PHIL 1030 - Quiz 3

Who’s main aim was it to show that physicians are mistaken in taking active euthanasia to be impermissible but taking passive euthanasia to be permissible?

James Rachel

What was James Rachel’s first claim?

Being allowed to die can sometimes be slow and painful while being actively killed can often be quick and painless

What was James Rachel’s second claim?

The distinction between actively killing and letting die leads to decisions of life and death that are made on irrelevant grounds

What is the conclusion of James Rachel’s thought experiment?

Letting someone die and killing someone are morally equivalent in terms of badness so there is no moral difference between a physician killing a patient and letting a patient die

Why does Hardwig believe that a death that comes too late may be a tragedy?

Because one’s family might be better off overall if one were dead because lives in a family are interconnected

What does Hardwig believe?

Some people have a duty to die because of its effects on the lives of one’s family

Who believes that unrelieved pain is not the only reason somebody is better off dead and one can be better off dead even if one has no terminal illness?

John Hardwig

Who believes the fundamental moral values of individual self-determination and individual well-being support the ethical permissibility of euthanasia?

Dan Brock

What is the interest people have in making decisions about their lives for themselves according to their own conception of goof life and of being left free to act on those decisions within the bounds of justice?

Self-determination

What is the concern that life is of sufficiently poor quality that it is worse than no further life at all?

Well-being

Who claims that physicians do not kill when engaging in passive euthanasia?

Dan Brock

What is Brock’s response to the potential bad consequence that if euthanasia became
common, patients would lose trust in their physicians and be afraid they they might
also be administered a lethal dose by their physician?

If active euthanasia is limited to voluntary cases, then no patient should fear or lose trust in their physician or think that they will be administered a lethal dose. Patient trust might even be increased since patients would know that their physician would be willing to euthanize them should they come to need it.

What is Brock’s response to the potential bad consequence that allowing euthanasia would weaken society’s commitment to provide the best care for dying patients by embracing the cheaper alternative to adequate health care in the form of euthanasia?

This worry is difficult to evaluate since there is little firm evidence about feared erosion in the case of dying patients. But there are two reasons for skepticism. First, there is no good evidence that this has happened with passive euthanasia. Moreover, only a small percentage of deaths would come from
euthanasia if it was permitted. The vast majority of critically ill and dying patients would likely not request it. And so, permitting euthanasia should not diminish people’s commitment and concern to maintain and improve the care of patients

What is Brock’s response to the potential bad consequence that the opinion of others that
their living is not justified can threaten their reason for living and make euthanasia
a rational choice

More people want the choice of euthanasia than would be made worse off by getting it. Also, if the option to end their life really makes people worse off, then we should not only prohibit euthanasia but also take back the right they currently have to engage in passive euthanasia. This harmful effect of having a choice should have already occurred with passive euthanasia but there is no evidence of such widespread harm

What is Brock’s response to the potential bad consequence that making euthanasia legally permissible might weaken the general legal prohibition of homicide.

the fact that a killing that has the consent of the one killed as in active euthanasia would not count as anything like homicide

What is Brock’s response to the potential bad consequence that although active euthanasia may be morally permissible where it is voluntary and the patient finds life unbearable, a legal policy allowing euthanasia would inevitably lead to active euthanasia being performed in many other cases where it would be wrong to do so. To prevent such cases, we should not allow even morally justified active euthanasia

Some of the reasons that speak in favor of voluntary active euthanasia also speak in favor of nonvoluntary active euthanasia because continued life not being of value to a person can hold of some people who are not competent. In fact, Brock thinks that the main worry we should have should not be whether to allow active euthanasia but rather to safeguard all forms of voluntary euthanasia
from slipping into nonvoluntary euthanasia.

Who believes that as a society we should permit but never require health professionals to offer the option of euthanasia or to grant patients’ requests for it?

Velleman

What is bringing sperm and egg together in a laboratory dish rather than inside a woman’s body?

IVF

What considerations are in favor of IVF?

individual autonomy, the right to reproduce

What considerations are against IVF?

harm to children, families, the natural order of procreations, and to women

Who is a woman who gestates a fetus for others, contracting with others to carry pregnancy to term and to give up baby at birth and let them legally adopt it?

Surrogate

What do some theorists claim about surrogacy?

Claims that it amounts to little more than baby-selling

What are genetically identical entities?

Clones

What is the asexual production of a genetically identical entity from an existing one?

Cloning

What is the creation of genetic duplicate of an adult animal or human for the purpose of live birthing the duplicate?

Reproductive Cloning

What is the freedom either to have children or to avoid having them?

Procreative liberty

Is procreative liberty a negative or positive right?

Negative?

How is procreative liberty a negative right?

a person violates no moral duty in making a procreative choice; other persons have a duty not to interfere with that choice; others do not have a duty to provide the resources necessary to exercise one’s right

What is it when a woman is inseminated with the sperm of a man to whom she is not
married. When the baby is born, she waives her right to it in favor of another
person.

Surrogacy

Is compensation for surrogacy commercial or altruistic surrogacy?

Commercial 

Is no compensation for surrogacy commercial or altruistic surrogacy?

altruistic