PHI 227 Biomedical Ethics

The following review questions are meant to give you an idea of the exams format and help you focus on some important points.

Exam 1

I. Fill in the Blanks

1. Psychological hedonism is a ______________theory. Ethical egoism is a _____________ theory.
2. According to Mill, the only proof that anything is desirable is ______________.
3. The big difference between Bentham's and Mill's versions of utilitarianism concerns
1. _____________ vs. ________________.
2. _____________ vs. ________________.
3. _____________ vs. ________________.
4. True or false? Kant's is a consequentialist ethics.
5. For Kant, the only truly good thing is a __________________.
6. A moral proposition of the form "If you want X, then you should do Y" is called a _________________.
7. The principles of justice, according to Rawls, are obtained when contracting members are placed behind ____________________ and thereby made unaware of their actual positions in society.

II. Answer the following questions:

1. What does Ross call "prima facie duties," what are some of these duties? how does he explain the fact that two people who agree on what are their prima facie duties can disagree about what is actually right in a given situation?
2. What is utilitarianism? Give an example which tends to support the idea that it may command to do something that is unjust. How would a utilitarian answer such a charge?

Exam 2

I. Fill in the Blanks

1. For Jay Katz, the ideal of self-determination at the heart of informed consent has been __________ by medicine and ____________ by the law.
2. According to Katz, the law has created an expanded _____________ rather than a more supportive context for patient decision-making.
3. According to Katz doctors opposition to informed consent stems merely from patients ' alleged incompetence to handle harsh truths, but also perhaps from their own deep-seated reluctance to admit the widespread existence of ___________________.
4. In the past thirty years, standards of disclosure of information have become increasingly ______________________.
5. The purpose of disclosure is to _______________________, and to enable patients to make _______________________.
6. Among the good reasons for telling the truth in a medical settings are:
   1. _____________________.
   2. _____________________.
   3. _____________________.
   4. _____________________.
7. Deception in health care undermines the _______________ between the doctor and the patient.
8. It may be ethical to breach patient confidentiality under the following circumstances:
   1. _____________________.
   2. _____________________.
   3. _____________________.
   4. _____________________.
9. In the paternalistic model of doctor-patient relationship power resides exclusively with _________________; in the engineering model, it resides entirely with _______.
10. The elements of full informed consent are the following:
    1. _____________________.
    2. _____________________.
    3. _____________________.
    4. _____________________.

II.Answer one of the following questions:

1. What, according to Howard Brody, are the advantages and the disadvantages of the conversational model of informed consent?
2. What are some of the arguments that have been put forward in favor of the idea that the physicians authority and to decide what is best for their patients and the power to do so remain vested in them? Are these arguments sound? Explain.
3. Outline what you feel are the rights and duties of healthcare professionals and patients and discuss whether the relationship between them should be paternalistic, contractual, fiduciary or pragmatic.

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