BIOETHICS MIDTERM EXAM
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2025
What is bioethics? - ANSWERSA discussion about ethical standards in medicinal
practices that takes place in the media, in the academy, in classrooms, and in labs,
offices, and hospital wards. It involves not just doctors, but patients, not just scientists
and politicians but the general public. Traditional ethical standards have been
articulated, reflected on, challenged, and sometimes revised; standards for new issues
have been created - and then challenged and revised. The conversation is often
sparked by new developments, like the possibility of cloning. It also raises new
questions about old issues, like the use of placebos and the treatment of pain.
What are the sources of bioethical problems? How do these lead to problems? Be able
to give/identify examples. - ANSWERSMuch of bioethics is due to the unrelenting pace
of technological advance. New technologies expand beyond problems they were
created for. Another cause of bioethical problems is deciding what we owe to one
another regarding privacy, honesty. There is an increasing demand for patients' rights to
information and healthcare and growing distrust for professional privilege, consumerism
and sexism, and big farm. Companies.
Be able to identify/distinguish between ethical and non-ethical questions. -
ANSWERSShould
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, what is consequentialism? - ANSWERSThe
class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are
the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.
What is the greatest happiness principle? Be able to apply it to the resolve of cases. -
ANSWERSThe ethical principle that an action is right in so far as it promotes the
greatest happiness of the greatest number of those affected.
What are the benefits/advantages of utilitarianism as a moral theory? What are the main
objections to utilitarianism? - ANSWERSUtilitarianism is good because it focuses on
benefitting the most amount of people and it is impartial and creates a sense of equality.
Some objections: 1. Happiness is the greatest good. (Critics say it leaves out other
goods like health, friendship, creativity, intellectual attainment, etc.) 2. Requires us to
calculate the probable consequences of every action, which is impossible. 3. For
nonconsequentialists it is significant whether an outcome was done, or done by me.
(killing/letting die) 4. Sometimes goes against our basic moral intuitions (killing one for
the sake of others)
, Usually when we talk about utilitarianism, we are referring to act-utilitarianism. What is
the difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism? How does rule-
utilitarianism resolve (some of) the major problems with act-utilitarianism? -
ANSWERSAction is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that
"the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the
rule of which it is an instance."
Be able to distinguish Kant's deontological theory from other theories of ethics. -
ANSWERSThe normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on
the action's adherence to a rule or rules. It is sometimes described as "duty" or
"obligation" or "rule"-based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty."
What sets human beings apart from other animals, according to Kant? Why is this
important for understanding Kant's moral theory? - ANSWERSHumans are rational
beings and therefore have special moral standing because of their ability to act on the
basis of reason and to conform their behavior to the moral law.
How do we make decisions about whether an action is consistent with duty and,
therefore, morally permissible? What role does the categorical imperative play in this
process? - ANSWERS"Can I, as a rational agent, consistently will that everyone in a
similar situation should act this way?"
What is the difference between the universalization test (Formula of Universal Law) and
the respect for persons test (Formula of Humanity)? Can you think of any cases where
an action would be permissible according to one, but not the other? - ANSWERSThe
first formulation (Formula of Universal Law) of the moral imperative "requires that the
maxims be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature" . This
formulation in principle has as its supreme law the creed "Always act according to that
maxim whose universality as a law you can at the same time will" and is the "only
condition under which a will can never come into conflict with itself [....]"
The second formulation (or Formula of the End in Itself) holds that "the rational being,
as by its nature an end and thus as an end in itself, must serve in every maxim as the
condition restricting all merely relative and arbitrary ends". The principle dictates that
you "[a]ct with reference to every rational being (whether yourself or another) so that it is
an end in itself in your maxim", meaning that the rational being is "the basis of all
maxims of action" and "must be treated never as a mere means but as the supreme
limiting condition in the use of all means, i.e., as an end at the same time"
What is autonomy, according to Kant? How does this differ from standard views of
autonomy in the bioethical literature? - ANSWERSThe idea of freedom as autonomy
thus goes beyond the merely 'negative' sense of being free from influences on our
conduct originating outside of ourselves. It contains first and foremost the idea of laws
made and laid down by oneself, and, in virtue of this, laws that have decisive authority
over oneself.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2025
What is bioethics? - ANSWERSA discussion about ethical standards in medicinal
practices that takes place in the media, in the academy, in classrooms, and in labs,
offices, and hospital wards. It involves not just doctors, but patients, not just scientists
and politicians but the general public. Traditional ethical standards have been
articulated, reflected on, challenged, and sometimes revised; standards for new issues
have been created - and then challenged and revised. The conversation is often
sparked by new developments, like the possibility of cloning. It also raises new
questions about old issues, like the use of placebos and the treatment of pain.
