Christian Bioethics Exam #3

Genesis 1:27

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Exodus 21:22

If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

Psalm 139:13

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Luke 1:44

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Fertilization

the process of a sperm cell penetrating an egg/ovum

Zygote

a fertilized egg/ovum

Blastocyst

is a hollow sphere of cells that forms after the zygote has divided multiple times while moving to the uterus, typically three to five days after fertilization

Embryo

is the developing organism that forms after the blastocyst implants itself into the lining of the uterus

Fetus

the unborn from the end of the eighth week until birth

Spontaneous abortion

an abortion resulting from natural causes such as a birth defect or maternal injury 

Induced abortion

the intentional termination of a pregnancy through drugs or surgery

Therapeutic abortion

abortion performed to preserve the life or health of the mother

Quickening

a pregnant woman’s experience of fetal movement inside her (at about 16-20 weeks)

Viability

the development stage at which the fetus can survive outside the uterus

Slippery slope and abortion

refers to an argument suggesting that allowing abortion, even in limited cases, will inevitably lead to more extreme or morally unacceptable outcomes

Speciesism

the prejudice of giving special moral value or rights to members of one species (especially humans) simply because of their species

Fallacy of equivocation

occurs when a key term in an argument changes meaning partway through the argument, causing the reasoning to become misleading or invalid

Categorical imperative and abortion

people should act only according to rules they would want everyone to follow universally - Kantian ethics is somewhere in the middle with abortion

Doctrine of double-effect and abortion

allows abortion only when the death of the fetus is an unintended side effect of a morally good or necessary action, such as saving the mother’s life — not when the death itself is the intended outcome

Roe v. Wade 1973

a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established a constitutional right to abortion under the right to privacy implied by the Fourteenth Amendment

Key points in Roe v. Wade

• the court affirmed that individuals have a right to personal privacy, which includes the decision to end a pregnancy.

• however, this right is not absolute and must be balanced against the state’s legitimate interests in protecting maternal health and potential life.

• first trimester: The state cannot restrict a woman’s right to choose abortion.

• second trimester: The state may regulate abortion procedures, but only to protect the woman’s health.

• after viability (when the fetus can survive outside the womb): The state may prohibit abortion, except when it is necessary to protect the life or health of the mother.

Three main positions on abortion

• abortion is never morally acceptable (except to preserve the mother’s life) because the unborn is a human being in the full sense

• abortion is acceptable whenever the woman wants it because the unborn is not a human being in the full sense

• we must reject both views a take a stance somewhere between them

Arguments in favor of abortion

• the unborn is not an innocent person from the moment of conception 

  • contending that merely being biologically human is not sufficient to establish personhood

  • arguing that a fetus does not possess the properties that qualify an entity as a person

Arguments against abortion

• the unborn is an innocent person from the moment of conception

  • appealing to the lack of precise cut-off point between zygote and adult human

  • arguing that the fetus is a potential person

Peter Singer

supports abortion rights, especially in the early stages of pregnancy, because he believes moral worth depends on consciousness and self-awareness — qualities a fetus does not yet possess

Judith Jarvis Thomson

argues that even if the unborn is a person from the moment of conception, abortion may still be morally justified in some cases

Mary Anne Warren

asserts that five traits are central to personhood. any being that satisfies none of these traits is certainly not a person. a fetus satisfies none and is therefore not a person

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

the uniting of sperm and egg in a laboratory dish instead of inside a woman’s body

gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)

ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval proceed as they do in IVF, but then the eggs and sperm are transferred together to a fallopian tube to fertilize

Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)

like IVF, this procedure depends on fertilization occurring in vitro, but an embryo is transferred not to the uterus but to a fallopian tube 

Arguments in favor of IVF

• MAIN: people have a right to make reproductive choices without interference from others

• help many people overcome infertility

• enables desperate couples to have healthy children

• have biologically related children

Arguments against IVF

• has the potential to cause birth defects and disease in children 

• it undermines the value we place on children 

• it breaks the natural connection between procreation and sexual intercourse in marriage

• it dramatically changes common family relationships

Autonomy and IVF

by supporting reproductive choice

Beneficence and IVF

by helping people have children

Non-maleficence and IVF

by minimizing harm

Justice and IVF

raises questions regarding fair access and resource use

Arguments in favor of human reproductive cloning 

• appeals to reproductive liberty 

• benefits to infertile couples 

Arguments against human reproductive cloning

• cloning is unnatural

• it violates the right of the resulting clone to a unique identity or future

• it will result in the demeaning artificial manufacture of children as products

What year was the first IVF baby conceived?

1977

Baby M

Was the baby born from a 1985 surrogacy agreement between Mary Beth Whitehead and William and Elizabeth Stern. After giving birth, Whitehead changed her mind and refused to give up the child, leading to a major court battle. In 1988, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the surrogacy contract was invalid, but gave custody to the Sterns and visitation rights to Whitehead. The case sparked national debate about the ethics and legality of surrogacy

Bonnie Steinbock

contributed to IVF ethics by arguing that IVF is ethically acceptable when it respects the moral value of embryos, supports responsible parenthood, and considers issues of fairness and access

Leon Kass

opposed IVF on moral and philosophical grounds, arguing that it dehumanizes reproduction, risks treating children as products, and blurs ethical boundaries in the creation of human life

What year was the structure of DNA published?

1953

What year was the human genome sequenced?

2003

Genetic errors and the number of hereditary diseases

changes in DNA that can cause or contribute to thousands of diseases, many of which are passed from parents to offspring

Limits of genetic testing

• genetic tests almost never yield conclusive answers; usually they can give only probabilities of developing a disease

• a negative test result (no mutation) does not guarantee a disease-free future

• tests usually cannot predict how severe symptoms will be or when they will appear

• the power to identify and predict genetic disorders has outpaces our ability to do anything about them

Moral issues in genetic testing

• duties to warn family members when an inherited disorder is discovered

• the obligations of physicians regarding patient autonomy and confidentiality

• the permissibility of genetic discrimination

• the morality of using testing to avoid causing seriously disabled persons to exist

Somatic cell nuclear transfer

is a cloning method that combines a body cell’s nucleus with an egg cell to create an embryo with the donor’s DNA

Clustered regularly inter-spaced short palindromic repeats

is a natural bacterial defense system adapted by scientists into a precise gene-editing technology that allows for targeted changes in DNA

What year did the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act signed into law?

2008

Moral issues in gene therapy 

• medical risks and benefits of the therapy 

• duties to use the procedures to prevent suffering 

• reproductive freedom 

• the morality of practicing positive genetics 

Somatic cell modifications

altering cells in a person’s body (non-inheritable intervention)

Germ-line modifications

modifying cells in egg, sperm, and/or zygote cells (inheritable intervention)

Adult stem cells

come from mature tissues and have limited flexibility but fewer ethical concerns

Embryonic stem cells

come from embryos and can become almost any cell type, though they raise significant ethical questions

Moral issues to embryonic stem cells

whether it is morally permissible to destroy them in a search for cures