PHIL 136 - MEDICINE AND MORALITY

Spring 2008

TR 2:10-3:25

Wadsworth 21

Theodore Everett

Office: Wadsworth 9B

telephone: x5198 (home)243-3433

e-mail: everett@geneseo.edu

Office Hours: 2:00-4:00W (and by appt.)

TEXTS:

[BW] Tom Beauchamp and Leroy Walters, Contemporary Issues in Bioethics (6th edition).

[X] Additional readings in a xeroxed course pack.

OBJECTIVES:

This course is a philosophical introduction to some major topics in biomedical ethics, including competence and consent, euthanasia, abortion, health care distribution and AIDS. Our approach will involve a mixture of specifically biomedical material, general ethical principles and theories, and other philosophical theories and techniques. For example, a good philosophical understanding of abortion would seem to require knowledge not just about (1) surgery, fetal development, relevant statistics and so on, but also (2) ethical doctrines about personal freedom and the sanctity of life, plus (3) metaphysical concerns about the nature of personhood and identity, and (4) attention to epistemological questions, such as whether one can know the interests of an unborn child, or whether anything can be known about an issue where the opinion of society is so fiercely divided. As a result, the content of the course will be about one third background in philosophy and ethics, two thirds more-or-less direct discussion of the issues.

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:

There will be three exams in this course, including the final. Each exam will count for 30% of your course grade. A list of possible essay questions for each exam will be given out in advance. Class participation and improvement will account for the remaining 10% of your grade. Perfect attendance is strongly encouraged. If you need to miss class, please let me know in advance. It is equally important to keep up with the readings, so that our discussions can be maximally meaningful.

It is important to stress the distinction between philosophical analysis and ordinary opinion. It does not matter to this course whether you are for or against abortion, euthanasia, etc. What matters entirely is whether you can understand the network of reasoning that supports, opposes and connects all existing and possible positions on these issues. Whether these positions happen to be yours, mine, or anybody's is beside the point.

PLAGIARISM

All work for this course must be your own. Any plagiarism will result in a grade of E for the course. See the college academic honesty policy for definitions and details, at

http://www.geneseo.edu/~bulletin/addpolicies.shtml#student_academic

If you find that you are having any trouble with this course, of any sort, please grab me after class, or during office hours, or send me an e-mail, or call me at the office or home. I want you to do well, and I want us all to have a good time.

COURSE SCHEDULE (readings in parentheses).

Note: all dates for specific topics are tentative.

INTRODUCTION

1/22 What is philosophy? What is ethics? What is Phil 136?

BASIC ETHICAL THEORY

1/24 Ethical theories and principles. ([BW] 1-33)

1/29 The "harm to others" principle. (Mill [X])

CONSENT

1/31 Informed consent. ([BW] 141-149)

2/5 Surrogate mothers. (Posner [X])

EUTHANASIA

2/7 Deciding for infants. (Gustafson, Weir [X])

2/12 The "right to die" ([BW] 186-200)

2/14 Physician assisted suicide. ([BW] 216-234)

2/19 The Schiavo case. (Cranford, McHugh [X])

GENETIC ISSUES

2/21 Eugenics. ([BW] 451-472)

2/26 Testing and enhancement. ([BW] 507-513, 534-544)

FIRST EXAM Thursday, 2/28

ABORTION

3/4 Abortion and the sanctity of life. (Selzer, Wertheimer [X])

3/6 The self-defense argument. ([BW] 278-287)

3/11 The personhood argument. ([BW] 288-307)

3/13 Consent and identity arguments; nonliberal arguments. (MacKinnon [X])

SPRING BREAK no class 3/18 or 3/20

OTHER LIFE ISSUES

3/25 The stem cell debate. ([BW] 636-645, Swenson, Sande [X])

3/27 Cloning. ([BW] 593-602)

MORE ETHICAL THEORY

4/1 Equality. (Baker, Williams [X])

4/3 Fairness vs. freedom. (Nozick, Singer [X])

SECOND EXAM: Tuesday, 4/8

HEALTH CARE DISTRIBUTION

4/10 A decent minimum. ([BW] 53-63).

4/15 Health care rationing. ([BW] 90-108).

AIDS

4/17 The AIDS epidemic. ([BW] 677-684, 691-699)

4/22 AIDS and privacy. (ACLU, Boonstra [X])

DRUGS, TOBACCO, AND FAT

4/24 Legalization and medical marijuana. (ACLU, NIH [X]).

4/29 Smoking as a public health issue. (handouts).

5/1 Obesity as a public health issue. (handouts)

THIRD EXAM: Tuesday, 5/6

FINAL MEETING: Wednesday, 5/14, 6:45pm