Sept. 12

Monday

Introduction. Social Ethics. Ethical Theory: Overview

• Schedule
• Course requirements
• Journals
• Classroom conduct

Ethical Theories

• Utilitarianism
• Rule-based theories
• Character-based theories

Readings:

• Hinman, Presentations on Ethical Theory: http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Presentations/AppliedEthics/Theory/index.asp
• CMI, Intro
• Hinman, "The Ethics of Consequences" (eReserve)
• Hinman, "The Ethics of Duty" (eReserve)
• Hinman, "The Ethics of Character" (eReserve)

Trivia: Who likes the beach?

Journal #1:

• Discuss the three main approaches to ethical theory and describe your own position in relation to each of these.

Sept. 19

Monday

Topic #1: Cloning and Reproductive Technologies, Part One

• Read CMI, Chapter One
• "Making Laws about Making Babies," New York Times, Sept. 13, 2011. (also on eReserve)
• Hinman, "Chapter 01.  Reproductive Technology.  An Introduction to the Moral Issues." (emailed to you and on eReserve)  This replaces the introduction to the ethical issues in your textbook.
• "Sandel, Enhancement--with commentary."  (emailed to you and on eReserve)

Video

• Rat movie
• Rat video 2
• Stamagen cloning

PowerPoint presentations:

• The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation:
• McGee's "Parenting in an Age of Genetics."
• PowerPoint: The Stock-Fukuyama Debate
• PowerPoint on Eugenics, PDF

Case Studies: PGI for Cancer Gene; 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.
  • Background: Prenatal screening for Down syndrome
  • Dan Hurley, "A Drug for Down Syndrome."  NYT, July 29, 2011.
  • Matthew Hennessey, "Down Syndrome and the Purpose of Prenatal Testing."  First Things, August 1, 2011.
• New York Times DNA series

Resources:

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

Recommended on eReserve:

• "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.
• "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
• President's Council on Bioethics

Journal #2:

• Describe your position on the morality of the use of PGD to use genetic selection prior to implanting embryos.

Sept. 26

Monday

Cloning and Reproductive Technologies, Part Two

Gattica

• Gattica notes and cast list
• Gattaca scriipt
• Genetic counseling scene

Recommended:

• Gerard Mannion, "Genetics and the Ethics of Community."  Heythrop Journal, 2006.  (eReserve)

Journal #3:

• Write an essay in which you discuss the ethical issues arising in "Gattica," relating them to our course readings and discussions.

October 3

Monday

Topic #2: End-of-Life Issues, Part One

Read CMI, Chapter Three

• Euthanasia PowerPoint
• Atul Gawande, "Letting Go" (eReserve); Fresh Air interview
• PBS video
• New Yorker festival

Recommended: reading

• Joan Didion, "The Case of Theresa Schiavo"
  New York Review of Books, Volume 52, Number 10 - June 9, 2005; (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.

Journal #5: End-of-Life Decisions

• Write an essay, showing an awareness of our course readings, in which you discuss what a "good death" would be for those you love.

October 10

Mid-Term Exam

• Here's a  MID-TERM from last year.

Short Answer questions will cover:

• Hinman, "Chapter 01.  Reproductive Technology.  An Introduction to the Moral Issues." (emailed to you and on eReserve)  This replaces the introduction to the ethical issues in your textbook.
• Sandel, "What's Wrong with Enhancement--with commentary."  (emailed to you and on eReserve)
• Hinman, "End-of-Life Decisions" (PDF--on eReserve and emailed to you)
• Hinman, "Mstters of Life and Death," sections on "killing and letting die" and "principle of double effect."
• Sandel, "What's Wrong with Enhancement?"
• Rachels, "Acrtive and Passive Euthanasia"
• Gawande, "Letting Go" (eReserve)
• "Embryo Screening", New York Times video
  • Notes on "Embryo Screening"
  • Text of article
• Gattaca
• Gawande video on end-of-life decisions
• PowerPoints:
  • Ethical Theory: Overview
  • The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation
  • Euthanasia/End-of-Life Decisions

Long Essay Question . Click here for grading rubric for the long essay..  Here are the two possible questions:

• 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 enhancement. 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.

October 17

Monday

Topic #2: End-of-Life Issues, Part Two

Return of Mid-Term Exam

Euthanasia

• Bill Moyers, "A Death of One's Own" (Note: This video is available at the Reserve Desk at Copley Library as a two-hour reserve, listed under Professor Elston's Sociology 101.)
• Notes on Moyers video

Journal #6: Moyers, "A Death of One's Own"

• Write an essay in which you discuss the ways in which the ethical concepts discussed in this section of the course are illustrated in Bill Moyers' video, "A Death of One's Own."

October 24

Monday

Topic #3: Punishment & the Death Penalty, Part One

Read: CMI, Chapter Four

PowerPoint Presentations

• Punishment
• Death Penalty & Capital Punishment

Resources

• The Pew Center on the States has an excellent section on Corrections and Public Safety.  Four recent reports are particularly noteworthy:
  • One in 100: Behind Bars in America in 2008
  • One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections.  August, 2009
  • Prison Count 2010: State Population Declines for the First Time in 38 Years.  March, 2010.
  • State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America's Prisons.  April, 2011.
• "Keep crack criminals in prison" LA Times Feb. 27 20008;
• U.S. Sentecing Commision
• CBS Report on Recividism.  April 13, 2011.
• "Swift and Certain Sanctions: 2011.
• "Prisoners of Parole."  NYT, Jan. 8, 2010.  (eReserve)
• "Keep crack criminals in prison" LA Times Feb. 27 20008; U.S. Sentecing Commision
• Video of Sr. Helen Prejean Lecture
• Scott Turow with Jeffrey Toobin on the death pnealty.  UCTelevision, Jan. 31, 2008. 
• Peter Catapano, "They Messed with Texas."  NYT, Sept 9, 2011.  (also on eReserve, but without video clip)

Journal #6: Punishment & the Death Penalty

• Write an essay on the morality of the use of the death penalty in the United Sates.

