Introduction

Instructor’s manuals typically contain much of the material I have actually already included in Contemporary Moral Issues: discussion questions, journal assignments, outlines of the major issues, suggested additional readings, etc. In developing this manual, I have tried to accomplish several things that I hope will provide additional help to instructors using this book.

Throughout this instructor’s manual, I have included references to internet resources available on the World Wide Web. This is the wave of the future, and I think it is important that students be trained in its use. Some philosophers are making the text of their own articles available on web sites, and this is contributing to a rapid growth of solid philosophical material on the web. There is, moreover, a wealth of other good material out there, even if it is not strictly philosophical. Many of the issues covered in this book have an important empirical component, and the resources on the net can be very helpful in researching this empirical component.

I have gathered together some of the best resources that relate to the topics covered in this book on a web site called Ethics Updates. This site is designed not only for you as instructors, but also for your students to visit. Please encourage them to visit the site periodically, and to use its resources in their research. Its address is:

Much of the work of searching the web for relevant material has been done for you and your students on this site. There is a separate page for each chapter in Contemporary Moral Issues, and a separate section on bioethics. Typically, each page includes court decisions, legislation, on-line articles, links to major web sites on that topic, discussion questions and term paper topics, and any major on-line documents.

Court Decisions. For example, the euthanasia page contains not only the Supreme Court decision in Quill v. Vacco and Compassion in Dying v. Washington, but also the various lower court decisions. In addition, it contains links to several friend of the court briefs, including the brief filed by George Annas et al. on behalf of bioethicists and the brief filed by Dworkin, Rawls, Thomson, Scanlon, Nagel, et al. There is also an exchange between Ronald Dworkin and Michael McConnell in Slate's Dispatches and Dialogues about the Brief. I have also included the text of the Cruzon decision, which includes RealAudio recordings of the oral arguments before the court by William Colby and Kenneth Starr.

Media Coverage. In addition to court decisions, I have included other resources which may be of help to your students. Ray Suarez’s "Talk of the Nation" show on National Public Radio is available on RealAudio on the web, and I have included links to three relevant shows, which include interview with Margaret Battin (The Least Worst Death), Ira Bylock (Dying Well), Herbert Hendrin (Seduced by Death), and Stephen Jamison (Final Acts of Love). I have also included a link to "Before I Die: Medical Care and Personal Choices," an on-line version of the PBS documentary. This is an excellent resource for students, with a series of well-designed case studies. No euthanasia section is complete without a reference to Dr, Kevorkian, and I have included a link to a Frontline documentary on Kevorkian which also includes interviews with both Timothy Quill and Arthur Caplan. Perhaps the most haunting think in this documentary, however, are the RealAudio recordings of interviews with three people before they took their own lives with assistance from Kevorkian.

Philosophical Articles. I have also included links to articles that are available on-line that relate to euthanasia. This includes several chapters of Peter Unger’s Living High & Letting Die (including the section on "Special Obligations and Care for Dependents"); Robert Young’s "Voluntary Euthanasia" (from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy); Ezekiel Emanuel’s "Whose Right to Die?" (from The Atlantic Monthly, March, 1997); Daniel C. Maguire’s "Death, Legal and Illegal" (from The Atlantic Monthly, 1974); and several others. (If you know of any additional on-line articles on this topic, please let me know so that I can post a link.)

Even when coverage in Contemporary Moral Issues is comparatively brief, I have tried to provide supplementary material on the web, especially when an issue appears prominently in the news. On the Bioethics page, for example, I have a section on cloning which includes links to Wilmut’s original article in Nature, a number of news accounts of Dolly (including the Time Magazine cover story), a week-long series in the Los Angeles Times on cloning and another series in The Washington Post, a Salon interview with Wilmut, a bibliography on cloning from the Georgetown University Kennedy Center for Ethics, various articles from Slate, and selected scientific background resources. I hope to continue to add sections as controversial moral issues appear in the news.

In addition, this site contains a number of general tools that I hope will be helpful to you and your students. These include a guide to conducting research on the Internet; the tables of contents of recent journals in ethics; a guide to ethics-related resources on the Internet; and an extensive section of ethical theory, including sections on relativism, Kant, Mill, Aristotle, gender, and rights theory. There is also a reference room with the full texts of major works in moral philosophy.

In addition to this, I have included I hope eventually to have article summaries, discussion groups, etc. available as well.

If there are any specific materials that you would like to see available on the site, please let me know and I will make every effort to see that they become available. The web site provides a convenient way for instructors to make additional resources available to their students without increasing the students’ book expenses for the semester.

One of the most recent additions to Ethics Updates has been the Ethics Forums, which provide a (virtual) place for people to discuss a wide range of moral issues. To reach the Ethics Forums, just click on the "Discussion Forum" menu button on the home page of Ethics Updates or go there directly by entering the following address into your browser:

If you have any difficulty reaching the Forum, just contact me by e-mail (hinman@sandiego.edu).

Each chapter of this book has a separate page on Ethics Forums—one on abortion, one on euthanasia, etc. Within each forum, users can introduce specific discussion topics. My hope is that this will be a place where students can enter into philosophical dialogue with one another about these issues. As the Forums expand, I hope to make the discussion international with students from around the world participating in it. Please feel free to recommend or even require participation in the Forums as part of your course.

In addition to the general topics in the Forums, I am including discussion folders on each of the individual readings in Contemporary Moral Issues. Students may visit those folders, read other students’ reactions to a particular article, and share their own comments.

Check the Ethics Updates site regularly. I plan additional improvements, including in all likelihood a section where students can rate the individual readings on a five point scale and one where they can participate in an on-line version of the self-quiz on moral issues.

As you and your students use this book, I would genuinely appreciate your reactions and suggestions. This has been a fun project, and hearing form real people about the book would make it even more fun. The best way to reach me is by e-mail:

You can also write to me at:

Professor Lawrence M. Hinman
Department of Philosophy
University of San Diego
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
Phone: 619-260-4787
Fax: 619-260-4227

I hope you and your students enjoy the book.