Science, Law and Human Values
Fall 2008	Midterm

questions

1. Why is the process of 'peer review' so important in communicating scientific findings?

2. What are the three most important ethical principles under the Belmont Report? What should these principles govern? Of which principle is the requirement of informed consent most likely to be an extension of?

3. Is our appreciation of life as a gift an argument in favor or against genetic enhancement? Why?

4. We manipulate the environment all the time to enhance our lives as we experience them. Why shouldn't we able to manipulate our genes to achieve the same goal?

5. Human suffering can be relieved if therapeutic cloning is permissible. Is this argument consequentialist or deontologist? Why?

6. What do we mean by replication of scientific findings?

7. State an objection against the idea that people find certain practices repulsive and therefore unacceptable (yuk factor)?

8. Is the capacity of animals to feel pleasure and pain relevant from a Kantian perspective? Why?

9. Can you think of a slippery slope argument discussed in class or in the readings?

10. If human clones were to be created, would experimentation with these creatures be permissible?

11. In his article on human cloning, Savulescu presents a series of cases involving Lucas to prove that human cloning may be defensible. What is the purpose that these Lucas cases serve in light of the author's argument?

12. What does the Nuremberg Code say about animals? Is this an anthropocentric or a non-anthropocentric position? Why?

13. Jim is egg-intolerant. Whenever he eats eggs, his throat starts soaring and he cannot talk for three days. On Sunday, he is invited to a brunch at a friend's house. The only dish available is egg omelet. Is Jim free to eat the omelet? Discuss the scenario by pointing whether or not there is a distinction between positive and negative freedom in Jim's case.

14. Why is Onora O'Neill concerned with the triumph of informed consent?

15. Throughout the world, many laws prohibit abuse of animals: list and discuss in one sentence three reasons for this prohibitions

16. What kind of issues is the precautionary principle meant to address?

17. In what sense science can be bad? We discussed two senses in which science can be bad.

18. What triggers the duty to submit a research proposal to an institutional review board?

19. What are the three requirements of informed consent?

20. Why is human cloning a matter of meaning? Answer by discussing Kass's paper.

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