Discussion Questions

Week 10, Both questions should be a total of 500 words combined

1. From  Chapter 5: Nonmaleficence (Beauchamp & Childress): For this question, please answer the following: (a) Outline the conditions that "justify decisions by patients, surrogates, or health care professionals to withhold or withdraw treatment." (120-122); (b) Highlight the  nine conditions under which Beauchamp and Childress believe that physician assistance in dying (i.e., physician assisted suicide) is justified; and (c) Do you think that physician assistance in dying is  morally permissible even under Beauchamp & Childress' nine conditions? Why or why not? Please explain.

2. From  Chapter 5: The Rule of Double Effect (Curlin & Tollefsen) (97-109):  Please explain how the rule of double effect would seem to support aborting ectopic pregnancies but not seem to support physician assisted suicide. 

Week 11, Both questions should be a total of 500 words combined

1. From  Chapter 5: Death and Dying (O. Carter Snead): For this question, please answer the following: (a) What issues does Snead identify with Oregon's Death With Dignity Act? (see the "Critiquing and Reforming the Law of Assisted Suicide" section, pp. 196-202; and (b) Compare and contrast your answer in (a) with how Beauchamp and Childress respond to the "Slippery Slope" objection raised against physician-assisted suicide as it relates to Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (see Beauchamp and Childress Chapter 5: Nonmaleficence, pp. 136-141).

2. From  Chapter 8: Medicine at the End of Life (Curlin & Tollefsen 154-179): Please offer some personal reflections (i.e., a few short paragraphs) on which argument(s) or point(s) stood out to you the most or that you found most intriguing in this chapter