SUMMARIES PHIA LITERATURE
2.4
2023-2024
PARKS & WIKE
BIOETHICS = a field of study that explores the ethical implications of biological and
medical advancements, research and practices. It examines moral principles and values
concerning issues such as healthcare and the allocation of medical resources.
JUSTICE THEORY/RIGHTS THEORY
- Often associated with Aristotle and John Rawls.
- JUSTICE = getting what one deserves or is owed. It includes having one’s right
respected and being treated fairly. To be treated fairly is to be treated in a way
that is appropriate or that one deserves.
May very from situation to situation.
- Plato, Hobbes and Rawls have developed SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORIES =
members of a community commit themselves to a contract. In return for certain
benefits (say, protection from attack, a legal system, a system of private property
and commerce), citizens agree to accept certain burdens (such as taxation and
the obligation to defend the community). So citizens have both RIGHTS
(BENEFITS) and DUTIES (BURDENS).
- Two practical lessons to draw from the social contract background of justice
theory:
Justice is often applied and understood COMPARATIVELY what one
person deserves is figured out in light of what others deserve.
Although there are several types of justice – COMPENSATORY
(reimbursing for past wrongs), RETRIBUTIVE (assigning punishment for
crimes) and DISTRIBUTIVE (allocating benefits and burdens) – distributive
justice is most relevant to bioethics and it applies to SITUATIONS OF
SCARCITY.
- If resources were not scarce, then there would be no distributive justice problems.
- Justice requires often treating people equally, but not always. For example, it
would be equality if we were to divide up the amount of morphine and distribute
an equal amount for each person. That would hardly be just. A more just system
would be to distribute to those who are in need and look per individual what
amount of morphine they need.
- (MORAL) RIGHTS = a morally justified claim or demand that someone else do
something (POSITIVE RIGHT) or not do something (NEGATIVE RIGHT).
Rights imply duties if someone has a right to something, then someone
else has a duty to either do something or not do something to facilitate
that right.
Duties don’t imply rights there can be duties even in the absence of
rights (one may have a duty to be generous even though no specific person
has a right to demand one’s generosity.
- Justice theory aims to achieve FAIRNESS by upholding rights and treating persons
as they deserve to be treated. Persons deserve to be treated like those to whom
, they are similar and unlike those to whom they are dissimilar in morally significant
ways (such as need, merit or social contribution).
- CRITICISM on justice theory:
It is hard to say what rights people have and where they come from.
What to do when rights come into conflict. Think of abortion (right of
mother to control her body and right of foetus to live). What rule would we
use to decide which rights are more important?
Justice theory is too general. It provides a kind of procedural rule but no
details on how to act toward similar people. How do we know which
differences to focus on and which are relevant to a specific situation.
VIRTUE ETHICS
- Moral perspective which focuses on PERSONS and NOT ACTIONS. It is more
about the people who act and less about the actions they perform. It is all about
becoming and being a good person, who is virtuous.
- Difference between being good and doing right actions.
- It concerns people and their characters and dispositions and not rules and
requirements for actions.
- Aristotle defined virtue as a kind of excellence of the human soul, a way of living
in accordance with rationality.
- Examples of virtues are courage, temperance, generosity, and friendliness.
RAWLS
ORIGINAL POSITION
We face a serious difficulty for any political conception of justice that uses the idea of
contract, whether or not the contract is social. The difficulty is that we must specify a
point of view from which a fair agreement between free and equal persons can be
reached; but this point of view must be removed from and not distorted by the particular
features and circumstances of the existing basic structure.
- The original position the parties are not allowed to know the social positions or
the particular comprehensive doctrines of the persons they represent. They also
do not know persons' race and ethnic group, sex, or various native endowments
such as strength and intelligence, all within the normal range. They are “behind a
VEIL OF IGNORANCE ”.
- Contingent historical advantages and accidental influences from the past should
not affect an agreement on principles that are to regulate the basic structure from
the present into the future.
TWO PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE
- Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of
EQUAL BASIC LIBERTIES , which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of
liberties for all
- Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions
They are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under
conditions of FAIR EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY.
