PHIL 265

Biomedical Ethics

Final review

1. Explain Warren's cognitive conception of personhood. How does she think it bears on the issue of the fetuses right to life and the morality of abortion?
2. Why, according to Warren, does the fetus' potential to become a person fail to ground a right to life that would make abortion impermissible?
3. How does Warren address the objection that her cognitive conception of personhood would deprive infants of a significant right to life and thereby make infanticide morally permissible?
4. Thomson assumes that fetuses are persons and argues that abortion may be justifiable all the same.  Explain the role of the case of the famous violinist in her argument for the permissibility of many cases of abortion. How is this case used in analyzing the content of the right to life?
5. What problem does the view that the right to life is a right not to be killed unjustly present for the anti-abortion view?
6. Explain Marquis account of the wrongness of killing.  How does this support the view that abortion is wrong?
7. What is problematic about grounding the moral value of a fetus in its potential?  What problem does this suggest for Marquis view of the wrongness of killing?
8. How does Singer respond to the objection that IVF is an expensive luxury that wastes resources that could be put to better use elsewhere?
9. How, according to Sherwin, is the desire for access to IVF rooted in social values and institutions that are oppressive to women?
10. What reasons does Kass offer against cloning?
11. According to Kass, what is the difference between procreation and manufacture and why is this morally significant?
12. What response is offered by Wachbroit in response to the repugnance towards cloning felt by Kass and much of the public?