Sept. 2

Thursday

Introduction

7

Tuesday

Defining Moral Problems: Everyday Moral Reasoning

• journal guidelines
• In-class writing assignment: write a short essay in which you describe a contemporary moral issue that you think is genuinely difficult to decide.  Indicate the pro's and con's and explain why you think it is difficult to decide.  What would help to resolve the issue? Writing time: 15 minutes.  Followed by in-class discussion.

9

Thursday

Ethical Theory: Overview, Utilitarianism

• in class writing assignment: write a brief paragraph in which you describe your own position on a specific moral issue about which you have a definite position.  Begin the essay with, "I think that [x] is morally [right/wrong] because..." and then give three reasons for your position.  Writing time: 5 minutes. 
• Background reading: Hinman, "The Ethics of Consequences," eReserve.

14

Tuesday

Ethical Theory: Rule-based approaches to morality

• Calvin, Hobbes, and Kant

Ethical Theory: Character-based approaches to morality

First Journal Assignment: Write an essay discussing the various major approaches in ethical theory and your own position in this regard.

Cloning, Genetic Manupulation, Regenerative Medicine

21

Tuesday

Shaping Our Children through Genetic Manipulation

• Read CMI, Chapter One

The octuplets case

• Tom Murray, "Are Eight Babies Enough?"
• CNN Octuplets videos
  • Octuplet Outrage
  • Food stamps
  • Obsessed?
• Today Show: The Doctor

Case Studies: Liver Cancer, Down Syndrome

• View "Embryo Screening", New York Times video
  • Notes on "Embryo Screening"
  • Text of article
• View Down Syndrome, New York Times video
• Amy Harmon, " Prenatal Test Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus." New York Times, May 9, 2007.
• "Genetic Enhancement."  Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, August 17, 2007.  Bob Abernathy, host. includes interviews with Michael Sandel and Greg Stock.

Stock-Fukuyama debate

• PowerPoint: The Stock-Fukuyama Debate
• Stock-Fukuyama Debate on-line in RealVideo and available in transcript from from the Cato Institute. This is an excellent resource.

Additional Resources

• Ethics Updates - Bioethics,
• Cloning,& Reproductive Technologies
• The Clone Zone (University of Utah)
• BBC Cloning Timeline
• BBC on Cloning, Ethics & Religion
• Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) (UK)
• Hinman, Cloning Pets
• New York Times on The DNA Age
• Baruch et al., Genetic Testing of Embryos
• Genetics and Public Policy Center: Publications
• More on animal cloning

Stem Cell Ethics & Regenerative Medicine

Video

• Michael Sandel, "The Case against Perfection"
• Art Caplan, "Using Biomedicine to Enhance Ourselves"
• Fukuyama and Stock on biotechnology, The Charlie Rose Show. 6/3/02.
• Craig Venter: "A voyage of DNA, genes and the sea." TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.
• "A Discussion about Personal Genetics." Charlie Rose Show with David Agus, Co-Founder, Navigenics, Dean Ornish, President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute and George Church of Harvard Medical School. 7/29/2008.
• "A Discussion with Craig Venter" about having his own genome mapped and published." Charlie Rose Show. 1/9/07
• "A Discussion with Craig Venter" The Charlie Rose Show. 12/25/07

PowerPoint presentations:

• The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation:
• McGee's "Parenting in an Age of Genetics."

Recommended on eReserve (password "phil321" without the quotation marks):

• "Girl or Boy? As Fertility Technology Advances, So Does an Ethical Debate." Grady, D.
• "There is No Me Without You." Shapiro, D.
• "Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects." Sanghavi, D.M.
• Katrina Clark, "My Father Was an Anonymous Sperm Donor" Washington Post. December 17, 2006.
• Peggy Orenstein, "In Vitro We Trust" New York Times. July 20, 2008.

Additional resources:

• President's Council on Bioethics
• Genetics and Public Policy Center: Publications

Second Journal Assignment: Genetic testing has made it increasingly possible to test for genetic traits extremely early in a pregnancy. In some cases the results of these tests may result in abortion, in non-implantation of embryos, or in modification of embryos. What general principles should be used in deciding (a) when such tests can be performed and (b) what actions may be taken as a result of such tests. (2 pages, double-spaced).

23

Thursday

Class cancelled due to illness.

Genetic Enhancement and Designer Babies

In the news:

• Sickle cell testing of athletes stirs discrimination fears.  New York Times, Sept. 20, 2010.
• "Screening Student Athletes for Sickle Cell Trait — A Social and Clinical Experiment," New England Journal of Medicine (Sept. 2010) (eReserve)
• "Artificial Ovary Could Help Infertile Women." Technology Review, Sept. 20, 2010.

