HSAD 309 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Primum Non Nocere, Fetus
23 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
While these issues can tend to generate more heat than light, let us try to address the analysis of key issues in a focused and respectful way. Consider the moral dimensions of respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice as key ethical lenses to focus our issues more sharply. Also keep aware of and apply the distinction between categorical judgments (e. g. , kantian) and consequential judgments (e. g. , utilitarian) when they are apt. Look at the issues more intellectually as a exercise in thinking the issue through. Whatever your personal viewpoint, in doing this you might be surprised at how the side you personally reject has more substance to it than you initially thought. Perhaps a benefit of this exercise thus is developing greater tolerance for alternative viewpoints while maintaining your own stance for reasons you believe are best. As you know, these are indeed contentious issues upon which reasonable persons can (and do!) disagree.
