Chap. 2 notes - Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas (week 3)

What is an ethical dilemma?

A situation where caregivers must choose between options that conflict with ethical norms or values, often giving up something good and enduring something bad.

How can ethical dilemmas be resolved?

Ethical case analysis, decision-making models, and weighing competing values.

What was the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis (1932–72)?

An unethical U.S. study where treatment was withheld from Black men to observe disease progression.

What major event led to the Nuremberg Code (1949)?

The Holocaust and Nazi medical experiments.

When was the first successful kidney transplant?

1954.

What did the 1968 Harvard report define?

Criteria for brain death.

What did Roe v. Wade (1973) establish?

A woman’s right to privacy and abortion, with state regulation by trimester.

When was the human genome fully sequenced?

2003.

What are the ethical issues in abortion?

Woman’s autonomy, fetus’s right to life, spouse’s rights, and the state’s interest in protecting life.

What is the conflict between pro-choice and pro-life?

Pro-choice emphasizes autonomy; pro-life emphasizes protection of fetal life.

What did Roe v. Wade (1973) decide?

Women have a constitutional right to abortion; states may regulate later in pregnancy.

What did Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) reaffirm?

Right to abortion before viability, but allowed state restrictions unless they create an “undue burden.”

What is the “undue burden” standard?

A law is unconstitutional if it places substantial obstacles in the path of a woman seeking abortion before viability.

What did the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (2003) do?

Banned late-term abortion procedures (no exceptions for maternal health or fetal defects).

Is abortion purely a legal issue?

No, it is also a moral, ethical, and theological issue with diverse convictions.

What is artificial insemination?

Injection of semen into a woman to induce pregnancy.

What is homologous insemination?

Semen from the husband.

What is heterologous insemination?

Donor semen.

What are key ethical issues in artificial insemination?

Consent and confidentiality.

What is sterilization?

The termination of the ability to reproduce.

What is elective sterilization?

Voluntary sterilization for personal choice.

What is therapeutic sterilization?

Sterilization performed to preserve life or health.

What is eugenic sterilization?

Involuntary sterilization of those deemed “mentally deficient” or “feeble-minded” under statutes.