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Questions and Answers
What is the source of the word 'Ethics'?
Ethics comes from the Greek word ethos which means character.
Where does morality originate from?
Morality, unlike Ethics, is concerned with the 'whats' of things.
False
Stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in __________.
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Match the following experiments with their descriptions:
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A view that involves happiness and _____, attainable through apathy or indifference.
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What is the meaning of pleasure in this context?
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According to Epicureanism, human life comes from man and he is the master of his own body.
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What are the virtues developed when one strives to suppress desires and passions?
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According to the Act Utilitarian Calculation, how should human actions be morally assessed?
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Match the following principles with their descriptions:
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In Act Utilitarianism, what is the morally right act according to the Principle of Utility?
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Act-Utilitarianism aligns well with the concept of individual rights.
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According to Act-Utilitarianism, individual actions are morally right if they are in accord with those ____________.
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Match the following ethical theories with their key focus:
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What is the supreme principle of morality in Kantian Deontology?
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What does 'prima facie' mean?
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What are the fourfold classification of duties proposed by W.D. Ross?
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Ross proposed that each prima facie duty is our actual duty.
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Match the following Principles of Biomedical Ethics with their descriptions:
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The brain has 3 general anatomic subdivisions: ____, cerebellum, and brainstem.
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According to the definition of death mentioned, what is the irreversible loss of functioning of the organism as a whole known as?
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According to Mary Anne Warren, what criteria must an entity satisfy to be considered a person?
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Which of the following rights are likely to conflict between maternal and fetal rights?
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What are the characteristics that Mary Anne Warren believes are central to the concept of personhood?
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True or False: The main unresolved question regarding the potentiality argument is whether a potential person can have actual rights.
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According to the potentiality argument, even if a fetus is not a person, it has rights because it has the ________ to become one.
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What are the proposed criteria for ordinary treatment when considering life-sustaining treatments? (Select all that apply)
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According to Micheal Tooley, fetuses are considered persons with a right to life.
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The distinction between withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment lacks ethical ___________.
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Define abortion.
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Match the following developments with the 'new ethics of abortion' concept:
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Study Notes
What is Ethics?
- Concerned with values, not just facts
- Deals with what ought to be, not just what is
- Comes from the Greek word "ethos," meaning character
Morality vs. Ethics
- Morality: concerned with the rightness or wrongness of an act
- Ethics: theoretical science of good and evil, providing principles for morality of acts
- Ethics is concerned with the study of moral concepts and principles, while morality is the practical application of those principles
Objective vs. Subjective View of Morality
- Objectivists: believe morality comes from a higher being or supernatural authority
- Subjectivists: believe morality comes from human beings and their rationality
History of Biomedical Ethics
- Ancient History: Illness seen as punishment from God, trephination/burr holing to treat schizophrenia
- Greek Philosophers: Led the development of ethics, Hippocrates' first ethical code
- Medieval History: Physicians regulated practice, able to educate and provide licenses
- Modern History: Publication of Medical Ethics by Thomas Percival, National Research Act of 1974
Ethical Theories
- Ethical Relativism: morality is relative to particular cultures and societies
- Hedonism: pleasure is good, pain is evil; desires are endless cycles
- Stoicism: apathy (lack of feeling) or indifference to pleasure; virtue is sufficient for happiness
- Epicureanism: moderate pleasure, purpose of life is to attain happy, tranquil life
- Natural Law Ethics: moral law is manifested by natural light of human reason, do good and avoid evil
- Situation Ethics: moral norms depend on the situation, act in the name of Christian love### Ethical Theories
Teleological Theories
- Consequentialism: determines morality of an action based on its consequences
- States that an action is morally right if it produces a good outcome
