PSY work

For this module, you are required to complete a Written Case Analysis (200 words). Please read Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues, Case 4, p. 173. Identify the moral issue(s) and the parties involved; identify what rights are at stake

4. A California Superior Court judge ordered a Sacramento woman to stop smoking around her 5-year-old son. The decision came during a custody dispute. The boy’s father claimed that breathing secondhand smoke could harm the boy’s health. Do moral considerations support the judge’s ruling?

Note

Moral Rights and Natural Law

The purpose of this module is to discuss the notion of a moral right and to say a few things about how it came to be connected to the notion of a natural law, understood in a moral sense. The connection with natural law will be made later on in the module after some points about rights are introduced. Only a few points will be made, just enough to give you a bit of a perspective on the idea of rights. This is because, contrary to the development of, say, the theory of utility, the notions of moral rights and natural law have a complicated history and reflect diverse influences. A fuller account of their interaction remains to be done. Nevertheless, your textbook covers rights and natural law in the same chapter, so some explanation for this fact is owed.