Exam 12: Moral,legal,and Aesthetic Reasoning

Evaluate the issue of human cloning from the utilitarian consequentialist viewpoint.

State whether the following item expresses moral value or nonmoral value;or no value at all. The sketches we got back from the designer were awful.

In this pair of cases,the first may serve as precedent for the second.Decide whether the second case is so relevantly similar to the first that it should be decided identically.Explain your decision. First case:The owner of an amusement park,believing that homosexual activity was taking place in its pay toilets,authorized police to use an observation pipe leading from the roof to the booths.Officer H regularly visited the roof for surveillance.If he observed illegal conduct,he would notify officers below,who would make the arrest.A court ruled that the evidence of Officer H was illegally obtained and set aside the information. Second case:A motel manager complained to police that his motel was being used for the sale of narcotics.Officers conducting surveillance from an unmarked vehicle observed suspicious activity and,approaching and looking through an unshaded window,witnessed drug use and made arrests.

For the following,try to come up with an additional premise that will turn the passage into a deductively valid or an inductively strong argument.Usually this requires adding a general moral principle and,sometimes,an extra nonmoral claim as well.The idea is to guarantee that the "ought" claim follows from the "is" claim. Scotty's mother not only is getting too old to take care of herself but also is unable to pay for proper care in a nursing home.It seems to me that Scotty should either take her in or otherwise make sure she is taken care of properly.

Given the following position on euthanasia (doctor-assisted suicide),identify which of the three major ethical theories discussed in the text-utilitarianism,duty theory,or virtue ethics-it follows.Note that each theory may encompass several possible viewpoints on an issue. If we can trust doctors and relatives of the patient to be morally responsible people,then active euthanasia could become an option.However,it may be abused by people with a bad character.And we should not forget that the character of the patients themselves may be important:Are they serious in their request,or are they going to change their minds at the last minute? Above all,let us be certain that the decision is right for the patient in his or her special situation,that the manner of euthanasia is appropriate,and that the situation is viewed with a balanced mind-set.