Category: Reading Questions

Please note, you do NOT need to answer these here. Answer them for yourself as you read and save the answers–you will need them for the exams!

Brock, D W. 1992. “Voluntary Active Euthanasia.”

• Explain how Brock uses the illustration involving the greedy son to argue that doctors are already permitted to kill their patients.

Nesbitt, Winston. 1995. “Is killing no worse than letting die?”

• According to Nesbitt, what is the correct reason for thinking killing is morally worse than letting die?

I apologize for the late notice on these. In lieu of attending class tonight, please spend some time working out the answers to the following reading questions. 

For links to readings, see Course Schedule and Readings. Please note, you do NOT need to answer these here. Answer them for yourself as you read and save the answers–you will need them for the exams!

Wendell, S. (1989). Toward a feminist theory of disability.

In what way is being disabled similar to being a woman, according to Susan Wendell?

Gunther, D. F., & Diekema, D. S. 2006. Attenuating growth in children with profound developmental disability: a new approach to an old dilemma.

In the Ashley X case, described in the article “Attenuating growth…” by Gunther and Diekema, they describe a procedure they used to permanently stunt the growth of a 6 year old with profound disabilities. What was the primary reason they performed this procedure, and whose interest did they claim it served?

We’ll have reading questions for the next week, however. 

Boorse, C. 1975. On the distinction between disease and illness.

Boorse discusses the idea that healthy conditions are good conditions, an idea he calls “weak normativism.” Explain one of Boorse’s two major counterexamples to weak normativism.

Engelhardt, H Tristram. 1974. “The Disease of Masturbation: Values and the Concept of Disease.”

Engelhardt discusses two ways of understanding the guilt associated with masturbation: essential guilt and adventitious guilt. What is the difference between these two?

Navin, Mark Christopher, and Jason Adam Wasserman. 2017. “Reasons to Amplify the Role of Parental Permission in Pediatric Treatment.”

What disease do Navin and Wasserman use to illustrate the idea that parents often bring important facts into medical decision making that help illuminate the child’s interests? Why, according to Navin and Wasserman, might parents be in the best position to report such facts?

Schuklenk, Udo. 2015. “Physicians can justifiably euthanize certain severely impaired neonates.”

According to Schuklenk, when is continued life no longer in a severely impaired neonate’s best interest?

Brock, Dan W. “Surrogate Decision-Making.”

According to Brock, do surrogates have the authority to decide whatever they want on behalf of the patients they represent? What is one case where providers (physicians) should not do what surrogates request?

Macklin. Consent, Coercion, and Conflicts of Rights.

Why, according to Macklin, do adult Jehovah’s Witnesses not have a right to deny life saving blood transfusions to their children?

Appelbaum, P. S. Assessment of patients’ competence to consent to treatment.

According to Appelbaum, how impaired should a patient be before physicians deem them incompetent?

For links to readings, see Course Schedule and Readings. Please note, you do NOT need to answer these here. Answer them for yourself as you read and save the answers–you will need them for the exams!

According to Kant, how do we typically justify to ourselves actions that are against duty?

According to McCormick, what must we do when different prima facie binding principles (like respect for autonomy, beneficence, etc) conflict with each other?