RELG 2650 (FINAL)Exam Questions
With Complete Solutions
Describe Asch's position on the acceptability of abortion and prenatal genetic
diagnosis.
Asch argues that women should have the option of
abortion so that they can be equal to man and be able to avoid the situation as well.
Outlawing abortion is a violation of women's autonomy (involuntary servitude)
We shouldn't abort for gender or disability (unless the disability will result in a very short
life span).
Conscientious objection:
the ability to refuse an action or provide a procedure/ "treatment" if a physician believes
it to be a morally objectionable decision
Describe Dresser's 5 models for addressing conscientious objection & their
strengths & weaknesses.
1. Contract Model
2. Duty to Refer
3. Entering Professionals Agree to Conform
4. Draft Board Approach
5. Professionals Seek Compromise
Contract Model
o At outset, professional discloses any limits of treatments.
o If a patient requires a service that is excluded, they can then go elsewhere.
o Weakness: does not work when patient needs quick care or no one else can take over
and provide the service.
Duty to Refer
,o If the professional objects and will not provide a service, they have an obligation to
refer or transfer patients to another professional that will provide that service.
o Weakness: fails when the contract model fails.
o Weakness: some professionals will feel as if they are still committing wrong in
facilitating the service
Entering Professionals Agree to Conform
o Conscientious objection is not allowed.
o If you enter into a profession, you have to conform to its basic standards. Thus you
must perform certain services.
o Weakness: "basic standards" are hard to define, and professionals may not feel as if
they have truly understood and assented to them.
Draft Board Approach
o Requires objectors to explain and defend their opposition to performing a certain
service.
o Tries to separate sincere beliefs from those that have other motivations for avoiding a
service.
o Weakness: damaging to morale of professionals.
o Weakness: cannot necessarily detect skilled liars.
o Weakness: such a detection process is hard to formulate and may be corrupt.
Professionals Seek Compromise
o Professional should try to find a compromise between their beliefs and the patient's
interests.
o Depends in large part on the hope that other alternatives will arise that keep both
professional and patient happy.
o Weakness: sometimes an option is not available.
o Weakness: compromise can leave both sides unsatisfied.
According to ACOG recommendations, under what conditions are conscientious
refusals in reproductive medicine acceptable?
1. Any refusal that conflicts with a patient's well being should be accommodated ONLY
if the primary duty to the patient can still be fulfilled.
,2. health care providers must impart scientifically accurate and unbiased information
3. must provide patients with accurate and prior notice of their personal moral
commitments - and they should not argue/advocate for their positions
4. refer patients in a timely manner to other providers
5. in an emergency in which referral is not possible or might negatively affect a patient's
physical health, providers have obligation
to provide medically indicate and requested are regardless of their moral objections
6. in resource poor areas, access to safe and legal reproductive services should be
maintained.
Explain Paul Lauritzen's feminist critique of reproductive technologies.
Paul Lauritzen, himself, experienced difficulties with infertility. He and his wife decided
to hold off on having children until they had established their careers, never
expecting/planning on having these difficulties. Lauritzen felt that he and his wife were
mere items within an experiment and feel that NRTs should only be used after extensive
soul searching and as a last resort.
• He presents 4 arguments about NRTs:
i. The Tyranny of Technology
ii. Dismemberment of Motherhood
iii. The Commodification of Reproduction
iv. Reproductive Technologies and Genetic Engineering
The Tyranny of Technology
Two types of coercion:
1. coercive offers
• advocates of NRT claim that these techniques were created to help infertile couples,
expanding the range of choices open to them.
• Feminist argument: choice to participate in NRTs is illusory. Society and culture
defines a woman's identity in terms of motherhood.
, • So developing NRTs is not about increasing choice because they are not available to
single women (infertile or not) or lesbian women.
2. coercive threats
• the potential for a loss of control over one's reproductive destiny is increased with the
development of NRTs.
• Ultrasounds, amniocentesis, genetic testing, C-sections all have increased the medical
community's control over the process of birth.
• If trying to increase choice and decrease infertile women's suffering, then doctors
would put more effort in educating all women on causes of infertility.
• Also, NRTs would be open to single and lesbian women.
• The existence of infertility treatments leads people to view infertility as an individual
problem, but in reality, the couple, together, suffers from infertility.
Dismemberment of Motherhood
• NRTs question the meaning of motherhood
• The maternal experience might become a discontinuous process
• The intimacy of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth is absent, which may lead to a loss of
connection between the mother and child.
• Alienate women from the process of procreation, which removes an experience
important for women's identity and power.
• Importance of genetic and social parenthood is at stake
• Lauritzen believes that there should be a unity between genetic, gestational, and
social parenthood
The Commodification of Reproduction
• NRTs treat human beings as products
• Divides person into parts; also divides motherhood.
• NRT process does not treat the whole patient, just parts
• Like "living laboratories", some women were not fully informed of experimental nature
of procedures
• Children would be treated as products because women pay for embryos or eggs
• Because children would be considered property, then can demand for certain
standards or else demand compensation or return the product.
