the ethics of treating impaired babies

1. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 (amended in 1984), requires treatment of impaired newborns unless one of the following conditions is met: (1) “if the child is “chronically and irreversibly comatose,” (2) if the child is “inevitably dying,” or (3) if treatment would be “futile and inhumane.” When exactly do you think treatment can be defined as “futile?” Why did Pence argue that treatment of newborns with Down syndrome or spina bifida is not futile? When did he think it might be? What was the 1994 case of Baby K that Pence brought up in Chapter 7? Also, I asked you to discuss the recent case of Jimmy McCarthy on our discussion board. Describe these cases and discuss whether you think continued treatment in these cases was futile, and why.

2. On the last Writing Assignment, you were asked to write about arguments against abortion based on the potential personhood of a fetus or an embryo. A “person” in moral philosophy, again, is anything that has moral rights, including the right to life. What view about whether embryos are persons in this sense does Peter Singer advocate in Selection 7 of Classic Works? What does Singer say is the Standard Argument for the claim that a human embryo is a person in the moral sense? What criticisms of this argument does Singer raise? Why does he think attempts to defend the argument ultimately rest on what he calls “Speciesism”? What exactly is Speciesism? Why does Singer think it is wrong? What criterion of personhood does he think is correct? What implications does his criterion have for the treatment of anencephalics? For the treatment of animals other than humans? Do you think Singer is right? Why or why not?

3. What is the difference between Cloning for Therapeutic Purposes and Cloning for Reproductive Purposes? What myths about Reproductive Cloning does Pence think lead opponents of cloning to regard it as morally objectionable? Do you think he is right that these concerns are based on misperceptions about the nature of cloning? Do you think Reproductive Cloning is morally wrong? Why or why not?

two books I use for this material:

first one: ( Medical ethics: accounts of ground breaking cases)
Seventh Edition
author name: Gregory E. Pence

second one:
(Classic Works in Medical Ethics: Core Philosophical Reading)
author name: Gregory E. Pence

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