PHIL 2525 Contemporary Moral Issues Lec 3

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PHIL 2525Contemporary Moral IssuesLec 3

• What are We Talking About?
• What is Morality? Rachels Chapter 1

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Singular Moral Judgments vs. Moral Principles...
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The Death of SocratesJacques-Louis David
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General moral principleor not?

• Hurting a friend is wrong.
• The Bible says that thou shalt not kill.
• Shoplifting might get you into trouble.
• Stealing is ok.
• Helping others helps ourselves.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto
  you.
• Honour thy father and thy mother.

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General moral principleor not?

• Hurting a friend is wrong.
• The Bible says that thou shalt not kill.
• Shoplifting might get you into trouble.
• Stealing is ok.
• Helping others helps ourselves.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto
  you.
• Honour thy father and thy mother.

• Yes
• No
• No
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes

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• Conflicting principles...

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So, back to our arguments...

• Premise 1 states the case (the way the world is)
• Premise 2 appends a moral principle
• ------------------------------------------
• The conclusion follows from the interplay

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Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion

• We describe the case the way the world is
• We append a moral principle
• ------------------------------------------
• We conclude based on the interplay

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1.1 The Problem of Definition

• Moral philosophy is the attempt to achieve a
  systematic understanding of the nature of
  morality and what it requires of us
• Socrates We are discussing no small matter,
  but how we ought to live

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1.2 Baby Theresa.....Anencephaly
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1.2 Baby Theresa dilemma...

• Parental request allow her organs to be
  harvested to benefit other newborns.
• Legal resolution "Florida law does not allow the
  removal of organs until the donor is dead."

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Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion

• The parents
• Transplanting Baby Theresas organs would benefit
  other children without harming her.
• If we can benefit someone, without harming anyone
  else, we ought to do so.
• --------------------------------------
• Therefore, we ought to transplant the organs.

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Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion

• Anonymous ethicists
• Transplanting Baby Theresas organs would be
  using her as means for anothers ends.
• It is wrong to use people as means.
• --------------------------------------
• Therefore, we ought not transplant the organs.

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Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion

• One more argument
• Taking Baby Theresa's organs would be killing her
  to save another.
• It is wrong to kill one person to save another.
• -------------------------------------------------
  -----------------------------
• Therefore, we ought not to take her organs for
  transplantation.

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On the Baby Theresa dilemma...

• Dr. Norman Fost, director of the University
• of Wisconsin's medical ethics program
• The problem is almost entirely one of a slippery
  slope...
• We have to be careful who we take organs from,
  because there are a lot more than anencephalic
  infants out there.

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On the Baby Theresa dilemma...

• Dr. John Fletcher, director of the University
• of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics
• There's a refusal to accept the reality of death
  at work in this...
• ...and an overvitalistic understanding of
  personhood, one dependent on biological
  functions."

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On the Baby Theresa dilemma...

• Dr. John Fletcher, director of the University
• of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics
• ...what makes us human is what goes on upstairs
  in the brain, not downstairs in the brain.

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1.3 Conjoined Twins

• Siamese Twins
• Chang and Eng
• Born in 1811
• Travelled with the circus
• Married two sisters
• Fathered 21 children
• Died in 1874

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13 Jodie and Mary
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Jodie and Mary

• Pro-separation
• Separating the twins will save the one otherwise
  both will die.
• When it's a choice between saving one of two
  people or letting both die, we should save the
  one.
• -------------------------------------------------
  ---------
• . The twins should be separated.

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Jodie and Mary

• Anti-separation
• Mary is an innocent human being and the
  separation will kill her.
• It's wrong to kill an innocent human being.
• -------------------------------------------
• . The twins shouldn't be separated.

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1.4 The Latimer Case
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Mercy or Murder?

• 12 year old Tracy Latimer, killed by her father
  in 1993
• Quadriplegic and severely mentally disabled, she
  functioned at the level of a three-month old and
  was in constant pain

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1.4 The Latimer Case

• Argument against Latimers action
• Killing Tracy was discrimination against the
  handicapped.
• It is wrong to discriminate against the
  handicapped.
• --------------------------------------
• . Tracy's father did wrong he shouldn't have
  killed her.

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1.4 The Latimer Case

• Rachels response
• Discrimination against the handicapped?
• Its discrimination only if there is no good
  reason for the different treatment....

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1.4 The Latimer Case

• Euthanizing Tracy was "opening the doors to other
  people to decide who should live and who should
  die."
• It is wrong to do things which would open the
  doors...
• --------------------------------------------------
  ----
• . Euthanizing Tracy was wrong and shouldn't have
  been done.

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1.5 Reason and Impartiality

1. Moral judgments must be backed by good reasons.
2. Morality requires the impartial consideration of
   each individuals interests.

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1.5 Reason and Impartiality

• We describe the case the way the world is
• We append a moral principle
• ------------------------------------------
• We conclude based on the interplay

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Impartiality...and emotion...
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Impartiality...and emotion...
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Impartiality...and emotion...
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Impartiality...and emotion...
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The morally right thing to do...

• is always whatever there are the best reasons for
  doing...

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Jane Addams,founder of Hull House

• The essence of immorality is the tendency to make
  an exception of myself.

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1.6 The Minimum Conception of Morality

• The effort to guide ones conduct by reason...to
  do what there are the best reasons for doing...

• James Rachels

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Suicide and Euthanasia

• What is the difference?
• What good reasons are there in favour?
• What good reasons are there against?
  http//exitinternational.net/

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Ethics in the news

• Globe and Mail
• Sept. 28, 2011
• Ontario's 'Baby Joseph' dies at home after
  sparking fierce end-of-life ethical debate

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Attendance Question

• Your name
• Your year in school
• Your major
• Where do you want to be in 10 years?