Full summary of Ethics in Life Sciences: lecture notes + seminar notes + mock exams
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Course
Ethics In Life Sciences (AM_470707)
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
This document is a full study guide for the course Ethics in Life Sciences (AM_470707) at the VU, for the masters Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences, MPA and more.
Contains:
- Full notes of all lectures
- Notes of the seminars (work groups)
- Questions of 3 mock exams with hints for answe...
LC01. Introduction 2
LC02. Deontology, utilitarianism and theory of justice 7
Seminar Kant 14
LC03. Technology ethics 17
Seminar Reflective Equilibrium 26
LC04. Fallacies in ethical discussions 27
Seminar Fallacies 34
Practice exam 1 35
LC05. Medical ethics 41
Seminar Ethical matrix 48
LC06. Virtue ethics & care ethics 51
Seminar Care and Virtue Ethics 57
Seminar dialogue training 58
Practice exam 2 59
LC07. Non-human Ethics 64
Seminar Pulse fishing 69
Practice exam 3 70
Extra notes 72
1
,LC01. Introduction
Ethics as a design discipline
Thomas Midgley Jr: inventor
- Invented CFCs (= chlorofluorocarbon)
- In spray cans, asthma inhalers, refrigerators, more…
- Have recently been banned (due to Montreal protocol)
- Causes depletion of the ozone layer
- Also invented Leaded fuel (adding lead to petrol)
- Invented to keep engines from “knocking”, used by General Motors
- Immense negative impact on human health (esp. children) and environment
- It took more than 50 years before all fuels were free of lead (again)
- The toxicity of lead was already known (for some 2000 years
- Alternatives were also available
- Midgely was probably the person with the most (worst) impact on the
environment/atmosphere.
Values which guided the decision of Midgley and general motors to use lead:
- Aim: profit
- Did not care about environment, health effects, other harm it could cause
- People at the time had an idea about health risks, Midgley knew as well, but
he lied to everyone to get his profits
- Safety for people and planet were clearly not among the company’s or Midgley’s core
values
- Short term and local benefits to some were prioritized over long-term costs for many
- These private actors did not assume responsibility for the public good, but primarily
took care of their own immediate interests
This course’s motivational assumptions:
- Science, technology and innovation can help solve problems and be valuable in
many ways - but can also cause (new) problems
- CFC problems could not be foreseen, other problems can
- Ethics can be a facilitator or even a driver of research, technology and innovation for
good
- This minimally requires prevention of future harm
- For this, theoretical knowledge and practical instruments for and hands-on practice in
moral deliberation are very valuable
The direct and indirect, intended and unintended influences of scientists on the moral states
of others is large.
Science, technology and innovation shape society, and vice versa.
- Fields with examples of moral influence: nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy,
(medical) ICT
- Example: windmill parks in the North Sea for energy
- Fishermen have to change routes
- Seabed changes (sand/rocks)
- Ecosystem will change (effects on local species)
2
, - Windstreams on coast changes, influence on tourism (e.g. windsurfing)
- Example: hospital cleaning (in medical ICT)
- Imagine very smart cleaning equipment: everything (speed, soap, etc.) is
measured/monitored and all information is passed on to boss
- Good for efficiency, supply management, hygiene
- But the cleaners have less autonomy, more monitoring
Ethics as a design discipline I
→ starts with a social problem
- Social needs and problems should be the starting point of science, technology and
innovation
- Moral values should be placed at the heart of science, technology and innovation
- Ethics is all about translating values into actions, weighing (different stakeholders’ or
other individual actors’) values against each other and morally justifying one’s
judgements and actions (interdisciplinarity)
Ethics as a design discipline II
- Example: Different car designs all take into account different values (e.g. your
own safety / safety for others on the road, size, aesthetics, sustainability)
- Shared feature of design problems & moral problems: there is rarely one unique
correct solution
- Yet: one can often distinguish better from worse solutions
- Ethics: how do you justify your choices?
- often more than one answer to an ethical problem, justification is
important
- This course offers you theoretical and practical resources conducive to doing all this,
and hence to doing the right things.
You will learn how to make the translation from moral values to design principles, and
a course of action
Ethics is the practical study of deciding how we ought to act
- Ethics: the branch of philosophy that deals with morality and values
- Systemic reflection on morality (values, norms, beliefs)
- Providing reasons to justify our actions
- “The purpose of education is to learn how to think for yourself” (John Dewey)
- Historical answers to “Why ethics?”
To overcome human shortcomings
- Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): because acting in accordance with only our
self-interest will lead us into a war of all against all, and our lives will be
brutish, nasty and short. Moral action implies accepting ‘the state’ (the
leviathan).
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) (deontology): Moral behavior has nothing to do
with self-interest. It is an intrinsic desire of mankind, tied with man’s rational
nature, to act morally correct.
- John Dewey (1859-1952) (pragmatism): we cannot escape being moral,
because morality evolved to be an integrated part of human nature and
conduct (also similar to what Aristotle said)
3
, How to recognize a morally problematic issue?
- Moral problems arise when the values, rights, interests, desires of “an other” are at
stake or harmed
- How do we recognize values, rights, interests and desires, ...?
- How do we define the other? Who is a proper subject of moral concern?
Ethical reasoning is needed whenever we are confronted with a moral problem.
What do we mean by “values”?
- Values refer to what is or is perceived as good
(not in the exam) Definition: “Values are (a) concepts or beliefs, (b) about desirable
end states or behaviours, (c) that transcend specific situations, (d) guide selection or
evaluation of behaviour and events, and (e) are ordered by relative importance.”
(Schwartz & Bilsky 1987)
Values can be translated into norms
- e.g. from the value of animal welfare: you could decide to build the cages in a way
where chickens have enough space (square meters per chicken) to manifest natural
behaviors instead of picking in each other
Intermediate step: conceptualization and analysis
- What do you mean by value such-and-such?
- Why is it valuable?
- How does it relate to other values?
- When or where is it relevant?
> Specific, tie in with context!
- Example: “equality’ - what do we mean when we say everyone is equal? Equal
before the judge? Equal opportunities (school, work)? Equal capacities?
Moral spheres
- Morality problematic issues can be found more or less anywhere: in the personal,
business, public, or professional sphere.
- In different contexts, different values are more pertinent. Hence, different norms
guide our actions in different situations.
Personal, public, business, professional spheres
- Ethics in the personal sphere:
- Example: value ‘loyalty’ → norm ‘one always helps one’s friends’
> Rules for your relations in your personal sphere which family and friends
- Ethics in the business sphere
- E.g. value ‘sustainability’ → norm ‘one has to reduce waste and
minimize energy usage’
- E.g. value ‘human dignity & autonomy’ (e.g. chocolate without
slavery work in the production chain, is a nice value, but then
the chocolate becomes more pricey and that is not affordable
for as many people) → norm ‘do not use slave labor’.
> Rules for business identity (profit, planet, people, see image).
- Ethics in the professional sphere
- Values: e.g. integrity of animals, objectivity, disinterestedness
- Norm: e.g. “One always has to prevent conflicts of interest”
4
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