PHL 205 - CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES
FIRST MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
SPRING 2012

MAKING MORAL ARGUMENTS: What are some problems with moral relativism?  Be able to define and identify the following fallcies: ad hominem, tu quoque, ad populum, straw man, red herring, lack of proportion. What is the difference between a fundamental moral premise, empirical premise and legal premise in an argument? (you may be asked to identify particular examples).

DOCTOR ASSISTED SUICIDE (Issue 14): What is the literal meaning of the term “euthanasia”? What is the difference between active and passive euthanasia? Voluntary, involuntary and non-voluntary euthanasia? What is Derek Humphry's book Final Exit about? How does Doerflinger argues against the contention that you own your life and should have the freedom to choose whether you live or die? How might you respond to it? What value does Doerflinger say freedom is subordinate to?

What factors mentioned by Doerflinger or discussed in class make a "slippery slope" argument against doctor-assisted suicide plausible? What factors are mentioned in Doerflinger or discussed in class which might coerce people to choose assisted suicide? What does Doerflinger mean by the "will to power?"

What do Watts & Howell say legalized assisted suicide in the Netherlands shows? What reasons do they give to believing doctor-assisted suicide wouldn't be used as a cost-cutting measure? What reasons do they give against arguments that assisted suicide would lead to abuse of vulnerable persons, undermine trust between patients and physicians and weaken the resolve of society to care for the dying?

ORGAN TRANSPLANTS (Issue 8):  Who makes money on transplants? What are four restrictions Burrows would place on a market in organs and four considerations that lead him to favor a market for organs? What does he say about the worry about altruistic giving will drop?

How many people are waiting for transplants vs. those who receive them according to statistics cited by Childress? What reason does Childress give for believing that people to sell their organs may actually reduce the organ supply? According to Childress, what is a problem with allowing people to sell the rights to their organs ahead of time, giving them an "organ seller" instead of an "organ donor" card? What reasons does he give against people profiting from either live or cadaver organs?

ABORTION (Issue 4): On what question does Don Marquis say the question of the morality of abortion stands or falls? What's wrong with killing a fully grown human being according to Marquis? How does Marquis attempt to use this same reason to explain the wrongness of abortion? How does Marquis stake out his position so that abortion is immoral but contraception is still permissible? Marquis says that "[the pro-choicer] may attempt to find reasons why killing infants, young children, and the severely retarded is wrong which are independent of her major principle that is supposed to explain the wrongness of taking human life, but which will not also make abortion immoral. This is no easy task.." Why isn't it an easy task? Explain the dilemma for the pro-choicer.

What does Little mean by the term "gestational assistance?" What does she mean when she says human life in its earliest stages of development is "respect-worthy."What is the famous violinist example put forward by Judith Jarvis Thompson. What is it supposed to show? How is the argument weak?

What are some answers to the pro-choice arguments that we don't know when life begins, that a woman has a right to control her own body, or that anti-abortion activists are simply religious people trying to foist their beliefs and values on others.

What did Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton rulings have to say with regard to abortion. Under these two laws, what restrictions, if any, are there on abortion? What is partial-birth abortion and why was the procedure banned by Federal law? What sort of help, if any, do pro-life organizations give pregnant mothers who decide not to have an abortion? What are some arguments for and against Federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which performs about 300,000 abortions every year, nearly 1/4 of all abortions, along with some free and low cost contraceptive services and STD testing? How are statistics released by Planned Parenthood about how much of what they do is abortion misleading?

HUMAN CLONING (Issue 6): What is the difference between therapeutic and reproductive cloning? Why did Dolly the sheep die? What does Sandel have to say about the argument that cloning is unnatural and therefore wrong? What does he have to say about the moral status of the embryo and the idea that "spare" embryos are going to be destroyed anyway thus there's nothing wrong with experimenting on them? How does Robertson use invitro fertilization to argue in favor of reproductive cloning? How might one argue against the "playing god" or "interfering with nature" objections to human cloning? What kinds of restrictions, if any, does Robertson believe should be placed on human cloning?

BIOTECH: What are some ethics issues related stem cell research (embryonic vs. adult), anti-aging therapy, cryonics
genetic engineering (agriculture, medicine, industry), cybernetics and bionics. What is transhumanism?

HEALTH REFORM What are the arguments for and against health care being a right in Busch, Sanders and Peikoff? What's the difference between health care and other rights protected by the Constitution? What led to our current health care system? Why the cost of health care premiums rising? What was in the latest health care bill commonly known as "Obamacare?" What are some Constitutional issues surrounding it? How popular is it according to the latest polls? What are the arguments for government subsdies or control of health insurance ? What are the arguments for a "public option"? Was a public option in this latest bill? What happened in Massechusettes when Republican Mitch Romney signed a bill similar to that just passed by Congress? What alternative solutions do John Mackey and Jeffrey Borrowdaler suggest for health care?