Ethics and Politics

Ethics and Politics

Review 1 of 500 words

Instructions

-At home

-Individually

-With language correction tools (dictionary, grammar...)

-With the summary document (1 page of two-sided notes)

-About 500 words

Analyze and try to solve the following ethical problem by testing an approach..

Instructions:

-Follow the essay plan that has been given in class.

-Don't forget to highlight a conflict of values from the dilemma you will analyze.

- Pay attention to the quality of the language and the clarity of your words.

-Write down the total number of words in your essay at the end of the essay.

Question :

You are an ethicist in a large hospital and you review the code of ethics of the treating staff. One situation in particular presents a challenge for your code of ethics: following a complex medical procedure, a newborn was brought back to life after several minutes. The prognosisc is bleak: it is certain that the child has suffered irreparable damage, leading to a life severely handicapped. According to the most generous estimate, the child will obviously never exceed the vegetative state. Although a remission of its primary functions (e.g., breathing) is certain, it is artificially kept alive by a machine. The question you are asked is: depending on deontological ethic, what would be the moral action? Remember that you will have to defend your interpretation in front of the treatment team who will use this code of conduct to guide its future practice.

Structure:

Introduction:

Explain the context of the problem : the situation in the hospital

Explain what are the opposing values : there is two equally good options that are opposed to one another. 1- what are the values and 2- why are they opposed?

Plan of your text : in one sentence each, your are going to explain the structure of your text.

Development:

Author 1 (Kant) :

List of concepts you need to use and define (You need to use ALL OF THESE) : Autonomy, practical reason, human being, subject, categorical imperative, one of the phrasing of the categorical imperative, distinction between WANT vs DUTY.

a. Each time you introduce a new concept, you need to define it

b. How is it related to the other concepts

Premise : How Kant views human kind : what is a human being for Kant? Go to concept b “practical reason”

First part of Kant’s argument (you ONLY talk about the theory) :

a. Why do we need to explain “what is a human being”?

a. Moral and ethics are about what is good for US (human beings)

b. Depending on how we see human beings, we will need to do things differently

c. So, by explaining what is Kant’s idea of human being, you’ll be able to find what is the right thing to do in this situation.

d. Why are human different from animals? Because they possess autonomy! So now we need to explain : what is “autonomy”?

b. Practical reason

a. Autonomy

c. Subject : what is a human being (subject=a person)

a. What is the right thing to do? Two ways : either :

i. Want (subjective: belongs to you)

ii. Duty (objective: is considered in itself)

d. Duty brings us to = Categorical imperative

e. Phrasing of one categorical imperative

f. Conclusion the theoretical argument

Second part of Kant’s argument (you talk about the case, not just the theory) :

a. Apply it to the situation

b. For Kant : Baby has autonomy :

i. B, c, d, e, but applied to the situation

ii. What should we do according to the categorical imperative?

Synthesis: you are going to argue what should you do?

1- What is the center of the problem? You need to pick one argument. You can bring your own. This is NOT about YOUR opinion, it’s about what is RIGHT. Avoid things like (“I think” , I would prefer…)

a. What is the aspect I’m going to talk about?

i. That baby is not autonomous

ii. Suffering matter more then duty

iii. Consent

b. What are the issues with

i. The case

ii. The way the philosophers are conceptualizing the case

iii. The philosophies

c. What is THE right thing to do?

2- Can we really say that the baby is autonomous?

Conclusion:

Summarize your text:

Open onto another question: what is another problem that could be interesting to look at?