PHLB09H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Applied Ethics, Surrogacy, Bioethics
PHLB09-Lecture 1
Lecture 1
• What is bioethics?
o Ethics breaks down into normative, applied, and meta ethics
o Normative breaks down to consequentialism, deontology- if it benefits everyone
o Meta ethics is how we argue about ethics
o Applied ethics breaks down to bio and business ethics-applying ethics to real life
problems
• What kinds of things will we cover?
o Paternalism and patient autonomy- how much control should the professionals
have to figure out what happens to them (trying an aggressive treatment vs not
taking treatment)
▪ The line will be drawn in very different places between the cases
o Truth telling- should a professional withhold information for your well being
(how much info they should give you and why?)
o Informed consent-truth telling and informed consent go hand in hand
▪ What does informed consent looks like (what if the patient cant give
oset oa, if it’s a hild should the hild e ale to hae ay iput i
the decision or just the patient
o Human research-when there is an experiment is taking place you need to make
sure that the humans have all the information and all their consent before the
experiment takes place
o Abortion-is abortion moral, should there be restrictions
o IVF and surrogacy- there is more technology to have children and how should
you ethically control the limitations between the biological parent and social
parent, and the person that gestates the fetus
o Genetic choices-the genes can tell a lot about the child before te child is born
and when should this information be releases to the parent (a disability that
ould e hard for the hild’s life ad hether or ot to aort fro this ifo
o Euthanasia- should this be legal, is it morally right
o Healthcare resources- should there be a right for healthcare, and who gets what
resources in healthcare (example- organs)
o Rationing- what areas should get what technology and what medicines and who
deserves what first, same example- organs)
• What kind of vales are moral values?
o Ethics is an evaluative practice/discipline
o Scientific and legal question are empirical questions, there is an answer you can
directly find
o For moral question there is no answer you can find easily, you should be able to
have discussion and be in agreement with each other
o For both cultural and aesthetic norms there also can be an answer that someone
has
o Moral norms can dominate other norms (normative dominance)
▪ E.g. choosing to be vegetarian (moral>aesthetic)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