Journal #6: Punishment & the Death Penalty

• Write an essay on the morality of the use of the death penalty in the United States.

October 31

Monday

In the news:

• Personhood in Alabama
• EU Court of Justice Ruling on stem cell patents:
  • Der Spiegel (English)
  • http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,792721,00.html
  • And the summary:
    http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-10/cp110112en.pdf
    And the full opinion:
    http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=EN&Submit=rechercher&numaff=C-34/10
• Sequenom's test for Down syndrome
  • NYT
• Pamela S. Karlan, "The Cost of Death," Boston Review.

Topic #3: Punishment & the Death Penalty, Part Two

Video:

• Dead Man Walking: IMDB, Reviews
• Highlighted Script, PDF
• Video notes
• Video of Sr. Helen Prejean Lecture
• Scott Turow with Jeffrey Toobin on the death pnealty.  UCTelevision, Jan. 31, 2008. 
• Adam Liptak, "Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate," New York Times, November 18, 2007.
• Carol S. Steiker, "Why We're So Tough on Crime," Boston Review.

Some useful staistics:

• DOJ Adult Correctional Populations, 1980-2009
• DOJ Executions 1930-2010
• DOJ: Prisoners on death row, 1953-2009
• DOJ: Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2009

Journal #6: Punishment & the Death Penalty

• Write an essay on the moral issues raised by the movie Dead Man Walking.

Nov. 7

Monday

Sr. Prejean talk at USD

• Note: You may attend this lecture and write a 2 page response paper as a substitute for one of your journal entries.

Jesuit Volunteer Corps presentation (5 minutes)

Discussino: Dead Man Walking and the Ethics of Capital Punishment

Conclusion: Ethics of Capital Punishment

• PowerPoint
• Eye Witness Identification
  Frontline, "The Confessions." Season 29, Nov. 9, 2010.
• 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.

eReserve:

• Liptak, "Does Death Penalty Save Lives?" NYT, November 18, 2007
• Sunstein, "Is Capital Punishment Morally Required?" Stanford Law Review, 2006
• John Paul Stevens, "Our Broken System of Criminal Justice," New York Review of Books, November 10, 2011
• Richard A. Serrano, "Finding Forgiveness on Death Row," LAT, October 21, 2011.
• Liptak, "Overriding the Jury in Capital Cases," NYT, July 11, 2011.
• Richard A. Oppel, Jr., "Tough Sentences Help Prosecutors Push for Plea Bargains," NYT, September 25, 2011.
• Andrew Cohen, "The Death Penalty. Why We Fight for Equal Justice," The Atlantic, September 21, 2011.

Mark Kleiman, "When Brute Force Fails"  C-SPAN, Octobr 23, 2009

Topic #4: War, Part One

Lecture: Just War Theory

Nov. 14

Monday

Topic #4: War, Part One

Lecture: Just War Theory

Lectures: Virtue Ethics

Nov. 21

Monday

Topic #4: War, Part Two
Movie: Glory

• Script

Nov. 28

Monday

Just War Theory; Torture

• PowerPoint: Torture
• Video: "Torture and the War on Terror."  Case Western Reserve University.
• Moderator: Professor Robert Lawry, Case School of Law; Director, Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western
• "Defining Torture" – Professor David Sussman, University of Illinois
• "Exceptionalism: Torture American Style"– Professor Henry Shue, Oxford University
• "Torture: Morality and Convention" – Professor Jeff McMahan, Rutgers University
• Notes on Sussman, Shue an McMahan

Dec. 5

Monday

Topic #5: World Hunger

• PowerPoint
• Population Pyramids:
  • The world

Dec. 19

2:00-4:00 PM

Final Exam

Possible long-essay questions:

• It is often difficult to draw the line between passive and active euthanasia. Write an essay in which you present your position on (a) where the line should be drawn and (b) which of these are morally acceptable. To illustrate your points, use the Moyers' video, "A Death of One's Own," and be sure to refer to the course readings and other relevant material.
• Imagine that you have been asked by the current governor to be part of a panel that will make recommendations to him about whether California should eliminate the death penalty. At the first meeting, each participant is supposed to present his or her initial recommendations. Write an essay in which you present your position on the continuation of the death penalty in California. Be sure to include a critical consideration of the materials on this topic in the course on social ethics that you took as an undergraduate at USD.

Possible short answer question material:

• PowerPoints
  • Punishment
  • Death Penalty
  • Just War Theory
  • Torture
  • World Hunger
  • Virtue Ethics
• Videos
  • Moyers, "A Death of One's Own" notes
  • Dead Man Walking notes
  • Kleiman, "When Brute Force Fails" notes
  • Glory
  • Shue and Sussman, "Torture and the War on Terror" notes
• Readings
  • Gelernter, "What do murders deserve?"
  • Reiman, "Against the Death Penalty"
  • Dershowitz, "Is there a tortuous road to justice?"
  • Walzer, "The Argument about Humanitarian Interventio"

Turn in Three Journals at the beginning of the exam on any of the following topics:

• Moyers' video "A Death of One's Own"
• Punishment
• Death Penalty
• Sr. Prejean talk at USD
• Dead Man Walking.
• Glory
• Just War Theory
• Torture
• World Hunger