Applied Ethics Commons^™

Ethics Of Euthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide, Kathryn Halloran

Honors Senior Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Love And The Winter: C.S. Lewis, Nigel Biggar, And Marc Livecche On Enemy Love, Jason Lepojärvi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Abstract: In this paper I tackle two difficult questions about enemy love, with C. S. Lewis as my guide. First, how do we forgive a person who has deeply injured us? Second, can the Christian command to “love thy enemy” be reconciled with the military task of killing one’s opponent in war? After defining “love”, “enemy”, and “enemy love”, I discuss these two questions in light of the things that most endanger enemy love: resentment and violence. According to Lewis, the virtue of forgiveness and the religious habit of prayer play a crucial role in overcoming resentment. As for violence, …

Bad Acts, Worse Responses: Reconsidering The Moral Foundations Of The Us Criminal Justice System, Christian N. Futch

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contemporary criminal justice system in the United States, offering moral and pragmatic critiques to its current construction, and proposing an alternative construction that is both more successful pragmatically and morally. In this paper, I first establish the connection between morality and the law through the consideration of jurisprudential theories of law. After arguing for this connection, I then offer critiques of the current criminal justice system in the United States. After this, I evaluate the four general theories of punishment using the scholarship of Thom Brooks, finding that retributive and deterrent …

The Effect Of Climate Change On Migration: An Argument For Providing Climate Migrants With Refugee Status, Nicole Stahley

Senior Theses

Global temperatures are rising at an exponential rate and, as a result, millions are being displaced by natural disasters and socioeconomic turmoil exacerbated by environmental hardship. Currently, climate change does not qualify as an extenuating circumstance that would grant refugee status to those suffering. Yet, as I argue in this thesis, experiencing substantial hardship (e.g., losing their home) due to climate change should be justification for refugee status and the rights/protection that comes with it. As they are a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, the United States in particular has a moral obligation to provide …

“Meddling In The Work Of Another”: Πολυπραγμονεῖν In Plato’S Republic, Brennan Mcdavid

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

The second conjunct of the Republic’s account of justice—that justice is “not meddling in the work of another”—has been neglected in Plato literature. This paper argues that the conjunct does more work than merely reiterating the content of the first conjunct—that justice is “doing one’s own work.” I argue that Socrates develops the concept at work in this conjunct from its introduction with the Principle of Specialization in Book II to its final deployment in the finished conception of justice in Book IV. Crucial to that concept’s development is the way in which the notion of “another” comes to …

A New Directive: An Ethical Analysis Of The Ethical And Religious Directives And Catholic Healthcare Mission To Promote And Sustain Catholic Healthcare, Noah Dimas

Graduate Student Research Symposium

At the heart of all Catholic healthcare is the mission and duty to further the healing ministry of Jesus Christ and care for one’s neighbor to uphold human dignity. However, some in Catholic healthcare may not fully know nor understand these foundational Catholic teachings. As such, these healthcare professionals can turn to a simple but rich guide in giving direction to these healthcare professionals, the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives. This document acts as both a primer and set of guidelines regarding Catholic doctrine, the Catholic moral tradition, and how both inform the Catholic response to common ethical concerns. However, …

Ethical Ramifications Of Xenotransplantation Research And Justification For Potentially Deadly Study Participation, Scott Dyer

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Recent leaps in medical technology now allow humans to utilize organs of animals, specifically pigs, in xenotransplantation procedures. As this science advances, ethical quandaries that must be grappled with will arise while additional clinical trials must be done. Due to the infancy of this technology, science must be cautious in how it moves forward. However, I also argue that anyone, as long as they are of sound mind and deemed to be of proper decision-making capacity, can justifiably participate in any research they want, no matter how deadly the potential consequences. A participant in such research may be getting much …

Care Ethics, Bruno Latour, And The Anthropocene, Michael Flower, Maurice Hamington

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bruno Latour is one of the founding figures in social network theory and a broadly influential systems thinker. Although his work has always been relational, little scholarship has engaged the relational morality, ontology, and epistemology of feminist care ethics with Latour’s actor–network theory. This article is intended as a translation and a prompt to spur further interactions. Latour’s recent publications, in particular, have focused on the new climate regime of the Anthropocene. Care theorists are just beginning to address posthuman approaches to care. The argument here is that Latourian analysis is helpful for such explorations, given that caring for the …

Decay In Educational System: The Nigerian Perspective, Itohowo Paul Ignatius, Iniobong Daniel Umotong Dr.

Journal of Graduate Education Research

Education is the bedrock of development in every society. In developing countries including Nigeria, education is conceived as the tool through which national objectives (such as nation building, social integration and economic development) are achieved. Although education has so many prospects for developing countries, Nigeria continues to be crawling with its education sector. It is against this background that this paper seeks to answer the fundamental questions: what are the problems facing the Nigerian educational sector and in what ways can they be mitigated? The national policy of education (1998) in Nigeria has five working objectives and philosophies through which …

Language And Betrayal: Posthuman Ethics In Kazuo Ishiguro’S Never Let Me Go, Netty Mattar

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Netty Mattar discusses in her article “Language and Betrayal: Posthuman Ethics in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go” the complexities of ethical compassion in this biotechnological age. Mattar highlights how genetic technology creates new forms of life that dissolve the line between ‘human’ and ‘technology.’ In spite of this, contemporary ethical discussions do not take into account changing conceptions of human subjectivity and instead reinstate older assumptions about what ‘human’ is. Mattar argues that speculative fiction (SF), as a self-conscious play on signs and signification, can draw attention to how ethical responses are determined by the language we use. …

