ethics 4

What is suicide?

A person who facilitates their own death.

What is physician-assisted suicide? (PAS)

A doctor assists (e.g., provides means), but the person themselves commits the act.

What is euthanasia?

Facilitating the death of someone else for their sake (otherwise considered murder).

What is active euthanasia?

Directly causing death (e.g., lethal drugs, injections).

What is passive euthanasia?

Letting someone die by refusing or withdrawing treatment (e.g., removing life support, DNR).

What is voluntary euthanasia?

The person makes their own decision to die.

What is non-voluntary euthanasia?

Someone else makes the decision for the person (e.g., unconscious patient).

What is involuntary euthanasia?

Done against the person’s will (considered murder).

What are advance directives?

Legal documents stating a person’s wishes (e.g., DNR) if they cannot decide later.

What are ordinary procedures?

Treatments with reasonable benefit (expected to help).

What are extraordinary procedures?

Treatments with little/no benefit or high burden/cost.

What did Plato believe about suicide?

Allowed for terminal illness, but mainly for adults.

What did Socrates believe about suicide?

Allowed it in cases like terminal illness (even broader than Plato).

What was Augustine’s view on suicide?\

Strongly against it; considered it a sin.

What did Thomas Aquinas argue about suicide?

It is worse than murder and against natural law.

How did the Enlightenment view suicide?

Emphasized autonomy and rational choice—individual decision.

Who was Sue Rodriguez?

Canadian woman with ALS who fought for assisted dying; lost case (5–4).

What is MAID?

Legal assisted dying in Canada for eligible adults (18+, capable of consent).

What is a vegetative state?

Brain stem functions, but little/no brain cortex activity; long-term and rarely reversible.

What does the brain cortex control?

Consciousness, thinking, awareness.

What does the brain stem control?

Basic life functions (breathing, heartbeat).

Why is Terri Schiavo significant?

Case of vegetative state; dispute over removing feeding tube (passive euthanasia).

What is abortion?

Intentionally terminating a pregnancy

What is quickening?

When fetal movement is felt (~15–20 weeks); used historically in law.

What was Roe v. Wade?

U.S. case allowing abortion before viability (~24–28 weeks).

What is viability?

When a fetus can survive outside the womb (subjective, ~20–28 weeks).

What did Pierre Trudeau do regarding abortion?

Allowed abortion if mother’s health at risk with doctor approval.

Who was Morgentaler?

Canadian doctor who challenged abortion laws and helped legalize access.

What is RU-486?

Abortion pill that stops pregnancy hormones.

What is vacuum aspiration?

Surgical abortion method using suction.

What is ontology?

Study of being (e.g., is a fetus a person?).

What is a fetus (philosophically)?

A developing human; debate over whether it is a “person.”

What happens at fertilization?

A new individual begins forming.

What is potentiality?

The potential to become a person if not terminated.

What is actuality?

Being self-aware and conscious (full personhood).

What is whole brain death?

No brain activity (including cortex); considered death.

Who is Judith Jarvis Thomson?

Philosopher who defended abortion rights.

What is Thomson’s main argument?

Even if fetus is a person, the mother has bodily autonomy (violinist analogy).

What is a false analogy?

Comparing two things that aren’t truly similar.

What are stem cells?

Cells that can self-renew and become different types.

What are embryonic stem cells?

Pluripotent cells from early embryo (blastocyst); can become almost any cell.

What is a blastocyst?

Early embryo stage (few days after fertilization).

What does pluripotent mean?

Can become nearly any type of cell.

What are adult stem cells?

Found in body tissues; repair cells.

What does multipotent mean?

Can become limited types of cells.

Why are IVF clinics relevant?

Source of embryos used for stem cell research.

What are iPS cells?

Adult cells reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells.

What is eugenics?

Controlling reproduction to improve genetic traits (“good birth”).

What is social Darwinism?\

Applying “survival of the fittest” to society.

Who was Charles Davenport?

Promoted eugenics and selective breeding.

What was the Sexual Sterilization Act?

Allowed forced sterilization under certain conditions.

What is the double helix?

Structure of DNA.

What did Watson & Crick do?

Credited with discovering DNA structure

What was Franklin’s role?

Provided key DNA imaging data.

What was the Human Genome Project?

Mapping all human genes (completed 2003).

What is CRISPR?

Gene-editing technology to modify DNA.

What is xenotransplantation?

Using animal organs/tissues for human transplants.

Somatic cell modification

Living, breathing people, cells from the body

Germline cell modification

Prior to or shortly after fertilization

Gene therapy

Fixing diseases or conditions

Gene enhancement

Improving “normal condition”

Telomere

Ends of the chromosomes, shrinks with age

Clone

Artificial carbon copy of an organism

First animal clone

Early 20th century, salamander

SCNT

Cloning process, how dolly was cloned

Dolly

First clone of a somatic cell

Concerns

Health of the clone, not the exact same, animal rights, safety of their byproducts

Pros

Pets, extinct species coming back, agricultural, lab animals uncontrolled

Human cloning

No moral reason to clone yourself

Therapeutic cloning

Need kidney, take somatic cell, make embryo, take the pluripotent embryonic stem cells to make new kidney