- •Metaethics: where our ethical principles come from (for example, Social construction? Will of God?) and what they mean
- •Applied Ethics: examining specific areas (for example, business ethics) and specific controversial issues (for example, abortion, capital punishment)
- •1) Difficulty of proving Supernatural Existence
- •2) Religious people can be immoral.
- •4) Different religions promote different ethical systems.
- •In Aristotle’s ethics (arete) is “excellences of various types.”
- •Virtue ethics is about character (agent-centered)
- •1) Psychological egoism:
- •2) Ethical egoism
- •Values of Traditional Society:
- •Impartiality and equality
- •Intensity
- •In other words with his/her choice man is setting an example of what he/she thinks is the right thing to do
- •Niccolò Machiavelli
- •Is the corporation a moral agent?
- •Favored by just cause advocates: legally.
- •Favored by at-will advocates: through the promotion of a vibrant labor market in which jobs are frequently created and readily available.
- •It can create a climate of support for attitudes that harm women
- •Issues in Euthanasia:
- •Voluntariness and Non-consequentialism
- •Bioethics: stem cell research
- •1953: Watson and Crick determine the molecular structure of dna
- •2000: Human Genome Project
- •Individuals with rare genetic disorders
- •In 1992 in Orlando, Florida, 5% of the drivers were black or Hispanic, but they accounted for 70% of those who were stopped and searched.
- •Information, computer and roboethics
- •Intellectual property
- •Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics (1942, I Robot):
- •56 Nations are developing robotic weapons
Voluntariness and Non-consequentialism
The value of personal autonomy
Illness and depression: still able to make an autonomous judgment?
Consequentialism
Generally if the consequences are all that matter, it would seem that active and passive euthanasia are the same (if the best outcome is a person’s death)
Possible Abuses? ‘Domino Effect’ or ‘Slippery Slope’: if we permit euthanasia when a person is soon dying, in un-relievable pain, and has requested that his life be ended, then we will permit it when a person is not dying or has not requested to die.
Non-Consequentialism
Respecting autonomy
Do not kill
Religious people: decisions about when to die should be left to God
Bioethics: stem cell research
1953: Watson and Crick determine the molecular structure of dna
2000: Human Genome Project
Some examples of diseases that may be treated allowing stem cell research:
Diabetes
Alzheimer
Parkinson
Stem cells are found in early embryo and in other parts of the human body that are not yet, or not fully, differentiated
Embryonic stem cells are called pluripotent because they can develop all of the body organs: they can be removed during the first week of embryonic development and cultivated
Method I: Focusing on fetal development
Conception or Fertilization
Detectable Brain Waves
Viability
Method II: Focusing on what kind of beings have a special moral status
The Problem of Chimeras (animals with some human cells or organs)
And the recommendations of the US National Institutes of Health (compare with the recommendations of ISSCR)
Chimeras animals should not be allowed to mate
Human stem cells should not be allowed to become part of an animal’s brain and should not be injected into other primates
The embryo should not be allowed to develop for more than 14 days
HUMAN CLONING
Therapeutic Cloning: it would be used in order to avoid the immunological rejection of tissues
Reproductive Cloning
Dolly the sheep (Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1996)
Since that day, more and more people are asking for the cloning of their dead pets
Still some problems in the health of cloned animals
Even if it was possible, and this is not sure, Human Cloning for the moment is forbidden by law everywhere
Narcissism: self-perpetuation
This is often a motivation in other actions that we do not restrict, including having children.
Replace dead children
Some parents who have suffered the loss of a child may want to have it cloned.
Couples with both male and female infertility factors who do not want to use donors
Individuals with rare genetic disorders
Use as organ donor, etc.
With a clone, there are no worries about organ rejection.
Objections: Unique Individual: the cloned person would not be a unique individual. Someone is even raising the question of whether a clone would have a soul
Replies: the cloned individual would be different from the original
Objections: Right to an open future: he or she would be expected to be like the original person and so not free to develop as she/he chooses
- Reply: this happens with any children when parents decide what schools they should attend or what sports they should practice
Exploiting the clone: the clone child could be generated for being the donor for someone else
Replies: in some cases the fact that a clone was created for donating bone marrow, does not imply that he/she will be loved
The “yuck” objection: we simply think that cloning is abhorrent
Reply: ethical reasoning cannot be based on emotions only
GENETIC ENGINEERING
How do we conduct experiments? In every medical experiment the subject should sign an informed consensus before being treated.
Justifications for Genetic Engineering on Humans:
Utilitarian: we produce an overall better group of people (Eugenics)
Libertarian: it is a matter of my individual liberty to decide how I want to be
EQUALITY AND DISCRIMINATION
Some categories that have been used and are used for discrimination:
Race
Ethnicity
Religion
Sexual Orientation
Gender
Disability
Stereotypes:
Italians are ‘mafia’
Don’t trust an Uzbek
Women are not good drivers
“White Trash”
Racial Profiling: "Racial Profiling" refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin”