What is paternalism?

Euthanasia & Physician-Assisted Suicide (625-637)

*Active voluntary (illegal)= mercy killing; direct with consent

*Active nonvoluntary (illegal)= mercy killing; direct without consent

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*Passive voluntary (legal)= withholding care with consent

*Passive nonvoluntary (legal)= withholding care without consent

*Physician-Assisted Suicide: prescribing lethal dose of medicine for patient to take  himself; only legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, & California *Whole Brain View: determines brain death (Higher brain view might be more  accurate scientifically)

Who is elizabeth bouvia?

*Difference between intending death and not intending but forseeing it (ex. high  dose of morphine prescribed intended to stop pain but could possibly result in  death)

*Nancy Cruzan Case: back & forth about feeding tube; eventually removed

Active & Passive Euthanasia by James Rachels (678-681)

*Morally: killing is not any worse than letting die

*Active euthanasia = Passive euthanasia (morally)

*Doctors should be concerned only for legal not for moral reasons If you want to learn more check out What is psychological reasoning?

The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia by J. Gay-Williams (Blackboard)

*Killing: always deliberate and intentional

*Passive euthanasia: NOT actually euthanasia at all

*Human nature: will to survive

*Might incline people to give up too easily

What is infertility?

*Slippery slope: voluntary >> deputizing a representative >> involuntary euthansia as  social policy

*Suffering: natural part of life

Paternalism & Patient Autonomy (pg. 81-93) Don't forget about the age old question of What are some forms of non-verbal behavior?

*Paternalism: overriding a person's actions or decision-making for his own good *Early medicine: strongly paternalistic

*Autonomy: person's rational capacity for self-governance or self-determination *Weak paternalism: over diminished capacity people only

*Strong paternalism: over autonomous people as well

*Patients have right to refuse treatment (does NOT apply to parents using religious refusal  for minors)

*Futile treatment: physicians not obligated to comply with futile requests *Elizabeth Bouvia: quadriplegic/arthritis pain; hospital force-fed her when she refused to  eat; ultimately won right to die voluntarily

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Vacco v. Quill (pg. 707-709) Don't forget about the age old question of What is the study of behavioral ecology?

*Supreme Court determines whether or not a New York state ban on assisted  suicide is constitutional.

*SC decides that the ban does NOT violate constitution-- no constitutional right to  physician's assistance in dying.

*However, SC will allow each state to establish its own rules about the issue.  Don't forget about the age old question of Philosophical traditions- ir theories.

Death and Dignity by Timothy Quill (pg. 642-645)

*Dr. Quill explains why he personally made the choice to assist with his longtime  patient Diane's suicide.

*He helped Diane die with dignity rather than being forced to be in pain and  dependent on others for everything.

*He felt that he was doing the right thing morally even if the law did not agree.

Baby M by James Rachels (Blackboard)

*very dramatic, highly publicized surrogacy case Don't forget about the age old question of What are the sampling methods?

*Through an infertility clinic in New York, Mary Beth Whitehead (already a mother  of 2) agreed to be a surrogate for the Sterns.

*Whitehead was artificially inseminated with Mr. Stern's sperm & was intended to  gestate the baby and then give it to the sterns upon birth.

*When baby was born, Whitehead suddenly wanted to keep the baby. *Mr. Stern got a court order for temporary custody, but Whitehead ran off with the  baby.

*Once she was tracked down, a huge court battle ensued.

*Ultimately, judge's ruling was a total victory for the Sterns. The child was officially  now theirs, and Whitehead was stripped of all her parental rights.

Reproductive Technology (pg. 409-428)

*Infertility: inability to get pregnant after one year of unprotected sex *In vitro fertilization steps: ovarian stimulation; egg retrieval; insemination/fertilization;  embryo culture; embryo transfer

*IVF risks for mother and child such as side effects of surgery, fertility drugs, higher risk of  multiple pregnancies which raise risk of gestational diabetes, uterine rupture; for child,  may be birth defects, low birth weight, possible link to cancer

*Surrogacy: a woman goes through the pregnancy and gestates that fetus for another  woman or couple. Compensation sometimes allowed, and most contracts strip surrogate  of future parental rights.

*Cloning: asexual production of a genetically identical entity from one already in  existence (for reproductive cloning, a somatic cell's nucleus is inserted into an egg) *Many frozen embryos from IVF cycles currently exist with much indecisiveness about  what to do with them (ex. destroy them or use them for research) We also discuss several other topics like What is a pyramidal neuron?

IVF: The Simply Case by Peter Singer (pg. 429-432)

*simple case: egg taken from woman and sperm taken from husband are merged into  fertilized embryo outside body and then inserted into female for gestation *objections: unnatural, risky, expensive, not as good as adoption, overpopulation threat,  negative impact on women as a gender

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Stem Cells (pg. 552-560)

*embryonic stem cells: can deferentiate into any type of cell and can reproduce  indefinitely and create a huge supply

*adult stem cells: can replace old cells and grow new bone, cartilage, etc. but are much  less effective from embryonic stem cells

*stem cell research has faced major legal opposition

*embryos themselves are destroyed in process of obtaining the stem cells  

Human Cloning and the Challenge of Regulation by Robertson (Blackboard) *cloning reproduces something that actually does occur in nature-- twins  *cloning not overly likely to be abused; more likely to be used by infertile couple looking  to legitimately have a biological child

*concern over welfare of the clone-- how will having same DNA as another person  impact him/her

*concern that children could just become a commodity

*goal: instead of prohibiting cloning, focus on making sure that the process is done well  and carefully controlled and surveilled

Key Points from Lectures to Review: 

1. Euthanasia: active vs. passive; legal vs. moral issues

2. Important court cases: Karen Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, Elizabeth Bouvia,  Quill vs. Vacco

3. How death is defined and why that is important to specify (PVS low  survival rates; defining brain death)

4. James Rachels essay arguing that active and passive euthanasia are  morally equivalent

5. J. Gay-Williams objection to euthanasia, implying potential for abuse  and slippery slope effect

6. Physician-Assisted suicide: experience in the Netherlands where it’s  legal; Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Dr. Timothy Quill; Oregon’s Death with  Dignity Act

7. Suicide: impulsive nature; impact of guns on suicide rates 8. Assisted reproduction: in vitro fertilization (IVF) and somatic cell  genetic transfer (cloning); possible motives for cloning as well as possible  objections to cloning