore have no rights -animals are not members of a moral community -on utilitarian grounds, to refrain from using animals in biomedical research while continuing to eat them -animals ought not to be made to suffer needlessly -absurd consequences would follow from embracing a strong position on animal rights
Noble 8 Fold Path
1. Right Views 2. Right motive 3. Right speech 4. Right action 5. Right livelihood 6. Right effort 7. Right mindfulness 8. Right contemplation -the Buddha says that pain in all its forms is caused by craving/desire
4 Criticisms to Pojman
1. The Inconsistent Outcomes Argument: incompatible outcomes and not provided a way of adjudicating conflicts of desire 2. The Publicity Argument: self-defeating according to Pojman 3. Paradox of Egoism: in order to reach egoism, one must give up egoism and become altruist 4. The Argument for Counterintuitive Consequences
2 Arguments Against Brock (Voluntary Active Euthanasia)
1. against "euthanasia is the deliberate killing of an innocent person" -the right not to be killed should be waivable when the person makes a competent decision that continued life is no longer wanted or a good, but instead worse than no further life at all 2. "in some individual cases euthanasia may not be ethically wrong, but nonetheless, public and legal policy should never permit it" -would the bad consequences outweigh the good? the good - if euthanasia were permitted, it would be possible to respect SD the bad - it is incompatible with a doctor's commitment as healers to protect patients/slipper slope (the more important moral divide is between voluntary/nonvoluntary performance)
Pojman's 2 criticisms of atheist theses
1. it makes autonomy into an unjustified absolute 2. it creates a false dilemma
Theistic Religion and 8 Theses (Pojman)
1. satisfying explanation of the origin of the universe 2. good will win out over evil 3. God loves/cares for us 4. why be moral? because good is good! 5. cosmic justice reigns the universe 6. all persons equal worth 7. grace/forgiveness 8. there is life after death
Abortion (Essay)
3 Reasons Morally permissible: (Warren arguments) 1.) Fetus' are not yet a developed person (so doesn't have right to life/it's potential for being a person doesn't back up claim for significant right to life) 2.) A woman's right to have control over her own human body outweighs the any right of a POTENTIAL human being 3.) A fetus is not a human being in a moral sense 3 Reasons Not Morally permissible: 1.) If killing fetuses is permissible (bc they aren't full-fledged members of the moral community), then by the same standard, killing newborns would be permissible as well (which is clearly very wrong) 2.) In addition, killing any non-human animal would also be permissible (which is obviously not the case) 3.) Fetus is capable of experiencing pain somewhere between 5-6 months (research has suggested) Conclusion on why it isn't clear whether or not it is morally permissible (based on notes): 1.) comes down to an analysis of the wrongfulness of killing (if we believe, but don't understand, why killing adult human beings is wrong -- there is no way that we can show whether or not abortion is either immoral or permissible) 2.) also must think about standards of what it means to be a person/have right to life/natural life (there is no definition or set criteria -- which is why this becomes controversial) 3.) we will never come to a complete agreement or decision on major issues like this (similar to controversial issues such as killing animals, animal rights, etc.)
Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha: The Four Noble Truths
4 Noble Truths: 1. life is suffering 2. suffering involved a chain of causes 3. suffering can cease 4. there is a path to such cessation (8 stages lead to Nirvana: liberation from suffering)
Beckwith and potential persons
Beckwith disagrees with this definition of potential persons potential = potential to acquire an accidental property unessential to my nature
Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights
Cohen addresses the morality of animal experimentation and argues that while human beings have a duty to treat animals humanely, animals cannot have rights
Debate: Voluntary active euthanasia defensible? Morally preferable?
