Ethics Quiz Questions for Final
Cullen and Klein argue that doctors have a responsibility to tell their patients the truth about their condition and treatment options. Human beings are rational agents. Given our capacity to deliberate and choose fur actions for ourselves according to our own values, others owe us the truth so that our decisions are fully and accurately informed.
true
Which option describes an informative approach to the doctor-patient relationship? A. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. She takes time to ensure that her patient understands to the best of his ability what is wrong with him, what each treatment option is, what improvement can reasonably be expected from each treatment, and what each treatment will cost in terms of money, recovery time, potential side effects, etc. Once the patient is aware of all such considerations, the doctor trusts the patient to make the treatment decision for himself. B. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. Accordingly, she prescribes the appropriate medications and tells the patient to schedule the appropriate followup appointments for the relevant tests and procedures. The patient is expected to recognize the doctor's expertise and follow his instructions. C. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. She completely informs her patient regarding his condition, his treatment options, and the cost and benefit of each. She knows, however, that her patient prefers conservative approaches. Since her expert opinion is that it would be a mistake not to intervene with the most aggressive treatment in the early stages of the illness, she respectfully seeks to persuade her patient to opt for such an approach. If in the end he is not moved by her case, she respects his autonomy and implements his preferred course of treatment. D. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. Some are aggressive, some conservative. The most promising treatments will require significant recovery time; less promising but still beneficial treatments avoid any such recovery period. The doctor takes time not only to explain these options, but also to help the patient work through how her desire for health fits in with other life values such as the importance of minimizing time missed at work and the ability to remain physically active in home and family life.
A
Which option presents an Virtue Ethical perspective? A. One should generally avoid lying and instead should work to become an honest person. Honesty in a human being is most conducive to ones flourishing and is truest to its nature as a being capable of knowledge and understanding. B. One should not, in general, lie. Experience seems to indicate that the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people comes about when everyone behaves according to that old saw, "honesty is the best policy. C. Lying cannot be justified under any circumstances. In a world where everyone lied, communication itself would break down it wouldn't be a world where I could coherently expect someone to believe a falsehood on the basis of my word alone in the first place. D. Given circumstances where lying will benefit me and I can predict with a high degree of certainty that I will not be caught and so will not suffer any negative consequences, I should lie. E. Given circumstances where lying will benefit many people, will come at a minor cost for only one person, but will not cause any long-term trust issues or have other drawbacks, I should lie.
A
Through eudaimonia must usually be attained through the exercise of virtue, a vicious person might also attain eudaimonia if she is lucky enough to have an enjoyable life that always avoids the usual negative consequences of behavior like hers
False
While she believes that suicide should generally be forbidden, Johnson contends that suicide is permissible for the severely ill and disabled so long as we make sure that their decision to commit suicide is informed and autonomous.
False
The defining difference between Utilitarianism and Egoism is that Utilitarianism seeks to maximize happiness for the greatest number while Egoism seeks to maximize pleasure for the greatest number.
False`
Virtue ethics focuses more on questions concerning what it is to be a good person than it does questions concerning what features of an action make it right or wrong
True
Act Utilitarianism is often criticized on the grounds that it is too demanding in many ways, for example, by demanding too much of our time to be a realistically livable ethic. The introduction of rules by Rule Utilitarianism provides theoretical tools capable of solving this problem. Which of the following accurately portrays that rationale? A. Rule Utilitarianism is only obligated to adopt rules that have divine authority, and so it recognizes that only a tithe (10 percent) of our time is required to be dedicated to promoting the greatest good for the greatest number. B. Human beings need leisure time to maintain physical and mental health, so the greatest good for the greatest number is best achieved if we introduce a rule allowing individuals a reasonable amount of time to take care of themselves. C. The only basis for a rule allowing us to have time to ourselves is purely self-centered and has no conceivable benefit to others, so it is a mistake for Rule Utilitarianism to deviate from Act Utilitarianism on this matter. D. Human beings do not like having to spend much time thinking of others, so the only realistic thing for a moral theory to do is to introduce a rule allowing individuals to put themselves first.
B
Johnson contends that Singer's conclusion that infanticide in the case of a severely disabled child is justifiable is wrong. She admits, however, and is even impressed by the consistency (a "terrible consistency") his philosophy manifests. Johnson argues the immoral conclusion he reaches through admittedly consistent argumentation can be traced back to one fundamental assumption--one that is objectionable, but that many ordinary people share. What is that assumption? A. That severely disabled babies are very unlikely to be adopted. B. That persons with severe disabilities are "worse off" and have a significantly lower quality of life. C. That the event of birth is arbitrary and so does not alter the morality of killing the child. D. That our goal in deciding what to do ought to be to eliminate as much suffering as possible.