They are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of
society (difference principle)
2.4
2023-2024
PARKS & WIKE
BIOETHICS = a field of study that explores the ethical implications of biological and
medical advancements, research and practices. It examines moral principles and values
concerning issues such as healthcare and the allocation of medical resources.
JUSTICE THEORY/RIGHTS THEORY
- Often associated with Aristotle and John Rawls.
- JUSTICE = getting what one deserves or is owed. It includes having one’s right
respected and being treated fairly. To be treated fairly is to be treated in a way
that is appropriate or that one deserves.
May very from situation to situation.
- Plato, Hobbes and Rawls have developed SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORIES =
members of a community commit themselves to a contract. In return for certain
benefits (say, protection from attack, a legal system, a system of private property
and commerce), citizens agree to accept certain burdens (such as taxation and
the obligation to defend the community). So citizens have both RIGHTS
(BENEFITS) and DUTIES (BURDENS).
- Two practical lessons to draw from the social contract background of justice
theory:
Justice is often applied and understood COMPARATIVELY what one
person deserves is figured out in light of what others deserve.
Although there are several types of justice – COMPENSATORY
(reimbursing for past wrongs), RETRIBUTIVE (assigning punishment for
crimes) and DISTRIBUTIVE (allocating benefits and burdens) – distributive
justice is most relevant to bioethics and it applies to SITUATIONS OF
SCARCITY.
- If resources were not scarce, then there would be no distributive justice problems.
- Justice requires often treating people equally, but not always. For example, it
would be equality if we were to divide up the amount of morphine and distribute
an equal amount for each person. That would hardly be just. A more just system
would be to distribute to those who are in need and look per individual what
amount of morphine they need.
- (MORAL) RIGHTS = a morally justified claim or demand that someone else do
something (POSITIVE RIGHT) or not do something (NEGATIVE RIGHT).
Rights imply duties if someone has a right to something, then someone
else has a duty to either do something or not do something to facilitate
that right.
Duties don’t imply rights there can be duties even in the absence of
rights (one may have a duty to be generous even though no specific person
has a right to demand one’s generosity.
- Justice theory aims to achieve FAIRNESS by upholding rights and treating persons
as they deserve to be treated. Persons deserve to be treated like those to whom
, they are similar and unlike those to whom they are dissimilar in morally significant
ways (such as need, merit or social contribution).
- CRITICISM on justice theory:
It is hard to say what rights people have and where they come from.
What to do when rights come into conflict. Think of abortion (right of
mother to control her body and right of foetus to live). What rule would we
use to decide which rights are more important?
Justice theory is too general. It provides a kind of procedural rule but no
details on how to act toward similar people. How do we know which
differences to focus on and which are relevant to a specific situation.
VIRTUE ETHICS
- Moral perspective which focuses on PERSONS and NOT ACTIONS. It is more
about the people who act and less about the actions they perform. It is all about
becoming and being a good person, who is virtuous.
- Difference between being good and doing right actions.
- It concerns people and their characters and dispositions and not rules and
requirements for actions.
- Aristotle defined virtue as a kind of excellence of the human soul, a way of living
in accordance with rationality.
- Examples of virtues are courage, temperance, generosity, and friendliness.
RAWLS
ORIGINAL POSITION
We face a serious difficulty for any political conception of justice that uses the idea of
contract, whether or not the contract is social. The difficulty is that we must specify a
point of view from which a fair agreement between free and equal persons can be
reached; but this point of view must be removed from and not distorted by the particular
features and circumstances of the existing basic structure.
- The original position the parties are not allowed to know the social positions or
the particular comprehensive doctrines of the persons they represent. They also
do not know persons' race and ethnic group, sex, or various native endowments
such as strength and intelligence, all within the normal range. They are “behind a
VEIL OF IGNORANCE ”.
- Contingent historical advantages and accidental influences from the past should
not affect an agreement on principles that are to regulate the basic structure from
the present into the future.
TWO PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE
- Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of
EQUAL BASIC LIBERTIES , which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of
liberties for all
- Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions
They are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under
conditions of FAIR EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY.
They are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of
society (difference principle)
