1. PHIL242: MEDICAL ETHICS SUM2014, M-F, 9:40-10:40, SAV 156
INSTRUCTOR: BENJAMIN HOLE
OFFICE HOURS: M-F, 10:40-11 

2. Agenda Admin Questions Clicker Quiz
The lay of the land: textbook terminology
Classic thought experiments
Introduction to ethical theories
Tomorrow: continue and focus on ethical theory
Friday: ethical theory, and religion and culture

3. Admin Questions Textbook Supplementary Readings Writing Assignment
Course Reserves
Supplementary Readings
Writing Assignment
Clickers

4. QUIZ Please set your Turning Technology Clicker to channel 41
Press “Ch”, then “41”, then “Ch”

5. A deductive argument is intended to give
Probable support to its conclusion
Inductive support to its conclusion
Logically conclusive support to its conclusion
Logically inconclusive support to its conclusion
B & C

6. The misrepresentation of views so they can be more easily attacked is known as
Begging the question fallacy
The straw man fallacy
Appeal to ignorance fallacy
The under-representation of views fallacy
Modus Ponens
Modus Tollens

7. The overriding of a person’s actions or decision-making for his or her own good is known as
Paternalism
Beneficence
Autonomy
Utility
Deontology
Justice

8. The lay of the land
Textbook terminology

9. The Right (Duty) & The Good (Value)
“The two main concepts of ethics are those of the right and the good”
(Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 24).
The Right (Duty) & The Good (Value)

10. Obligations and Values
Obligations concern our duty—our actions.
Values concern things (people, experiences, states of affairs, etc.) we judge to be morally good, bad, praiseworthy, or blameworthy.
Actions are morally right or wrong.
The Right (Duty) & The Good (Value)

11. The Right (Duty) & The Good (Value)
Value Base Moral Theory
Duty Based Moral Theory
takes the good as primary (and derives the right from the good).
takes the right as primary (and derives the good from the right).
The Right (Duty) & The Good (Value)

12. Ethics and Bioethics
Ethical Theory —The study of morality using the tools and methods of philosophy.
Metaethics —The study of the meaning and justification of basic moral beliefs.
Applied ethics —The use of moral norms and concepts to resolve practical moral issues.
Bioethics —Applied ethics focused on health care, medical research, and medical technology.

13. Moral Principles An absolute principle applies without exceptions.
“if and only if”
A prima facie principle applies in all cases unless an exception is warranted.

14. Principles in Bioethics
Autonomy
“autonomous persons should be allowed to exercise their capacity for self- determination” (9)
Beneficence
“we should do good to others and avoid doing them harm” (10)
Utility
“we should produce the most favorable balance of good over bad (or benefit over harm) for all concerned” (11)
Justice
“people getting what is fair or what is their due” (12)

15. Classic Thought Experiments
Trolley Problem
Reluctant Donor Case

16. Would you turn the trolley?
Yes No

17. Trolley Problem

18. The Reluctant Organ Donor
“A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor. Do you support the morality of the doctor to kill that tourist and provide his healthy organs to those five dying persons and save their lives ?”
Judith Jarvis Thomson, The Trolley Problem, 94 Yale Law Journal (1985)

19. Do you support the morality of the doctor to kill that tourist and provide his healthy organs to those five dying persons and save their lives ?
Yes No

20. Construct Arguments MoPo 1. If A, then B. 2. A 3. Therefore, B MoTo
2. Not-B
3. Therefore, Not-A
Syllogism
1. All As are Bs
2. C is an A
3. Therefore, C is a B

21. Construct Arguments
A moral argument is one whose conclusion is a moral statement.
A moral argument has (1) at least one moral premise and (2) at least one non-moral premise.

22. Introduction to Ethical Theory

23. Moral/Ethical Theory
An explanation of why an action is right or wrong or why a person or a person’s character is good or bad
Explain the necessary and sufficient conditions which make an action that makes it right
“if and only if”
Moral theories alone are not the ultimate authority in moral deliberations.
Moral deliberations involve both the general and the particular—theory, principles, and considered judgments.

24. Consequentialism
Asserts that the rightness of actions depends solely on their consequences
“Right action is to be understood entirely in terms of the overall intrinsic value of the consequences of the action compared to the overall intrinsic value of the of the consequences associated with alternative actions an agent might perform instead. An action is right if and only if (and because) its consequences would be at least as good as the consequences of any alternative action that the agent might instead perform.” (Timmons, MTP)

25. Consequentialism Strongly Agree Agree Somewhat Agree Neutral
Somewhat Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

26. Construct Arguments MoPo 1. If A, then B. 2. A 3. Therefore, B MoTo
2. Not-B
3. Therefore, Not-A
Syllogism
1. All As are Bs
2. C is an A
3. Therefore, C is a B

27. Criticize Arguments Argument 1. 2. 3. Therefore, Counterargument 1. 2.
3. Therefore, X premise is false