Lesson test: Life and death

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Life and death

1.[3p]
What do Rachels's Smith and Jones cases aim to show?

That the bare difference between killing and letting die is not by itself morally significant

Correct

That letting die is always worse than killing

The answer is: That the bare difference between killing and letting die is not by itself morally significant

That inheritance motivates most murders

The answer is: That the bare difference between killing and letting die is not by itself morally significant

That doctors should never withdraw treatment

The answer is: That the bare difference between killing and letting die is not by itself morally significant

2.[3p]
What is the standard objection to the bare difference method here?

A distinction can matter in general without making a difference in a case where the agent means to kill either way

Correct

Thought experiments cannot involve children

The answer is: A distinction can matter in general without making a difference in a case where the agent means to kill either way

The two cases have different outcomes

The answer is: A distinction can matter in general without making a difference in a case where the agent means to kill either way

Smith and Jones have different motives

The answer is: A distinction can matter in general without making a difference in a case where the agent means to kill either way

3.[3p]
Match each case to what it decided.

Airedale NHS Trust v Bland in 1993
Cruzan in 1990
Vacco v Quill in 1997
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act of 1997

withdrawal of nutrition from a patient in a persistent vegetative state was lawful
a competent person has a protected liberty interest in refusing life-sustaining treatment
physicians may prescribe but not administer, for the terminally ill
a state ban on assisted suicide is consistent with the right to refuse treatment

Show the answer

Airedale NHS Trust v Bland in 1993: withdrawal of nutrition from a patient in a persistent vegetative state was lawful Cruzan in 1990: a competent person has a protected liberty interest in refusing life-sustaining treatment Vacco v Quill in 1997: a state ban on assisted suicide is consistent with the right to refuse treatment The Oregon Death with Dignity Act of 1997: physicians may prescribe but not administer, for the terminally ill

4.[2p]
Roughly what percentage of all deaths in the Netherlands were reported euthanasia cases in 2022?

CorrectNot quite: 5

5.[3p]
What does the record in the Netherlands, Canada and Oregon suggest about the slippery slope?

Expansion has tracked how the criterion was drafted, with suffering-based laws widening and terminal-illness laws staying put

Correct

No expansion has occurred anywhere

The answer is: Expansion has tracked how the criterion was drafted, with suffering-based laws widening and terminal-illness laws staying put

Every jurisdiction has expanded at the same rate

The answer is: Expansion has tracked how the criterion was drafted, with suffering-based laws widening and terminal-illness laws staying put

The data cannot bear on the question at all

The answer is: Expansion has tracked how the criterion was drafted, with suffering-based laws widening and terminal-illness laws staying put

6.[3p]
What makes Thomson's violinist argument powerful?

It grants that the fetus is a person and argues that the conclusion still does not follow

Correct

It proves that the fetus is not a person

The answer is: It grants that the fetus is a person and argues that the conclusion still does not follow

It shows that pregnancy is always involuntary

The answer is: It grants that the fetus is a person and argues that the conclusion still does not follow

It appeals only to consequences

The answer is: It grants that the fetus is a person and argues that the conclusion still does not follow

7.[3p]
What does Marquis say makes killing an adult wrong?

It deprives them of a future of experiences, activities and projects

Correct

It causes grief to those who survive them

The answer is: It deprives them of a future of experiences, activities and projects

It violates their species membership

The answer is: It deprives them of a future of experiences, activities and projects

It brutalises the killer

The answer is: It deprives them of a future of experiences, activities and projects

8.[3p]
Which objections are raised against Marquis in the lesson?

Select all that apply

Contraception would also deprive something of a future

Correct

A zygote can twin for about fourteen days, so there is no determinate individual yet

Correct

What matters may be thwarting a subject's own desires, which a fetus lacks

Correct

His argument depends on a claim about species membership

The answer is: Contraception would also deprive something of a future, A zygote can twin for about fourteen days, so there is no determinate individual yet, What matters may be thwarting a subject's own desires, which a fetus lacks

9.[2p]
Marquis's argument is available to a consequentialist as well as to a deontologist.

True

Correct

False

The answer is: True

1.[3p] What do Rachels's Smith and Jones cases aim to show?

2.[3p] What is the standard objection to the bare difference method here?

3.[3p] Match each case to what it decided.

4.[2p] Roughly what percentage of all deaths in the Netherlands were reported euthanasia cases in 2022?

5.[3p] What does the record in the Netherlands, Canada and Oregon suggest about the slippery slope?

6.[3p] What makes Thomson's violinist argument powerful?

7.[3p] What does Marquis say makes killing an adult wrong?

8.[3p] Which objections are raised against Marquis in the lesson?

9.[2p] Marquis's argument is available to a consequentialist as well as to a deontologist.

1.[3p]
What do Rachels's Smith and Jones cases aim to show?

2.[3p]
What is the standard objection to the bare difference method here?

3.[3p]
Match each case to what it decided.

4.[2p]
Roughly what percentage of all deaths in the Netherlands were reported euthanasia cases in 2022?

5.[3p]
What does the record in the Netherlands, Canada and Oregon suggest about the slippery slope?

6.[3p]
What makes Thomson's violinist argument powerful?

7.[3p]
What does Marquis say makes killing an adult wrong?

8.[3p]
Which objections are raised against Marquis in the lesson?

9.[2p]
Marquis's argument is available to a consequentialist as well as to a deontologist.