Morality

• Who said that morality is about “no small matter, but how we ought to live.”?


  Socrates
• It is the study of what morality is and what it requires of us.

  Moral Philosophy
• Baby Theresa had anencephaly, one of the worst genetic disorders.
• What are the missing parts of Baby Theresa's brain?

  Cerebrum and Cerebellum
• What is the only part of the brain Baby Theresa has that makes her able breathe and possess a heartbeat?

  Brain Stem
• In the United States, most cases of anencephaly are detected during pregnancy, and the fetuses are usually aborted.
• Baby Theresa’s organs were not taken, because Florida Law forbids the removal of organs until the donor has died.
• Baby Theresa died, nine days later, it was too late because her organs had deteriorated too much to be harvested and transplanted.
• Most of the ethicists disagreed with the parents of Baby Theresa and physicians.
• An argument is sound if its assumptions are true and the conclusion follows logically from them.
• Being alive is a benefit only if you can carry on activities and have thoughts, feelings, and relations with other people—in other words, if you have a life. Without such things, biological existence has no value.
• "If we can benefit someone without harming anyone else, we ought to do so. Transplanting the organs would benefit the other children without harming Baby Theresa. Therefore, we ought to transplant the organs"

  The Benefits Argument
• According to Rachels, the idea of "The Argument That We Should Not Use People as Means" of Baby Theresa's case is vague.
• It refers to the one's ability to decide for themselves how to live their own lives, according to their own desires and values.

  Autonomy
• A person’s autonomy may be violated through manipulation, trickery, or deceit.
• Taking Baby Theresa’s organs, however, could not thwart her autonomy, because she has no autonomy. She cannot make decisions, she has no desires, and she cannot value anything.
• We would also be using her organs without her permission. Would that make it wrong? If we were using them against her wishes, then that would be a reason for objecting—it would violate her autonomy.

  
  

  
  

  But Baby Theresa has no wishes.
• Who appealed to the principle that it is wrong to kill one person to save another?

  Ethicists
• In 1967, the South African doctor Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant in a human being.
• Back then, American Law understood death as occurring when the heart stops beating.
• Years later, the American Law changed, and death as occurring, not when the heart stops beating, but when the brain stops functioning.
• If the definition of brain-death were reformulated to include anencephalics, then we would become accustomed to the idea that these unfortunate infants are stillborn, and so taking their organs would not involve killing them.

  
  

  
  

  The Argument from the Wrongness of Killing would then be moot.
• On the whole, then, the arguments in favor of transplanting Baby Theresa’s organs seem stronger than the arguments against it.
• In August 2000, a young woman from Gozo, an island south of Italy, discovered that she was carrying conjoined twins. (Jodie & Mary)
• Mary and Jodie, were joined at what part of the body?

  Abdomen
• Jodie and Mary's spines were fused, and they had one heart and one pair of lungs between them.
• Who among the conjoined twins was stronger that provides blood for other sister?

  Jodie
• The doctors said that without intervention, Jodie and Mary would die within six months.
• Among the conjoined twins, who will most likely die on the separation operation?

  Mary
• The parents, who were devout Catholics, opposed the operation on the grounds that it would hasten Mary’s death.

  
  

  “If it’s God’s will that both our children should not survive, then so be it.”
• The hospital that was hoping to save Jodie, petitioned the courts for permission to perform the operation anyway.

  
  

  The courts agreed, and the operation was performed.
• The Argument That We Should Save as Many as We Can.

  
  

  This argument is so appealing that many people will conclude, without further thought, that the twins should be separated.
• The parents loved both of their children, and they thought it would be wrong to kill one of them even to save the other.


  The Argument from the Sanctity of Human Life.
• Robert Latimer put Tracy in the cab of his pickup truck and piped in exhaust fumes until she died.
• • The jury found Robert Latimer guilty of only second-degree murder and recommended that the judge ignore the mandatory 10-year sentence.
  • The judge agreed and sentenced him to one year in prison, followed by a year of confinement to his farm.
  • But the Supreme Court of Canada stepped in and ruled that the mandatory sentence must be imposed.
  • Robert Latimer entered prison in 2001 and was paroled in 2008.
• The president of the Saskatoon Voice of People with Disabilities, who has multiple sclerosis, said: “Nobody has the right to decide my life is worth less than yours. That’s the bottom line.”

  The Argument from the Wrongness of Discriminating against the Handicapped
• Mr. Latimer denied that Tracy was killed because of her disability; she was killed because she was suffering without hope of relief.
• "If we accept any sort of mercy killing, all life will be held cheap. Where will we draw the line?"

  The Slippery Slope Argument
• People’s feelings told them that members of other races were inferior and that slavery was God’s plan.
• Thus, if we want to discover the truth, we must let our feelings be guided as much as possible by reason.