What are the sources of bioethical problems? How do these lead to problems? Be able
to give/identify examples. - ANSWERSMuch of bioethics is due to the unrelenting pace
of technological advance. New technologies expand beyond problems they were
created for. Another cause of bioethical problems is deciding what we owe to one
another regarding privacy, honesty. There is an increasing demand for patients' rights to
information and healthcare and growing distrust for professional privilege, consumerism
and sexism, and big farm. Companies.
Be able to identify/distinguish between ethical and non-ethical questions. -
ANSWERSShould
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, what is consequentialism? - ANSWERSThe
class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are
the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.
What is the greatest happiness principle? Be able to apply it to the resolve of cases. -
ANSWERSThe ethical principle that an action is right in so far as it promotes the
greatest happiness of the greatest number of those affected.
What are the benefits/advantages of utilitarianism as a moral theory? What are the main
objections to utilitarianism? - ANSWERSUtilitarianism is good because it focuses on
benefitting the most amount of people and it is impartial and creates a sense of equality.
Some objections: 1. Happiness is the greatest good. (Critics say it leaves out other
goods like health, friendship, creativity, intellectual attainment, etc.) 2. Requires us to
calculate the probable consequences of every action, which is impossible. 3. For
nonconsequentialists it is significant whether an outcome was done, or done by me.
(killing/letting die) 4. Sometimes goes against our basic moral intuitions (killing one for
the sake of others)
, Usually when we talk about utilitarianism, we are referring to act-utilitarianism. What is
the difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism? How does rule-
utilitarianism resolve (some of) the major problems with act-utilitarianism? -
ANSWERSAction is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that
"the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the
rule of which it is an instance."
Be able to distinguish Kant's deontological theory from other theories of ethics. -
ANSWERSThe normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on
the action's adherence to a rule or rules. It is sometimes described as "duty" or
"obligation" or "rule"-based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty."
What sets human beings apart from other animals, according to Kant? Why is this
important for understanding Kant's moral theory? - ANSWERSHumans are rational
beings and therefore have special moral standing because of their ability to act on the
basis of reason and to conform their behavior to the moral law.
How do we make decisions about whether an action is consistent with duty and,
therefore, morally permissible? What role does the categorical imperative play in this
process? - ANSWERS"Can I, as a rational agent, consistently will that everyone in a
similar situation should act this way?"
What is the difference between the universalization test (Formula of Universal Law) and
the respect for persons test (Formula of Humanity)? Can you think of any cases where
an action would be permissible according to one, but not the other? - ANSWERSThe
first formulation (Formula of Universal Law) of the moral imperative "requires that the
maxims be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature" . This
formulation in principle has as its supreme law the creed "Always act according to that
maxim whose universality as a law you can at the same time will" and is the "only
condition under which a will can never come into conflict with itself [....]"
The second formulation (or Formula of the End in Itself) holds that "the rational being,
as by its nature an end and thus as an end in itself, must serve in every maxim as the
condition restricting all merely relative and arbitrary ends". The principle dictates that
you "[a]ct with reference to every rational being (whether yourself or another) so that it is
an end in itself in your maxim", meaning that the rational being is "the basis of all
maxims of action" and "must be treated never as a mere means but as the supreme
limiting condition in the use of all means, i.e., as an end at the same time"
What is autonomy, according to Kant? How does this differ from standard views of
autonomy in the bioethical literature? - ANSWERSThe idea of freedom as autonomy
thus goes beyond the merely 'negative' sense of being free from influences on our
conduct originating outside of ourselves. It contains first and foremost the idea of laws
made and laid down by oneself, and, in virtue of this, laws that have decisive authority
over oneself.