28

Tuesday

Video: Gattaca

• Notes on Gattaca
• Gattaca script
• Gattaca highlighted script

Genetic Enhancement and Cloning (continued)

• Genetic Counseling Scene

30

Thursday

Gattaca (concl.) Ethics in the news:

• British euthanasia rules:
• http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/09/23/uk.assisted.suicide.law /index.html

Third Journal Assignment: Essay discussing ethical issues in "Gattaca."

Audio of class discussion on Gattaca.

Oct. 5

Tuesday

Class Lecture on Genetic Technologies

• Audio: Genetic Technologies, Part One

PowerPont: Genetic Technologies

• PowerPoint
  PDF

In the News:

• US Apologies for Syphilis Experiments done in Guatemala
• Susan Reverby. "PHS 'Tuskegee' Doctor in Guatemala, 1946-48"
• Pioneer of IVF Wins Nobel Prize

March 12

Tuesday

Continuation of Genetic Technologies

• Audio of Genetic Technologies, Part 2

Eugenics

• PowerPoint
• PDF
• Audio of lecture on Eugenics

14

Thursday

Mid-Term Exam

• turn in the journal entries
• material for short answer questions

Possible long essay questions: (I will choose one of these for the mid-term exam.):

• Consequentialist and deontological approaches to moral questions sometimes yield quite different answers. Write an essay, showing a critical awareness of the class readings and lectures and discussions, in which you discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of both deontological and consequentialist approaches to the question of genetic screening and present your own position on this issue.  Be sure to include a discussion of the relevant course materials.
• Write an essay critically applying the ideas in your readings and other course materials to the movie "Gattaca." In your discussion, be sure to state and defend your own position on the issues discussed and to highlight the difference between consequentialist and deontological approaches to these issues.
  

Previous exam

Journals:.

• three journal entries, covering topics in ethical theory, genetic technologies and Gattaca.

Abortion

PowerPoint

Audio of class lecture

Fourth Journal Assignment: Write an essay discussing your views on the moral status of the embryo. Is it a person? Why, why not? When? How does your view relate to the authors we are considering?

Abortion, Part II

• Concept of Personhood: PowerPoint, PDF

Return of mid-term exams; guidelines for grade appeals

Stem Cell Research

PowerPoint

Videos

• Rat with severed spinal cord
• Video: Charlie Rose show on stem cells with Paul Nurse, president of The Rockefeller University, Doug Melton, Co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, George Daley of Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Larry Goldstein, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell program, and Story Landis of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
• Stamagen cloning
• Stem Cell Ethics Conference - 04/06/07
• 60 Minutes Segment: "21st Century Snake Oil."
• Ronald Cole-Turner defends a view of the “relative value” of human embryos—more than cells, less than persons, at:
  •http://www.counterbalance.net/stemcol/rct-frame.html
• Cole-Turner’s Burke Lecture on the genetic revolution and designer babies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRrNwFFta5w

Web Resources

• NBAC Executive Summary on stem cell research
• additional material
• President's Council on Bioethics
• Alternative Sources of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
• National Institutes of Health website on stem cell research
• National Academies Guidelines for Stem Cell Research (April 2005)
• Catholic perspectives
• Hinman and Kalichman, "Moral Questions about Stem Cell Research" San Diego Union-Tribune , January 6 2005, p. B9.
• Lawrence M. Hinman and Michael Kalichman, KPBS, "These Days" on stem cell ethics, June 8 2005
• Stem Cell Ethics--Canada
• Overview of embryonic development
• Michael Sandel, "Embryo Ethics," Boston Globe, April 8, 2007.

Recommended on eReserve:

• "Can Science Resolve the Ethical Impasse in Stem Cell Research?" Snyder, E.Y., Hinman, L.M. and Kalichman, M.W. Nature Biotech
• Stem Cell Reviews: Volume 1, Number 4
• Michael J. Sandel, "Embryo Ethics: The Moral Logic of Stem-Cell Research," NEJM 351;3 (www.nejm.org , July 15, 2004) (eReserve)
• Shari Roan, "Infertility patients caught in the legal, moral and scientific embryo debate," Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2008.

