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Bioethics Summary
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Very complete summary of everything that was dealt with in the lesson. Achieved result 18/20.
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PART 1: GENERAL ETHICSPart 2 and 8 are PDF documents (not summarized)
What are ethics?
“Abortion is the killing of a human being” Vs “abortion is murder”
! Killing is not always a crime " it depends
– Soldiers on a battle field do not murder, they kill
– You cannot do abortion without killing the fetus
– This statement cannot be true nor false
– Saying it is killing is wrong " it is an injunction
! You need to be very careful to distinguish them from one another
Normative and descriptive statements
– Normative statements = about what should be the case, what should be done
o They can be valid or invalid
o You should not kill
– Descriptive statements = a fact, can be true or false
! Vb: Peter is ill = you can control it = descriptive
! Vb: Peter deserves to be ill = you cannot control it = normative
Science does 2 things:
1. Describe things accurately
2. Explain them
! Morality and ethics are about statements that can
be valid or invalid!
" they are about normative statements
" there is always a value and a rule involved
vb: abortion
– the rule involved = do not kill human beings
– the value involved = the value of human life
! ethics is about rules and values
1
,Morality and ethics
– Morality = practice = the values and norms that individuals, groups and societies accept as a
matter of fact
o life is impossible without having values and rules
o ex: be quiet in classrooms, park your bike at the right place, be kind to one another,
do not steal…
– Ethics = philosophical discipline = justification of values and norms
o which values should we accept and which rules should we follow
o ex: should we eat meat?
Example of clarification of an argument
– The killing of human being is forbidden
– A fetus is a human being
! SO: The killing of a fetus is forbidden
! BUT: The killing in self-defence is allowed
! SO: Why would the killing of all human life forms be forbidden (getting haircut…)
(1) The killing of potential persons is forbidden
(2) A fetus is a potential person
" the killing of a fetus is forbidden
! BUT: what is a person? What is a potential person?
" Can go on and on and on…
Two basic approaches
“ You have to allot 10 hearts over 20 patients, how to proceed?”
– You need rules that fix priorities and tell you how to act = ethics
– Seems a bit hopeless to do this
What could we do?
– Check the medical background " probability of survival " the highest probability of survival
gets the heart
– Select them by age " youngest patients get a heart (they have a whole life ahead of them) "
survival duration is longer
2
, – Check the urgency " also probability of survival " the one who is going to die first, gets the
heart
– The fastest ones get the heart
1. Consequentialism
! Act so that you maximize the amount of values, as a result of your action
" the maximum survivors
" an ethicist will start a debate about which idea is the most useful
" ex. In the hospital, the ones which have the most serious problem are helped first
2. Other way of proceeding – deontological way of reasoning
! Some people think this is not the good way of thinking
" there is a problem with counting and contributing to maximum value
! Philippa Foot: abortion and the doctrine of the double effect " trolley problem:
Situation 1
Imagine that you are a train conductor and the train is going on a hollow track
(the train is running somewhere in a deeper place than the surroundings) – 5
people are working at the tracks and they cannot escape – at the other side there
is also 1 man working – you can choose which side you are going to, what do we
do?
" Most people go left and kill only one person
Situation 2
The surgeon has 5 patients that will die if he does not give them
transplantation – there is one manager who just comes for a check-up
and is healthy – would it be a good way of proceeding to cut open the
manager and save these 5 people?
! In the first situation, it was ok to kill one person to keep 5 alive, but in the
second situation it was not
Situation 3
In this case you are outside the train and you can change the direction of the
train to go to the left (and kill 1 person) or go to the right (and kill 5 people) – if
you do not do anything you are not involved – letting people die is something
other than killing people
3
, Situation 4
On a bridge there is a very fat man, and on the other side there are 5 people
working – if you push the fat man of the bridge, the train will be stopped and
the 5 people would stay alive – this is not right, the action is more direct –
you are more directly involved
Deontological way of reasoning
– They do not start from what is valuable
" There are some basic rules that let you deduce other minor rules that are useful
! Verschillende resultaten: bijvoorbeeld doen en laten:
– Consequentialisme: alle voorspelbare gevolgen doen én laten “tellen”
– Deontologie: van laten “tellen” alleen de geïntendeerde gevolgen
Example of deontology = Kantianism
– Kant says that it is always wrong to use people as a means " it is wrong to use people as a
sexual object
– When a cat strokes against your leg, your cat uses you as a means
– So in the fat man’s case you do not push the man because then you use people as means
4
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