Marcia Belinda Moulon Esq.'s List: Law and med ethics

• the moral worth of an action is  solely determined by its contribution to overall utility, that is, its contribution to happiness or  pleasure as summed among all persons
• rule utilitarian
• rule utilitarian
• rule utilitarian
• Utilitarianism can thus be characterized as a quantitative and reductionistic approach to ethics.
• when faced with a choice, we must first consider the likely consequences of  potential actions, and from that, choose to do what we believe will generate the  most happiness
• A rule utilitarian, on the other hand, begins by looking at potential rules of  action
• To determine whether a rule should be followed, he looks at what would happen if  it were constantly followed

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• Bentham and Mill argued that hedonism lowers the value of human life to the  level of animals, because it implies that, as Bentham said, a simple game (such  as push-pin) is as good as poetry if the game creates as much pleasure.
• average
• hedonism overlooks the value of real friendship, knowledge, freedom,  and achievements, all of which are lacking for deluded people on the experience  machine.

• One non-welfarist theory of value is perfectionism, which claims  that certain states make a person's life good without necessarily being good for  the person in any way that increases that person's welfare (Hurka 1993, esp.  17). If this theory of value is combined with other elements of classic  utilitarianism, the resulting theory can be called perfectionist  consequentialism or, in deference to its Aristotelian roots,  eudaemonistic consequentialism.
• utilitarianism of rights
• nobody is ever justified in violating rights for the sake of happiness or any  value other than rights, although it would still allow some rights violations in  order to avoid or prevent other rights violations
• holistic consequentialism or world utilitarianism.
• an act is morally wrong if and only if its consequences contain more pain (or  other disvalues) than an alternative, regardless of positive values
• average utilitarianism, which says that the best consequences are those with the  highest average utility
• assume that the principle of utility is supposed to be used as a decision  procedure or guide, that is, as a method that agents consciously  apply to acts in advance to help them make choices
• overall utility can determine which decisions are morally right, even if agents  need not calculate utilities while making decisions. If the principle of utility  is used as a criterion of the right rather than as a decision procedure, then  classical utilitarianism does not require that anyone know the total  consequences of anything before making a decision.
• most agents usually ought to follow their moral intuitions, because these  intuitions evolved to lead us to perform acts that maximize utility, at least in  likely circumstances (Hare 1981, 46-47)
• supererogatory, that is, above and beyond the call of duty
• Some such wrongdoing might be blameless when agents act from innocent or even  desirable motives, but it is still supposed to be moral wrongdoing

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• distinction between contingent duties, which need to be carried out only  under certain empirical circumstances, and categorical duties, which  always need to be carried out, because they are based on a priori  reasoning about the general nature of things, and thus apply no matter what the  circumstances are
• promote human freedom and rationality as the only truly categorical duty

• Autonomy
• Autonomy
• Autonomy
• morality, Kant argued that the source of the <!--del_lnk-->good lies not in  anything outside the human  subject, either in nature or  given by God, but rather only the  good will itself.

  • deontology
• A good will is one that acts from duty in accordance with the universal moral  law that the autonomous human being freely gives itself. This law obliges one to  treat humanity — understood as rational agency, and represented through oneself  as well as others — as an end in itself rather than (merely) as means.

  • deontology
• moral obligation applies to all and only rational agents (408).

  • deontology
• Formula of Universal Law) of the moral imperative
• requires that the maxims be chosen as though they should hold as universal <!--del_lnk-->laws of nature" (436).
• Formula of Humanity)
• synthesis of the first two and is the basis for the "complete determination of  all maxims".
• Formula of Autonomy) is

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• defined an imperative as any proposition that declares a certain action (or  inaction) to be necessary

• one may harm in order to save more if and only if the harm is an effect or an  aspect of the greater good itself
• deontology cannot offer complete moral guidance

• that there can be no peace without the intellectual and moral solidarity of  humankind

• What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

• duty of the physician to promote and safeguard the health of the people
• The health of my patient will be my first consideration," and the International  Code of Medical Ethics declares that, "A physician shall act only in the  patient's interest when providing medical care which might have the effect of  weakening the physical and mental condition of the patient."

• Helsinki Declaration - Marcia Belinda Moulon Esq. on 2008-09-27