Fifth Journal Entry: Ethics of stem cell research

26

Tuesday

Euthanasia & End-of-Life

• Moyers, "A Death of One's Own"
  • Notes on Moyers video
• PowerPoint on Euthanasia

Read CMI, Chapter Three

Recommended: reading

• Joan Didion, "The Case of Theresa Schiavo"
  New York Review of Books, Volume 52, Number 10 - June 9, 2005; (eReserve)
• John Cornwell, "The Undead." The Times of London. December 9, 2007. (eReserve)
• Lawrence M. Hinman and Michael Kalichman, "The Schiavo Case: What Can We Learn?" Voice of San Diego, April 25, 2005.
• Michael Kalichman and Lawrence M. Hinman, "The Schiavo Case: Ethics and the End of Life" North County Times, March 26 2005.
• William Saletan, "The Doctors Who Are Redefining Life and Death." Washington Post, October 5, 2008.

Fifth Journal Assignment: Write an essay in which you discuss the issues raised by the Moyers' video "A Death of One's Own."

28

Thursday

Euthanasia & End-of-Life (Moyers, conclusion)

• PowerPoint on Euthanasia
• Oregon Death-with-Dignity Reports
• Principle of Double Effect: PowerPoint, PDF

Nov. 2

Tuesday

4

Thursday

Punishment and the Death Penalty

PowerPoint on Punishment

Read:

• CMI, Chapter on Punishment
• Atul Gawande, "Hellhole," New Yorker, March 30, 2009.

9

Tuesday

11

Thursday

16

Tuesday

Capital Punishment

• PowerPoint

• watch first half of "Dead Man Walking"
  • Script of Dead Man Walking (highlighted)

18

Tuesday

Capital Punishment

• watch seoncd half of "Dead Man Walking"
  • Script of Dead Man Walking (highlighted)
• Talk by Sr. Helen Prejean on "Dead Man Walking"

California Death Penalty

• Graphic
• Union-Tribune article

Journal entry on issues in punishment or capital punishment.

25

Thursday

Thanksgiving Vacation

30

Tuesday

Capital Punishment

• John Paul Stevens, "On the Death Sentence," New York Review of Books, December 23, 2010. Review of David Garland's Peculiar Institution. America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition (Belknap.Harvard, 2010). Justice Stevens on 60 Minutes on the death penalty, Nov. 28, 2010.
• Talk by Sr. Helen Prejean on "Dead Man Walking"
  • Notes on Prejean lecture

California Death Penalty

• Graphic
• Union-Tribune article

Journal entry on issues in punishment or capital punishment.

Dec. 2

Thursday

Just War

Just War Theory; Humanitarian Intervention; Torture

• PowerPoint on Just War Theory

Read: CMI, Chapter on war

Jus post Bellum: Justice and Reconciliation

Bill Moyers Video with Mark Danner and Bruce Fein (not: this link takes you to the first of the five segments for this on-line video. Links to the remaining four parts are given on the page for part one.

7

Tuesday

Humanitarian Intervention; Torture

PowerPoints

• Humanitarian Intervention
• Torture

ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody

Mark Danner, The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means, New York Review of Books, 56, 7 (April 30, 2009)

Mark Danner, "US Torture: Voices from th Black Sites," New York Review of Books, 56, 6 (April 9, 2009).

New York Times guide to the Torture Memos

Office of Legal Counsel Legal Memoranda (April 19, 2009)

"In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Look at the Past," NYT, April 22, 2009.

US Senate Final Report on Detainees in U.S. Custody Released April 21, 2009.

Timeline. Senate Intelligence committee. Released April 22, 2009. Washington Post summary. April 23, 2009; Post article.

Thomas Friedman, "A Tortorous Compromise"

9

Thursday

Last day of class -- concluding comments

14

Tuesday

Additional office hours: to be posted.

Information for the final exam

Short answer questions will cover:

• CMI: readings on abortion, end-of-life, punishment & death penalty, war and terrorism
• eReserve: Gawande, "Letting Go," David Sussman, "What's Wrong with Torture?"
• PowerPoints: abortion, stem cell research, end-of-life, punishment, death penalty, just war theory, torture
• Videos: Moyers "A Death of One's Own," Dead Man Walking; Sr. Helen Prejean, Lecture on Dead Man Walking.

Possible long answer questions:

• Drawing on the course readings, lectures, and other related materials, write an essay in which you critically assess the morality of the decisions made in each of the three cases (Kitty, Jim, and Ricky) presented in Moyers’ “A Death of One’s Own.”

• Drawing on the course readings, lectures, and other related materials, write an essay in which you critically assess the ethical issues that are presented in “Dead Man Walking.”

Four Journals due on any four of the following topics:

• abortion
• stem cell research
• Punishment and the Death Penalty
• Dead Man Walking
• Bill Moyers' video: "A Death of One's Own"
• Euthanasia readings
• Punishment/death penalty readings
• Just war theory/torture

Final Exam.

• Section #2: 8:00-10:00 AM

Final Exam.

• Section #1: 8:00-10:00 AM