B
Regarding Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion," if we have the intuitions she expects, what is the main takeaway from her central violinist thought experiment? A. Sometimes circumstances beyond our control--like being kidnapped--can still impose obligations on us. B. That there are circumstances under which it is not wrong to take the life of an innocent person. C. That the value of the life in question (the violinist's; the unborn's) overrides any concerns about consent to the use of one's body. D. It's no bigs. No one likes violinists anyway. Just off the guy and go have a beer.
B
Thomson allows that there may be some pregnancies where the unborn does have a just claim to the use of the mother's body for nine months. One clear candidate for such a pregnancy would be one where the very point of the sexual activity responsible for conception was to begin a family. Which of the following states the decisive factor for the unborn claim? A. The mother's sexual activity was voluntary and consensual. B. The mother's explicit intention to begin a family indicated her consent to the unborn right to use her body. C. The mother bears a special biological relation to the unborn, and so has a special responsibility for it. D. The mother did not use contraception during the relevant sexual encounter.
B
Which of the following claims states the central thesis of Kass' argument against the permissibility of genetic selective abortion? A. If we accept genetic selective abortion, we will inevitably repeat the mistakes of Nazi Germany in the future. B. The harm done to disabled individuals and to society at large would be worse than the harm done by the disability itself. C. Abortion is always immoral and remains so even in cases where the unborn is discovered to have a genetic defect. D. The long-term effects of meddling in natural genetic processes is unpredictable and potentially dangerous.
B
Which of the following would Marquis say concerning a case where a person is terminally ill and the remainder of her life will involve a lot of suffering? A. Such a person whose future is sure to involve more suffering than good should be euthanized. It would be unjust to those who still have valuable futures ahead of them to waste medical resources on those with hopeless futures when those resources could be used to greater benefit. B. Since this person's future is one that is sure to involve more suffering than good, she lacks a valuable future like ours in the relevant sense. Euthanasia, then, is a permissible option since she does not possess the property that makes killing wrong. C. Insofar as she is a person and still living, she still has a future like ours. This is sufficient to make killing her wrong. The length, content, and quality of her future is not relevant to the rightness or wrongness of denying her that future. D. Though we cannot presently say with confidence that she has a future like ours, the rapid advance of medical research makes the possibility of discovering a treatment or cure so promising that it would morally irresponsible (and so wrong) to kill her.
B
Which option describes a paternalistic approach to the doctor-patient relationship? A. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. She takes time to ensure that her patient understands to the best of his ability what is wrong with him, what each treatment option is, what improvement can reasonably be expected from each treatment, and what each treatment will cost in terms of money, recovery time, potential side effects, etc. Once the patient is aware of all such considerations, the doctor trusts the patient to make the treatment decision for himself. B. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. Accordingly, she prescribes the appropriate medications and tells the patient to schedule the appropriate followup appointments for the relevant tests and procedures. The patient is expected to recognize the doctor's expertise and follow his instructions. C. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. She completely informs her patient regarding his condition, his treatment options, and the cost and benefit of each. She knows, however, that her patient prefers conservative approaches. Since her expert opinion is that it would be a mistake not to intervene with the most aggressive treatment in the early stages of the illness, she respectfully seeks to persuade her patient to opt for such an approach. If in the end he is not moved by her case, she respects his autonomy and implements his preferred course of treatment. D. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. Some are aggressive, some conservative. The most promising treatments will require significant recovery time; less promising but still beneficial treatments avoid any such recovery period. The doctor takes time not only to explain these options, but also to help the patient work through how her desire for health fits in with other life values such as the importance of minimizing time missed at work and the ability to remain physically active in home and family life.
B
Which option presents a Rule Utilitarian perspective? A. One should generally avoid lying and instead should work to become an honest person. Honesty in a human being is most conducive to ones flourishing and is truest to its nature as a being capable of knowledge and understanding. B. One should not, in general, lie. Experience seems to indicate that the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people comes about when everyone behaves according to that old saw, "honesty is the best policy." C. Lying cannot be justified under any circumstances. In a world where everyone lied, communication itself would break down: it wouldn't be a world where I could coherently expect someone to believe a falsehood on the basis of my word alone in the first place. D. Given circumstances where lying will benefit me and I can predict with a high degree of certainty that I will not be caught and so will not suffer any negative consequences, I should lie. E. Given circumstances where lying will benefit many people, will come at a minor cost for only one person, but will not cause any long-term trust issues or have other drawbacks, I should lie.