- Examples: lying to save a life, withholding antibiotics to allow an infant to die
Ethical Egoism
- A person ought to act to promote their own self-interest
- Morality of an action is determined by its consequences for the agent
- Example: Mr. A setting buildings on fire because it makes him happy
Utilitarianism
- Human actions are morally assessed based on their production of maximal happiness
- Intrinsic value: what is good in itself, not as a means to something else
- Hedonistic Utilitarianism: utility is conceived entirely in terms of happiness and pleasure (Bentham and J.S. Mill)
- Pluralistic Utilitarianism: other values besides happiness possess intrinsic worth (e.g., friendship, knowledge, courage)
Act Utilitarianism
- A person ought to act to produce the greatest balance of good over evil
- Calculation: delineate alternative paths, predict consequences, evaluate and weigh good against bad
- Criticisms: overly demanding moral standards, does not accord with experience of particular relationships, does not recognize individual rights
Rule Utilitarianism
- A person ought to act in accordance with rules that produce the greatest balance of good over evil
- Moral codes are established by reference to the principle of utility
- Criticisms: incompatible with blatant injustice, cannot provide an adequate theoretical foundation for individual rights
Deontological Theories
Kantian Deontology
- Developed by Immanuel Kant
- Categorical Imperative: supreme principle of morality
- First formulation: act only on a maxim that could become a universal law
- Second formulation: act in such a way that you always treat humanity as an end, never simply as a means
- Perfect duties: duties requiring strict abstention from actions that involve using a person merely as a means
- Imperfect duties: duties that require the promotion of certain goals
W.D. Ross's Prima Facie Duties
- Proposed a deontological theory with prima facie duties emerging from morally significant relations
- Seven divisions of prima facie duties:
- Duties to fidelity
- Duties to reparation
- Duties of gratitude
- Duties of beneficence
- Duties of Nonmaleficence
- Duties of Justice
- In conflict-of-duty situations, only one prima facie duty can be our actual duty
Biomedical Context
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Interrelationships of brain, heart, and lung functions
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Historical context: fears of premature burial in the 18th century, invention of the stethoscope in the 19th century### Traditional Signs of Life
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Respiration
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Heartbeat
Principles of Biomedical Ethics
- Principle of respect for autonomy
- Principle of nonmaleficence
- Principle of beneficence
- Principle of justice
Definition and Criteria of Death
- Charles M. Culver: Professor of Medical Education
- Bernard Gert: Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values
- Determination of Death: • Feel for the pulse • Listen for breathing • Hold a mirror before the nose to test for condensation
Theoretical Inadequacies
- (1) The process starts when the person is still living, which confuses the process of death with the process of dying
- (2) The process of death starts when the person is no longer alive, which confuses the process of death with the process of disintegration
Competing Criteria of Death
- (1) Permanent loss of cardiopulmonary function
- (2) Total and irreversible loss of whole brain function
Assumptions of the Definition of Death
- (1) All and only living organisms can die
- (2) The living can be distinguished from the dead with good reliability
- (3) Death can be determined with a fairly high precision
- (4) We shall regard death as permanent
Tests for Death
- (1) Cessation of heartbeat and ventilation (first-level test)
- (2) Irreversible cessation of whole brain function (second-level test)
- Unresponsivity
- Absent pupillary light reflexes
- Apnea
- Absence of drug intoxication
- Isoelectric EEG
Analysis: Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment
- The principle of patient autonomy requires physicians to respect competent patients' decisions to forgo medical treatment
- Does withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatment contravene the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence?
Concept of Personhood vs. Death
- Considering permanent loss of consciousness and cognition as a criterion for death
- An obligation to offer, not to impose
withdrawing or Withholding Life-Sustaining Treatment
- (1) No medical benefit
- (2) Poor quality of life after CPR
- (3) Poor quality of life before CPR
Three Rationales for DNR Orders
- (1) No medical benefit
- (2) Poor quality of life after CPR
- (3) Poor quality of life before CPR
Advance Directives
- (1) Instructional directive
- (2) Proxy directive
Ethics and Communication in Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders
- Tom Tomlinson: Professor in the Department of Philosophy at MIT
- Durable power of attorney for health care
Abortion
- Introduction: 210 million women become pregnant, 22% have an abortion, 20 million are unsafe, and 13% of global maternal mortality
- The ethics of abortion: a contentious and divisive issue
- The "new ethics of abortion" includes:
- Advances in fetal physiology
- Development of fetal medicine
- Development of neonatal intensive care and improved survival of extremely preterm infants
- Changed perspective on the rights of the disabled
- Changes in professional counseling
What is Abortion?
- Definition: premature termination of a pregnancy by either spontaneous or induced expulsion of a nonviable fetus from the uterus
- Moral permissibility of abortion: a debated topic
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Description
This quiz covers the basics of ethics, a philosophical science that deals with morality, values, and character. It explores the sources of ethics and the distinction between subjectivity and objectivity.
