Assignment for Monday, October 2

I don't want to beat a dead horse, just let me briefly review what I was trying to get at today:

Some moral theories focus on consequences.  On those theories, what's right is what increases happiness and reduces suffering.  The actual acts involved have no inherent value.  So, again, lying could be morally right if it leads to more happiness.  Most justifications of voluntary euthanasia (active OR passive) rely on this idea:  It is right to end a life, by request, if ending it will head off great suffering.  These are "consequentialist theories."

Some moral theories hold that consequences are not the main thing about right and wrong.  They might hold that an act is right or wrong regardless of its consequences.  For example, they might suggest that lying is wrong because it is disrespectful or harms autonomy, even if it produces more happiness.  Likewise, they might suggest that ending a life intentionally is always wrong, even when it heads off great suffering.  These are "non-consequentialist theories."


It's not that simple, though.  A good reason to think that lying is wrong is that it will eventually lead to unhappiness. 

And some people think that allowing people to choose to end their own lives (or get help doing it) will lead to greater suffering, in general, because there may be a loss of trust in doctors, there may be mistakes in who wants to die, there may be a lowered respect for life, and so on.

So you can usually have a good consequentialist reason to tell the truth and to refrain from killing. 

And again, I only bring this up because it seems like a lot of the arguments we have in favor of treating killing and letting die as morally equal are consequentialist.  It's not that non-consequentialists don't care about suffering--of course they do.  They just don't think that morality's main goal is to reduce it.

Now then, for Monday, read and summarize 261-269.  I'll have an updated reading schedule soon.

No Comment

LINK

Vegetative States, Then and Now

Annie offers us this link about new ways of approaching vegetative states.  As these sorts of things become more common, questions about equating loss of consciousness with death start to get fuzzy.

Give it a look.  Comments?  LINK.

Assignment for Friday, Sept. 29

You will notice that this is the SAME as what I wrote for the second part of Wednesday's assignment.
But we don't have class on Wednesday, so the assignment is for FRIDAY.



(You know, here's another way to test intentions.  I don't claim that it holds for every case.  Suppose that You were near the end of a terminal illness, and a doctor had agreed to help you end your life on his next visit.  Then suppose that she shows up at the next visit to find that you had recovered.  I reckon that if you said, oh well, I guess we still have to end my life, since we agreed to it, the doctor might well say:  I agreed to help on the condition that you were already close to death--I had no wish to help you die outside of those circumstances!)

Anyway, that's just me trying to think through whether or not Rachels is right about euthanasia being about the best way to end a life, given that ending it is judged to be the right thing to do.

For FRIDAY, read and summarize:  257-260

Short and complicated.

Assignment for Wednesday, Sept. 27 (Part 2)

Remembering that class is cancelled on Wednesday...so this assignment is FOR FRIDAY.

(You know, here's another way to test intentions.  I don't claim that it holds for every case.  Suppose that You were near the end of a terminal illness, and a doctor had agreed to help you end your life on his next visit.  Then suppose that she shows up at the next visit to find that you had recovered.  I reckon that if you said, oh well, I guess we still have to end my life, since we agreed to it, the doctor might well say:  I agreed to help on the condition that you were already close to death--I had no wish to help you die outside of those circumstances!)

Anyway, that's just me trying to think through whether or not Rachels is right about euthanasia being about the best way to end a life, given that ending it is judged to be the right thing to do.

For FRIDAY, read and summarize:  257-260

Short and complicated.

Assignment for Wednesday, Sept. 27 (Part 1)

Friends, Due to circumstances beyond my control, I need to cancel class on Wednesday.  Check back here soon, and I'll give you the assignment for Friday. 

Assignment for Monday, September 25

I was going to link you to some pictures of crocodiles eating other large animals.  But the humor of it just died as I became more and more horrified.  So I won't share that with you. 

But for Monday, read and summarize:  248-256.

I was thinking about the idea that we're grow more inclined to call you a cause of an event as the effort required to stop it shrinks.  What if I could save the drowning child merely by saying "unto the whole person"?   Still...I don't think you're right to think that I murdered the child if I don't say it. 

Now.  What if I could save the child by merely continuing to breathe normally--but instead, I knowingly hold my breath for a few seconds.  In that case, I go out of my way, slightly, to change my behavior.  I had nothing to do with the child's plight--maybe that was an accident--but I'm still showing, if not a plan to end his life, at least a willingness to help end it. 

I have no idea if "go out of my way slightly" can really bear that much moral importance.  But that's how it seems to me at the moment.  We'll talk.

A Controversial Right to Die Claim

Sai sent me this link, and it is really interesting and relevant.  Take a look:  HERE. 

Assignment for Friday, Sept. 22

Read and summarize 241-247.  And watch the page numbers.

And if you didn't get to 239 last time, read that, too.  It's well-written and important.

Assignment for Wednesday, Sept. 20

225-239.  Read and summarize.  And yes, as...Christa? asked, that is two readings, but the second one is short.  You can summarize both on one page.

Designer Babies

Is it a big deal?  Look HERE.  And relatedly:  HERE. 

Animal Testing Pros and Cons

Instead of linking you to some accounts of the horrors of animal treatment in our culture, I will link you instead to this quick list of pro and con arguments.  It is not exhaustive, but it provides a good map.  Check it out.  HERE.  

I hope that you WILL find out, on your own, at least some details about how animals are actually treated for food and medicine and clothing.  If you are going to use these products, you ought to know what they involve.  Informed consent...

Assignment for Monday, Sept. 18

Read and summarize 540-550.  This is actually an exchange with several short texts.  Just summarize them briefly all on one document. 

Assignment for Friday, September 15

Read and summarize 530-539.  This will be a change of pace in some ways.  Don't forget about the informed consent/autonomy stuff, though.  It will come back to us.

Assignment for Wednesday, Sept. 13

Read and summarize 683-692.  That'll toss a wrench into the works...

Assignment for Mon., Sept. 11

OK, we’re going off-road.  I want to try to weigh Savulescu’s very stringent criteria for autonomy against a famous case.  

(This is something you should get to soon.)

So first, read THIS.

 

Then THIS. 

Then re-read Savalescu (or parts of it).

And then write a two-page (max) thing.  

One page is how Savalescu would handle Cowart’s case—this is to show me that you get Savalescu.  

Then the second page is about whether or not you’d handle (or think about) Cowart’s case in the same way (as Savalescu).  And why.  

So that’s two pages MAX.  Single or double spaced—I never care about that, I care about number of pages MAX.  

 

Due Monday.  In class.  No lateness accepted.

Looking forward to our discussion.

—Chris

PS:  There are also some good videos (on YouTube) of Dax Cowart talking about his case, and you are free to consult those to get a fuller idea of his stance on things.

Online Reviews of Doctors... Good Idea or Bad Idea

Here's one doctor's view.  What do you think???

LINK

Assignment for Friday, Sept. 8

Read and summarize:   665-682

(Not a breeze, so start early.)

Law, Medicine, Ethics, and Getting Famous

So this happened:  LINK.

Assignment for Wednesday, Sept. 6

(Note, I've corrected the partial reading list, posted at the head of these posts.  Thanks to Jalin.)

For Wednesday, read and summarize 654-664.