With Complete Solutions
Describe Asch's position on the acceptability of abortion and prenatal genetic
diagnosis.
Asch argues that women should have the option of
abortion so that they can be equal to man and be able to avoid the situation as well.
Outlawing abortion is a violation of women's autonomy (involuntary servitude)
We shouldn't abort for gender or disability (unless the disability will result in a very short
life span).
Conscientious objection:
the ability to refuse an action or provide a procedure/ "treatment" if a physician believes
it to be a morally objectionable decision
Describe Dresser's 5 models for addressing conscientious objection & their
strengths & weaknesses.
1. Contract Model
2. Duty to Refer
3. Entering Professionals Agree to Conform
4. Draft Board Approach
5. Professionals Seek Compromise
Contract Model
o At outset, professional discloses any limits of treatments.
o If a patient requires a service that is excluded, they can then go elsewhere.
o Weakness: does not work when patient needs quick care or no one else can take over
and provide the service.
Duty to Refer
,o If the professional objects and will not provide a service, they have an obligation to
refer or transfer patients to another professional that will provide that service.
o Weakness: fails when the contract model fails.
o Weakness: some professionals will feel as if they are still committing wrong in
facilitating the service
Entering Professionals Agree to Conform
o Conscientious objection is not allowed.
o If you enter into a profession, you have to conform to its basic standards. Thus you
must perform certain services.
o Weakness: "basic standards" are hard to define, and professionals may not feel as if
they have truly understood and assented to them.
Draft Board Approach
o Requires objectors to explain and defend their opposition to performing a certain
service.
o Tries to separate sincere beliefs from those that have other motivations for avoiding a
service.
o Weakness: damaging to morale of professionals.
o Weakness: cannot necessarily detect skilled liars.
o Weakness: such a detection process is hard to formulate and may be corrupt.
Professionals Seek Compromise
o Professional should try to find a compromise between their beliefs and the patient's
interests.
o Depends in large part on the hope that other alternatives will arise that keep both
professional and patient happy.
o Weakness: sometimes an option is not available.
o Weakness: compromise can leave both sides unsatisfied.
According to ACOG recommendations, under what conditions are conscientious
refusals in reproductive medicine acceptable?
1. Any refusal that conflicts with a patient's well being should be accommodated ONLY
if the primary duty to the patient can still be fulfilled.
,2. health care providers must impart scientifically accurate and unbiased information
3. must provide patients with accurate and prior notice of their personal moral
commitments - and they should not argue/advocate for their positions
4. refer patients in a timely manner to other providers
5. in an emergency in which referral is not possible or might negatively affect a patient's
physical health, providers have obligation
to provide medically indicate and requested are regardless of their moral objections
6. in resource poor areas, access to safe and legal reproductive services should be
maintained.
Explain Paul Lauritzen's feminist critique of reproductive technologies.
Paul Lauritzen, himself, experienced difficulties with infertility. He and his wife decided
to hold off on having children until they had established their careers, never
expecting/planning on having these difficulties. Lauritzen felt that he and his wife were
mere items within an experiment and feel that NRTs should only be used after extensive
soul searching and as a last resort.
• He presents 4 arguments about NRTs:
i. The Tyranny of Technology
ii. Dismemberment of Motherhood
iii. The Commodification of Reproduction
iv. Reproductive Technologies and Genetic Engineering
The Tyranny of Technology
Two types of coercion:
1. coercive offers
• advocates of NRT claim that these techniques were created to help infertile couples,
expanding the range of choices open to them.
• Feminist argument: choice to participate in NRTs is illusory. Society and culture
defines a woman's identity in terms of motherhood.
, • So developing NRTs is not about increasing choice because they are not available to
single women (infertile or not) or lesbian women.
2. coercive threats
• the potential for a loss of control over one's reproductive destiny is increased with the
development of NRTs.
• Ultrasounds, amniocentesis, genetic testing, C-sections all have increased the medical
community's control over the process of birth.
• If trying to increase choice and decrease infertile women's suffering, then doctors
would put more effort in educating all women on causes of infertility.
• Also, NRTs would be open to single and lesbian women.
• The existence of infertility treatments leads people to view infertility as an individual
problem, but in reality, the couple, together, suffers from infertility.
Dismemberment of Motherhood
• NRTs question the meaning of motherhood
• The maternal experience might become a discontinuous process
• The intimacy of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth is absent, which may lead to a loss of
connection between the mother and child.
• Alienate women from the process of procreation, which removes an experience
important for women's identity and power.
• Importance of genetic and social parenthood is at stake
• Lauritzen believes that there should be a unity between genetic, gestational, and
social parenthood
The Commodification of Reproduction
• NRTs treat human beings as products
• Divides person into parts; also divides motherhood.
• NRT process does not treat the whole patient, just parts
• Like "living laboratories", some women were not fully informed of experimental nature
of procedures
• Children would be treated as products because women pay for embryos or eggs
• Because children would be considered property, then can demand for certain
standards or else demand compensation or return the product.