For active euthanasia: -humanitarian grounds: AE -merciful/humane approach to relieving patient suffering, vs. letting-die -appeal to patient autonomy: honoring a competent patient's request for AE, in view of patient's suffering, respect for autonomy Against Active Euthanasia: -AE is murder of an innocent person and inherently wrong -AE lies well outside the scope of physician's professional role/purposes/responsibilities Social policy allowing voluntary AE bad consequences: -slippery slope to non voluntary or involuntary AW -devaluation of human life
Arguments from Practical Effect (Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia)
P1 - all cases of euthanasia are cases that could have a corrupting influence on doctors and nurses P2 - all cases that could have a corrupting influence on doctors and nurses are morally wrong C - thus, all cases of euthanasia are morally wrong -euthanasia as a practice could have a corrupting influence so that in any case that it is severe, doctors and nurses might not try hard enough to save the patient -they could decide that the patient would be "better of dead" and this could result in an overall decline in the quality of medical care
Argument from Nature (Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia)
P1 - all euthanasia is acting against our human nature P2 - all acting against out human nature is a denial of our human dignity P3 - all denial of our human dignity is morally wrong C - thus, all euthanasia is morally wrong -our dignity comes from seeking our ends -euthanasia denies our basic human character and requires that we regard ourselves or others as something less than fully human
Argument from Self-Interest (Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia)
P1 - all euthanasia is action containing the possibility that we will work against our own interests P2 -all action containing the possibility that we will work against our own interests is morally wrong C- thus, all euthanasia is morally wrong -knowing that we can take our life at any time might incline us to give up too easily -if we see our sickness and suffering as an emotional and financial burden on our family, we may feel that our life is to make their lives easier -the possibility of euthanasia may keep us from surviving when we might
"Human" has 2 Meanings (Warren: Abortion is Morally Permissible)
P1. It is wrong to kill innocent human beings P2. Fetuses are innocent human beings C. Thus, it is wrong to kill fetuses -Warren thinks term "Human" is being used equivocally in P1 and P2. In P1, it is used in the moral sense, and in P2 it is used in the generic sense. Thus, the conclusion does not follow.
Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
Thomson's 2 qualifications: 1. she argues that abortion is generally permissible, not that it is always permissible 2. she argues that, although it is permissible to detach oneself from the fetus through abortion, it is not permissible to guarantee the death of a baby once it's born (infanticide)
Brock: Voluntary Active Euthanasia
Two moral principles (that support the consensus on patient's rights to decide about life-sustaining treatment also support the ethical permissibility of euthanasia) 1. individual self-determination (or autonomy): it is a person's interest in making important decision about their own lives for themselves in accordance to one;s own values and/or conceptions of the good life 2. individual well-being: life is commonly taken to be a central good, but when it is no longer considered a benefit by the patient, but now has become a burden
Active euthanasia
agent (oneself or another) provides effective treatment to cause and hasten death
Passive euthanasia
agent refuses/withdraws/withholds life - sustaining treatment and allows patient to die by "letting nature take its course" *either form of euthanasia intentionally accelerates death
Euthanasia defined (Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia)
an essential aspect of euthanasia is that it involved taking a human life, either one's own or that of another -the person who life is taken must be someone who is believed to be suffering from some disease or injury from which recovery cannot reasonably be expected -the act must be intentional and deliberate
Sacco v. Quill
ban on physician-assisted suicide was constitutional
Universal Ethical Egoism
everyone ought to always serve his or her own self interest (For Rand, Ethical Egoism is the correct moral theory)
metaphysical freedom
freedom of will, the capacity of a person to act freely
Slippery Slope (Gay-Williams: The wrongfulness of Euthanasia)
if the judgments of others becomes the ruling factor, then euthanasia is not personal and voluntary (could act on the behalf of others)
Suicide
intentional termination of one's own life, for the sake of ending that life
Washington vs. Glucksberg
supreme court unanimously held that a right to assistance in committing suicide was not included in the "liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause
Speciesism (Singer: Animal Liberation - All Animals are Equal)
the prejudice that favors one's own species over every other -what equalizes all sentient beings is our ability to suffer -in that, we and animals are equal and deserving of equal consideration of interests -Singer's argument is a utilitarian one, having as its goal the maximization of interest satisfaction
causal determinism
the theory that everything in the universe is entirely determined by causal laws; whatever happens at any given moment is the effect of some antecedent cause
political or social freedom
the unfettered exercise of personal liberty in political or social systems -for causal determinism, many argue that we do not have metaphysical freedom (that is, free will) -libertarians assert that we do have free will, that there are some actions in which the individual is the sole or decisive cause -compatibilists, or soft determinists, hold that although everything is determined, we can still be free as long as we act voluntarily
psychological egoism
the view that the motive for all our actions is self-interest
Giubilini/Minerva
you are the same being as your fetal self and your potential to exercise certain personal powers are not accidental to your nature