B
For Singer, infanticide would be difficult to justify in the case of a healthy baby, easy to justify in the case of a severely disabled baby. The case is much trickier if the child has a disability, but only a mild or moderate one. Assuming adoption is not a possibility, which of the following considerations would justify infanticide? A. The obvious fact that the child will experience more happiness than suffering. B. The obvious fact that the child will experience more suffering than happiness. C. The parents prefer to raise a healthy child and so wish to kill and replace the disabled one. D. It is a drag on society to have to accommqdate and take care of the disabled.
C
In virtue of what does Don Marquis think we should say that killing someone is wrong? (Anyone: you, the test-taker; me, the test-giver; your classmates; &c.) A. It brutalizes the killer. By flouting all respect for the intrinsic value of others, the killer literally makes himself more like an animal, something no human should deliberately do. B. It robs the victim's friends and family of the valuable experiences they would have otherwise experienced had she not been killed C. It robs the victim of the valuable experiences she would have otherwise enjoyed had she not been killed. D. It violates the victim's desire to enjoy the valuable experidices she would have otherwise been afforded had she not been killed.
C
Which option describes a deliberative approach to the doctor-patient relationship? A. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. She takes time to ensure that her patient understands to the best of his ability what is wrong with him, what each treatment option is, what improvement can reasonably be expected from each treatment, and what each treatment will cost in terms of money, recovery time, potential side effects, etc. Once the patient is aware of all such considerations, the doctor trusts the patient to make the treatment decision for himself. B. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. Accordingly, she prescribes the appropriate medications and tells the patient to schedule the appropriate followup appointments for the relevant tests and procedures. The patient is expected to recognize the doctor's expertise and follow his instructions. C. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. She completely informs her patient regarding his condition, his treatment options, and the cost and benefit of each. She knows, however, that her patient prefers conservative approaches. Since her expert opinion is that it would be a mistake not to intervene with the most aggressive treatment in the early stages of the illness, she respectfully seeks to persuade her patient to opt for such an approach. If in the end he is not moved by her case, she respects his autonomy and implements his preferred course of treatment. D. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. Some are aggressive, some conservative. The most promising treatments will require significant recovery time; less promising but still beneficial treatments avoid any such recovery period. The doctor takes time not only to explain these options, but also to help the patient work through how her desire for health fits in with other life values such as the importance of minimizing time missed at work and the ability to remain physically active in home and family life.
C
Which option presents a Kantian perspective? A. One should generally avoid lying and instead should work to become an honest person. Honesty in a human being is most conducive to ones flourishing and is truest to its nature as a being capable of knowledge and understanding. B. One should not, in general, lie. Experience seems to indicate that the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people comes about when everyone behaves according to that old saw, "honesty is the best policy." C. Lying cannot be justified under any circumstances. In a world where everyone lied, communication itself would break down: it wouldn't be a world where I could coherently expect someone to believe a falsehood on the basis of my word alone in the first place. D. Given circumstances where lying will benefit me and I can predict with a high degree of certainty that I will not be caught and so will not suffer any negative consequences, I should lie. E. Given circumstances where lying will benefit many people, will come at a minor cost for only one person, but will not cause any long-term trust issues or have other drawbacks, I should lie.
C
Singer thinks we should treat infants as 'replaceable'. One reason is that all human beings are replaceable; ultimately, he thinks, the only thing that matters from a moral perspective is the overall amount of happiness, no matter whose happiness it is
False
The Emanuels argue that the paternalistic approach to medicine is best; those with little knowledge of how the human body works are unlikely to make wise decisions regarding the best way to regain their health. The choice is best left to the expert, i.e., the doctor.
False
The placebo effect is a purely subjective phenomenon. Though it makes a patient think they are doing better, it never causes any real, physiological change
False
In "Implications of Prenatal Diagnosis for the Human Right to Life," Leon Kass observes that no matter how much views on abortion diverge, everyone agrees that the question of abortion is a moral question. What is the importance of this observation? A. It means that we know that it must be answered by consulting a religious authority. B. It means that we know that the law and legal precedent should guide our conclusions. C. It demonstrates the importance of honoring the reasonable preferences of the parents involved. D. It demonstrates that something more than mere preference is needed to justify its practice.
