Biomedical Ethics Exam 1

Valid argument

Impossible for the premises to be true and conclusion to be false

Sound argument

Valid argument + true premises

How do you determine if an argument is valid?

“Is it possible for the premises to be true and conclusion be false?”

Six kinds of psychological limitations that interfere with people’s assessments of information

1) Confirmation bias

2) Disconfirmation bias

3) Motivational reasoning

4) Availability error

5) Skeptical tendency

6) Dunning-Kruger effect

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out information that agrees with our beliefs

Disconfirmation bias

The tendency to ignore sources of information that conflict with our beliefs

Motivational reasoning

Arguing to defend your position and relying on evidence that agrees with our beliefs

Availability error

A piece of evidence that grabs our attention based off the title or information/impressed of evidence

Skeptical tendency

Skeptical about information that conflicts with our beliefs

Dunning-Kruger effect

The tendency that the less knowledge we have on a topic, the more confident we are

What’s required for moral excellence per Aristotle?

Doing an action with the right emotion and motivation

What is Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean?

Most virtuous actions and traits are a mean between two extremes (deficiency and excess)

What are the central claims of virtue ethics?

“Will this action lead me to become more virtuous?” and moral excellence

What criticism has been raised about emphasizing the importance of both the judgments of morally excellent people and the reasons why those judgments are good?

Virtue ethicists over emphasize the morally excellent good person at the expense of why that decision is correct which ultimately leads to mistaking prioritizing the person rather than the motivation

What is the criticism of virtue ethics that draws on recent research on “situationism” in psychology?

Morally insignificant features of a situation are more influential on a situation than character traits

What, according to Kant, is required for an action to have “moral worth”?

1) Doing an action out of duty and duty alone

2) Morally good action

What is the categorical imperative, and how, according to Kant, are we supposed to use it in moral decision making?

Act according to maxims/principle only if you can will every rational agent can do it with similar consequences and no contradictions

What is the “formula of humanity” (i.e. what does it mean)?

Treat rational beings as an end of itself and never merely as a means

What criticism do virtue ethicists typically raise against Kant’s account of “moral worth”?

If you have a morally desire emotion, it’s morally better with a feeling to do the moral action

What does Kant’s ethics imply about the moral status of non-rational animals and humans, and why might this be a problem?

Non-rational beings have no moral worth/status

Consequentialism

Morality is determined by the outcomes

Utilitarianism

Greatest amount of good and least bad, relative to everyone concerned

Hedonic utilitarianism

Pleasure = good, pain = bad

What is the “principle of utility,” formulated as an imperative?

Do what the greatest amount of good and least amount of bad

What is the “swine morality” objection, and why is it a problem for Bentham’s form of utilitarianism? How does John Stuart Mill respond to this objection?

Bentham’s form of utilitarianism is there is no qualitative level of pleasure (ex. no difference of please between eating favorite food and having a best friend). Mill says there’s higher and lower levels of pleasure (quantitative and qualitative)

Why is hedonic utilitarianism thought to have problematic implications for distributive justice?

If we’re solely doing what the greatest amount of pleasure, there is nothing about distributing pleasure equally

What is paternalism?

Overriding a person’s autonomy for their own good

Why does paternalism represent a conflict between a medical professional’s moral obligations to their patient?

Respecting a patient's autonomy and a medical professional's duty to act in the patient's best interest, leading to ethical dilemmas regarding consent and patient rights.

What, according to Gerald Dworkin, is a sufficient justification for acting paternalistically?

Paternalism is justified when it preserves or enhances autonomy

What is consent?

Voluntarily submission by patient to an experiment and active endorsement and mere acquiescence

What is informed consent?

Being aware of the value of the treatment/experiment and to be knowledgable of the risks involved

What are three legally competing accounts of what it means for a patient to be informed?

1) Physician informs patient of risk

2) Deferring to what the physicians think is adequate enough sufficient information for consent 

3) Patient is given whatever information they need to make the right decision for the patient; different patients have different needs

Why do some ethicists think randomized clinical trials are morally problematic?

Some think that they treat patients as a mean to an end (violates formula of humanity); not respecting person autonomy bc those in control and placebo groups aren’t receiving the best treatment possible

Some ethicists think randomized clinical trials are morally problematic, how do other ethicists respond to these concerns?

Patients don’t know if the treatment is even effective, thus the drug isn’t the best drug available for any participants

Why, according to Tom Regan, are Dr. Saul Krugman’s experiments on the children at Willowbrook State Hospital relevant for debates over the moral permissibility of animal vivisection?

Regan says it’s wrong because children have moral status. Cognitive impaired isn’t rational beings but whatever criterion we are using is a criterion that’ll apply just as well for the animals of vivisection.

What is Don Marquis’s argument for the general moral impermissibility of abortion?

P1) It is wrong to kill an adult because it deprives themselves of future interests
P2) A fetus has a future, just as much as a child or adult
C) Morally impermissible to have an abortion

What is Judith Jarvis Thomson’s thought experiment about the unconscious violinist?

A right to life does not entail the right to use another body

What is the “principle of potentiality” in the abortion debate?

Because a fetus is a potential person, it has all the rights an actual person does

What criticism does Bonnie Steinbock raise against the “principle of potentiality” in the abortion debate?

A potential person does not have the same rights to an actual person (ex. a president elect does not have the same rights as the president)

What, according to Vaughn, are the three distinct kinds of parenting relations that are possible with the advent of surrogacy?

1) Biological relation (sperm → egg)

2) Gestational relation (the surrogate gestates the fetus, regardless of whether the surrogate is the biological mother)

3) Social relation (the parent that raises the child)

Why, according to Elizabeth Anderson, does commercial surrogacy commodify children?

1) Commercial surrogacy transforms parental rights into property rights

2) Substituting market norms for parental norms entails treating the child as commodity

What is euthanasia?

Directly or indirectly bringing death to a person for the person’s sake

What is active euthanasia?

Doing an action that causes death for the persons sake

What is passive euthanasia?

Allowing a person to die by refraining from providing something the person needs to live

What, according to Vaughn, is voluntary euthanasia?

A competent patient voluntarily requests or agrees to euthanasia, communicating their wishes either while competent or through instructions to be followed if they become incompetent.

What, according to Vaughn, is non-voluntary euthanasia?

If the patient is not competent to agree to euthanasia and did not previously express a preference

What, according to Vaughn, is involuntary euthanasia?

1) it is against the patient’s will or 2) the patient is competent but not consulted on the matter, and where the patient could express a preference if consulted.

What, according to Vaughn, are two reasons in favor of the moral permissibility of active voluntary euthanasia?

1) Appeal to autonomy → right to self-determination includes the right to end ones life

2) Appeal to benevolence → entails the obligation to minimize suffering

What is a standard reason against active voluntary euthanasia?

Nonmaleficence → doing no harm

Why, according to Norman Daniels, does every person has a right to healthcare?

Illness reduces people’s equal opportunities, and health care is what preserves those opportunities.