Can Lethal Autonomous Weapons Be Just?, Noreen L. Herzfeld, Robert H. Latiff

Computer Science Faculty Publications

In 2018 the United States Department of Defense (DoD) created a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to study the adoption of AI by the military. Their strategy, outlined in a document entitled, “Harnessing AI to Advance Our Security and Prosperity,” proposes to accelerate the adoption of AI in the military by fostering a culture of experimentation and calculated risk taking, noting that AI will change the character of the future battlefield and, even more, the pace of battle. Is there any way to ensure that this future battlefield will be just? Can the age-old precepts of just warfare help guide …

Unresolved Issues Of Behavioral Analysis In Invertebrates, Charles I. Abramson, Paco Calvo

Animal Sentience

Crump et al. (2022) provide a framework for determining the presence of sentience in organisms. Their target article is interesting and thought-provoking, but it does not consider the many unresolved issues related to behavioral analysis – especially when it concerns invertebrates. We feel that no real progress can be made until such fundamental issues as the need for a consistent definition of conditioning phenomena, the lack of a generally accepted behavioral taxonomy, and the use of cognitive terms to explain invertebrate behavior are examined critically.

The Right To Reproduce, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

The reproductive rights of women have been a central topic in feminist bioethics. The focus has been predominantly on the right not to reproduce, and so not to be subject to pronatalist social forces that make motherhood compulsory for women. That is the case despite many women and other members of marginalized groups experiencing anti-natalism, or in other words, social pressure to avoid biological reproduction. For these groups, the right to reproduce is as important, if not more important, than the right not to reproduce. This chapter concentrates on the right to reproduce and considers what form it should take …

Exceptional Driving Principles For Autonomous Vehicles, A. D'Amato, S. Dancel, J. Pilutti, L. Tellis, E. Frascaroli, J. C. Gerdes

Journal of Law and Mobility

Public expectations for automated vehicles span a broad range, from mobility for passengers, to road user safety, to compliance with the traffic code. In most ordinary situations, these expectations can be satisfied simultaneously. But these various expectations can also lead to exceptional scenarios where certain objectives, such as those related to safety, are in tension with road rules. Exceptional driving scenarios challenge motion planning algorithms in automated vehicles to find solutions that are legally grounded, ethically sound, and technically feasible.

The general public’s familiarity with exceptional driving scenarios comes from the classic "Trolley Car" problem in philosophy, asking who should …

Pain In Pleocyemata, But Not In Dendrobranchiata?, Gary Comstock

Animal Sentience

Crump et al.’s contribution to assessing whether decapods feel pain raises an important question: Is pain distributed unevenly across the order? The case for pain appears stronger in Pleocyemata than in Dendrobranchiata. Some studies report pain avoidance behaviors in Dendrobranchiata (Penaeidae) shrimp, but further studies are needed to determine whether the chemicals used are acting as analgesics to relieve pain, or as soporifics to reduce overall alertness. If the latter, the most farmed shrimp species may not require the same level of protection as crabs, crayfish, and lobsters.

Ethical Leadership And Leadership In Ethics, Robert Audi

Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies

This paper offers a conceptual portrait of leadership and a framework for exercising it in the realm of ethics. The paper provides an account of what constitutes leadership, a set of moral standards for its ethical exercise, and a distinction between leadership that meets these standards and leadership that not only meets them, but positively engages them. This engagement is central for leadership in ethics. The main context for analysis in the paper is organizational. Leadership is essential for the success of organizations and morally important in their daily operations. The paper also describes its nature and role in less …

Feminist Ethics And Research With Women In Prison, Christina Quinlan, Lucy Baldwin, Natalie Booth

Articles

In this article, a new model, An Ethic of Empathy, is proposed as a guide for researchers, particularly new scholars to the discipline. This model emerged from the authors’ concerns regarding the application of ethics to studies that focus on the experience of female offenders in criminal justice systems. The key issue is the vulnerability of incarcerated and post-release women in relationship to the powerful status of social scientist researchers. The complexity of ethics in such research settings necessitates a particular ethical preparation, involving formation, reflection, understanding, commitment, care, and empathy. Three cases are outlined which document the authors’ ethical …

Regenerating Agroecosystems By Overcoming Human Exceptionalism In Designing For Increased Equity Of Benefits From Ecoservices, Ali Loker, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Our commentary explores three critical issues related to ecosystem services. First is how ecoservices are currently designed and implemented primarily for human benefit without concern for how these impact other species. We conclude that awareness of this imbalance is the first step toward meaningful change. Second we observe that human exceptionalism guides most decisions, and ask whether we can overcome this mind-set to embrace ecoregeneration and design of resilient and mutually beneficial agroecosystems. Our attitude toward the challenge and moving toward greater humility about human roles that guide management decisions in the ecosystem is a requisite for change. Third we …

Meat May Never Die, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

The goal of ethical veganism is a vegan world or, at least, a significantly vegan world. However, despite the hard work done by vegan activists, global meat consumption has been increasing. Vegan advocates have focused on ethics but have ignored the importance of tradition and identity. And the advent of veggie meat alternatives has promoted food that emulates animal products thereby perpetuating the meat paradigm. I suggest that, in order to make significant changes toward ending animal exploitation, ethical vegans give more attention to tradition and identity. Furthermore, I propose that raw veganism is the most ethical diet and can …

Facultas Marginem: Assessing Disability Data And Public Aau Universities’ Affirmative Action Plans For Systemic Barriers Facing Faculty With Disabilities, Joseph Carlton Barry

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation contributes to education equity scholarship produced by academics seeking to develop understandings of disability, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and how both are situated amongst faculty in institutions of higher education. As such, this dissertation centers on a study of public US universities belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). This study looks for institutional level associations between respective rates by which college and university faculty with disabilities (FWD) are employed, certain aspects of disability policy drawn from each institution’s 2020 Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and various other instances of empirical disability data (EDD).

While this study contributes …