Phil 232

Front 1

Vehicles and Crashes - Douglas Husak

Back 1

Driving is problematic because it risks causing harm to others. For driving to be negligent you must: have frivolous reasons for driving and have crash incompatibility.

Front 2

Active and Passive Euthanasia - James Rachels

Back 2

Four arguments for active euthanasia:

1. More humane that passive (sometimes)

2. Important decisions made on irrelevant grounds (opportunity for passive)

3. Based on assumption that killing is intrinsically worse

4. Falsely assumes that doctor is not responsible

Front 3

Self-Determination - Dan Callahan

Back 3

Euthanasia is social decision between two adults. The right to self determination =/= doctor's right to kill.

Examples: slavery and dueling are fundamentally wrong, even with consent

Front 4

Refusal of Treatment - Bonnie Steinbock

Back 4

AMA policy only rejects intentional termination of life. Ceasing life prolonging treatment is only respecting a patient's right to refuse treatment. Difference depends on difference between intending and forseeing, doctrine of double effect.

Front 5

Humans vs Persons - Mary Anne Warren

Back 5

Believes that anti-abortion arguments are either equivocating or begging the question.

Space traveler experiment, five characteristics required for being human:

1. Consciousness and the capacity to feel pain
2. Open-ended reasoning ability
3. Self-motivated activity
4. The capacity to communicate in an open-ended way
5. Self-awareness

Must permit infanticide (if there is no one is willing or has resources to take care of it)

Front 6

Why Abortion is Immoral - Don Marquis

Back 6

Tries to bypass the human vs person debate.

Abortion is as bad as killing a human adult because it interferes with the fundamental desire to continue to live.

Front 7

A Defense of Abortion - Judith Jarvis Thomson

Back 7

Right to life = right not to be killed unjustly. Violinist experiment: fetus does not have right to demand resources from mother

People-seed experiment: is abortion justified if you know the possible consequences beforehand?

Also expanding child experiment

Front 8

Abortion and Feminism - Sally Markowitz

Back 8

Bases defense on commitment to egalitarian society.

Impermissible Sacrifice Principle: If a group is oppressed by another, it is impermissible to require that group to make sacrifices that will perpetuate the oppression

Objection: Are fetuses an oppressed group?

Front 9

Pornography and Degradation - Judith Hill

Back 9

Porn degrades women because it treats them as a means only. Degradation is different from lying or cheating because it is necessarily public.

Focuses on victim pornography.

Porn degrades women as a group, not just individually, and does not have to be intended.

Front 10

Pornography: The Other Side - Ferrel Christensen

Back 10

Disputes claims that porn is wrong:

1. Porn dehumanizes women: not all unhuman things are bad

2. Porn objectifies women: we objectify everyone we have impersonal relations with (i.e. athletes)

3. Porn exploits women: exploiting is getting something in a hurtful or unfair way

Front 11

The Feminist Dilemma - Ellen Willis

Back 11

Women face good cop/bad cop routine

Good cop: chastity, marriage

Bad cop: Suggestion that alternative is whore

Labeling porn as the enemy will make women ashamed of sexual feelings

Front 12

Sexual Labor - Debra Satz

Back 12

Asymmetry thesis: sexual labour markets are asymmetric to other labour markets

1. Essentialist: some intrinsic property makes it unfit to be sold

2. Economic: prostitution is wrong if net costs are disproportionately high

3. Egalitarian: prostitution is wrong because it reinforces gender inequality

Front 13

Drug Decriminalization - Douglas Husak

Back 13

We ought to ask for reasons to criminalize drug use.

Drug use causes no direct harm to others, and usually no indirect harm either.

Will legality cause increase in use? Doesn't matter, increase in use not an ethical reason to punish.

Front 14

What is Terrorism - Igor Primoratz

Back 14

Causing terror in an attempt to intimidate a group into taking a course of action that they would not normally take. Must involve specific use of violence.

Two targets: primary/indirect and secondary/direct

Front 15

Morality of Terrorism - Igor Primoratz

Back 15

For a consequentialist, terrorism is not wrong in itself. Very difficult to justify though.

Combatant vs non-combatant distinction is irrelevant in modern warfare...doctrine of double effect?

Front 16

Famine, Affluence and Morality - Peter Singer

Back 16

If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance then we ought to do it (child drowning in pond analogy). Two things that do not affect argument: proximity and actions (or inaction) of others.

Giving money is not charity, it is duty.

Front 17

Shared Responsibility - Todd Calder

Back 17

Citizens in developed countries share responsibility for structural injustices suffered by the poor in developing countries, whether we participate directly or not.

Front 18

Licensing Parents - Hugh Lafollette

Back 18

Justifies licensing for doctors, lawyers: people who take on risky responsibility must be competent Parents have exclusive control over vulnerable children and there is substantial risk of harm. Proposes system through tax incentives, similar to driving school.