D
On Cullen & Klein's account, is it ever okay to lie to a patient? A. No. Lying to a patient violates her autonomy. The doctor must always ensure that the patient gets an accurate representation of any information that might influence her decision; no exceptions. B. Yes. If the patient asks not to be told of any severe problems, the doctor is should feel free to tell her that all signs point to health. C. Yes. If the purpose of the deception is to benefit the patient, lying is a morally permissible tool in pursuit of the most effective treatment. D. Yes. If the benefit of the lie is very high--such as saving the patient's life--and the violation of autonomy is relatively minor.
D
Which option describes an interpretive approach to the doctor-patient relationship? A. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. She takes time to ensure that her patient understands to the best of his ability what is wrong with him, what each treatment option is, what improvement can reasonably be expected from each treatment, and what each treatment will cost in terms of money, recovery time, potential side effects, etc. Once the patient is aware of all such considerations, the doctor trusts the patient to make the treatment decision for himself. B. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. Accordingly, she prescribes the appropriate medications and tells the patient to schedule the appropriate followup appointments for the relevant tests and procedures. The patient is expected to recognize the doctor's expertise and follow his instructions. C. Upon evaluation, the doctor thinks that an aggressive approach to treatment is the best option. She completely informs her patient regarding his condition, his treatment options, and the cost and benefit of each. She knows, however, that her patient prefers conservative approaches. Since her expert opinion is that it would be a mistake not to intervene with the most aggressive treatment in the early stages of the illness, she respectfully seeks to persuade her patient to opt for such an approach. If in the end he is not moved by her case, she respects his autonomy and implements his preferred course of treatment. D. Upon evaluation, the doctor determines that there are multiple treatment options. Some are aggressive, some conservative. The most promising treatments will require significant recovery time; less promising but still beneficial treatments avoid any such recovery period. The doctor takes time not only to explain these options, but also to help the patient work through how her desire for health fits in with other life values such as the importance of minimizing time missed at work and the ability to remain physically active in home and family life.
D
Which option presents an Act Utilitarian perspective? A. One should generally avoid lying and instead should work to become an honest person. Honesty in a human being is most conducive to ones flourishing and is truest to its nature as a being capable of knowledge and understanding. B. One should not, in general, lie. Experience seems to indicate that the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people comes about when everyone behaves according to that old saw, "honesty is the best policy." C. Lying cannot be justified under any circumstances. In a world where everyone lied, communication itself would break down: it wouldn't be a world where I could coherently expect someone to believe a falsehood on the basis of my word alone in the first place. D. Given circumstances where lying will benefit me and I can predict with a high degree of certainty that I will not be caught and so will not suffer any negative consequences, I should lie. E. Given circumstances where lying will benefit many people, will come at a minor cost for only one person, but will not cause any long-term trust issues or have other drawbacks, I should lie.
E
According to Kant's moral philosophy, it is permissible to lie to someone if you know that doing so would make them happier- both in the short term and the long term- than would telling them the truth.
False
According to Kant's moral philosophy, we must use reason to determine which action is most likely to bring about the greatest happiness in order to know what the categorical imperative requires of us
False
Brown advise physicians to exaggerate the effectiveness expected from the administered treatment in order to harness power of false belief in obtaining a positive placebo effect
False
Even if it ultimately fails, Kass believes than an appeal to the good of a particular family is better suited to justify genetic abortion than an appeal to the good of society because the former, unlike the latter, is an objective standard
False
For Kant, the moral worth of an action does not depend on whether one does it because one thought it would be fun or because one thought it would be fun or because one recognized it to be the right thing to do. It only matters that the action prescribed by the categorical imperative is done, no matter ones motivation.
False
For Kass, if a family agrees on reasonable grounds that having a child of one sex is better for them than having a child of the other, one should respect their wishes and permit abortion of the unwanted sex.
False
For Singer, no infant has a right to life; accordingly, parents should always be allowed to kill them if they prefer.
False
For the sake of the argument, Thomson concedes that the unborn is a person, but argues that it does not thereby have a right to life
False
Given that doctors should always respect the autonomy of their patients, they should always avoid attempting to persuade their patients to pursue one treatment plan rather than any other. The decision should be left to the patient, and seeking to influence their decision is just paternalism dressed up in a veneer of politeness. (According to the Emanuels)
False
I we reject Cultural Relativism, then we have to be committed to the idea that what is morally permissible must consist of one and only one specific(determinate) was of doing things. (That would mean that there could be no philosophically consistent way to allow that, e.g., cremation in ancient India were both permissible.)
False
In "Why Abortion is Immoral, Don Marquis argues that it is crucially important to establish precisely when the unborn becomes a person (as opposed to being human in a merely biological sense), because it is only when we are speaking of a person that we can reasonably say the entity in question has a future like ours.
False
Lipkin advocates use of the placebo effect in the practice of medicine but also contends that suggestion should be eliminated from the doctor-patient relationship to the greatest extent possible. Suggestion, for Lipkin, is a manipulative psychological mechanism rather than a legitimate form of treatment.
False
Marquis argues that it is a virtue of his account that it would also apply to an intelligent species from another planet in the following manner: if we were to discover such a species and could establish that they are also rational beings meeting the criteria for personhood, then killing them would be wrong for the same reason as killing us.
False
On a virtue ethical understanding of what a virtue is, if I wish to become(for example) a more generous person, all I need to do is study theoretical accounts of what generosity is and why it is import in human life
False
One of the most central questions in the abortion debate is whether or not the unborn in the earliest stages of development has yet to become a human being
False
Showing favoritism toward the happiness of a loved one over that of a stranger is permissible according to Act Utilitarianism
False
Since we can safely assume that a patient who has made the effort to fo see a doctor is seeking help to improve his health, Cullen and Klein argue that a doctor has implicit consent to mislead her patient regarding his health in any case where doing so is highly likely to benefit him.
False
Lipkin contends that it is a mistake to think doctors have an absolute duty to always tell their patients the truth. In fact, doing so is even sometimes impossible given the wide range of different assumptions through which various patients interpret their doctor's words, especially the medical terms.
True
On a virtue ethical understanding of what a virtue is, I can only become a truly courageous person by acting courageously
True
Can someone consistently be a Cultural Relativist but still condemn the practice of slavery in a foreign culture?
No
An action that would be praiseworthy to perform, but for which I would deserve blame were I not to do it is...
Obligatory
If I am considering doing something that would be praiseworthy to do, but for which I would deserve no blame were I to decide not to do, that action is...
Supererogatory
Singer thinks we should treat infants as 'replaceable'. One reason is that there is no meaningful difference between any being capable of pleasure and pain but not capable of recognizing itself as a distinct entity that endures over time. I.e., any one such being is just as good as any other.
True
According to Brown, a positive placebo effect can often be obtained from even just the symbolic use of some of the physical objects associated with the practice of medicine, e.g., the white coat, the stethoscope, the prescription pad, and c.
True
According to Jeff McMahan, the following two claims are logically inconsistent: I. Genetic Selective abortion should be prohibited on the grounds that it communicates to the disables that their lives are worth less than the lives of the non-disabled II. Drugs that are known to cause birth defects should be banned
True
According to Kant's moral philosophy, since reason cannot contradict itself, the categorical imperative requires us to do only things that we could coherently still do in a world where all other rational beings act in the same way
True
According to Lipkin, rather than demanding slavish devotion to the truth, we should assess the permissibly of a doctor's deception according to whom the deception is intended to benefit.
True
According to the Doctrine of Double Effect, if the good that my action would produce outweighs the bad produced by that same action, it might still be okay to perform it. (The use of "might" here is supposed to acknowledge that there are still other conditions that must also be met.)
True
Brown thinks that focusing too narrowly on the fact that placebos are not real drugs and are not pharmacologically potent can distract us from recognizing other contributing factors to the placebo effect.
True
For Kass, we cannot say that the practice of genetic abortion would secure the overall good for society given the risk it would run of stoking racial tension, generating conflict between the community and those who refuse to comply, and producing other kinds of social stratification
True
For Singer, though the parents of a moderately disabled child may wish to euthanize it in order to better satisfy their preferences in pursuit of a happy life, it might still be impermissible for them to do so if there are potential adoptive parents who would welcome the opportunity to take and raise him or her as their own child.
True
If James Rachels' criticisms are correct, Cultural Relativism cannot accommodate the claim that American culture has become better than it was prior to the women's and civil rights movements.
True
If we accept Cultural Relativism, then it would be wrong for American parents to require their child to marry someone of their('the parents') choosing, but permissible for a family in India to do so.
True
In order for the killing of a person to be wrong. that killing must also commit an injustice toward that person(According to Thomson)
True
Kass rejects the natural standard because it would be unclear how to apply it given the gradations of severity any incapacity can exhibit and because it can all too easily be used to support dividing people into 'normals' and 'abnormals', first-class and second-class human beings.
True
