For this essay, you are asked to apply moral theories and concepts we have been exploring to a concrete biomedical ethics case, as spelled out in a vignette below. In particular, you are put in the position of a physician facing a morally complex case and asked to deliberate morally about what you would do. This is an opportunity for you to work out your moral views for yourself as well as to see how they apply to a medical ethics problem. That is, you should use this essay as an opportunity to think for yourself and decide how you weight different moral concepts in an applied biomedical ethics situation.
Your essay should be 1500 words total +/-10% and should include a word-count at the end (i.e., your essay’s total word count should range between 1350-1650 words).
Your essay will be evaluated using the following rubric:
Introduction (10%)
Exposition of Moral Situation (30%)
Argument For Your Decision (30%)
Organization & Clarity (20%)
Grammar & Spelling (10%)
Vignette:
AJ is a 23-year-old patient who sustained massive trauma and neurological injury in a car accident. She is not brain dead, but the prognosis for “meaningful recovery” is said to be less than 1%. AJ has not regained consciousness and is likely to remain permanently in a vegetative state.
AJ’s parents are attentive and religious. After consulting with their priest, their daughter’s doctors, and a hospital ethicist, they decide to withdraw life support, saying they are “placing their child in God’s hands now.”
As arrangements are being made for AJ to be taken off life support (and since AJ’s death is anticipated soon after being taken off life support), it is discovered that AJ’s driver’s license has a little heart and “organ donor” stamped on the front. Unfortunately, the backside is scuffed, making any signature or date that might have been there illegible.
Suppose that if AJ’s organs were donated, ten people at that hospital could be given life-saving operations. When the parents are asked about whether AJ ever expressed wishes to donate her organs, her parents appear startled. They say that they were quite close to their daughter and that she never brought up that topic with them. They insist that they do not want their child’s body to be mutilated.
Your task is to decide what you think (morally) ought to happen next and to argue for this decision using particular moral grounds. Should AJ’s organs be donated to save the life of ten people? Or should AJ’s parents’ wishes that their daughter’s body not undergo such a procedure be respected?
You will be evaluated not on what action you choose but rather according to how well you thoroughly develop your argument for whatever action you choose.
For the purposes of this essay, be sure to bracket the legal issues that might arise in a case like this (like e.g., the legal fallout of not respecting the parents’ wishes). In this case, we are focusing on the purely moral question.
In preparing for this essay, you may find it helpful to first list the moral concepts (principles and/or theories and/or virtues and/or values and/or duties) that you think are relevant to this moral situation. Remember, not every moral concept is relevant to every moral problem. Once you list the moral concepts, try to order them in what you consider the order of importance in this particular case.
With this ordering of relevant moral concepts in hand, you can then more straightforwardly proceed to think through for the decision you think is morally right. Your essay should reflect your reasoning process for your preferred choice.
You will be asked to explain your reasons for choosing your preferred action over the other by telling the reader why you decided to weigh the importance of moral concepts as you did. This will include telling the reader why you rejected the alternative.
Your essay will be evaluated as follows:
Introduction (10%):
Your introduction should consist of a short and sweet paragraph. It should mainly include a clear thesis statement in which you tell the reader what you will argue for. In this case, this is what action you would choose to take in the case and a brief statement of your reasons why (e.g., I argue that AJ’s organs should be donated because in this situation the principle of utility is more important than doing right by AJ’s parents and their beliefs). It should be no more than a couple of sentences and can even be a single one.
Note: The introduction should be the last thing you finalize. You should make sure, once you’ve written your essay, that what you actually argue for in the body of the paper is what you claim you argue for in the introduction.
Exposition of Moral Situation (30%):
After the introductory paragraph, you should proceed to explain the moral dimensions of the case. Explain what moral concepts (principles and/or theories and/or virtues and/or values and/or duties) you think are relevant to this situation and why. Here you don’t yet need to give a sense of how you weigh the relative importance of these principles to each other. It is enough to note how you think they are at play.
Argument For Your Decision (30%):
In many ways, this is where the main work happens in the paper. Here you are asked to give your own take on how one should weigh the different moral concepts in this case. You should explain your reasons for choosing this action over the other by telling the reader why you decided to weigh the importance of moral concepts as you did. This will include telling the reader why you rejected the alternative. This is the most substantive part of your essay and should be the longest part.
Organization & Clarity (20%):
Your essay should have a clear organizational structure. It should have: first, a brief introduction, then substantive exposition of the morally relevant concepts, and finally a substantial argument for your preferred decision. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that tells the reader what you will do in the course of it.
You should clearly explain every moral concept that you bring in and indicate how each is relevant to the case.
Your own argument should be laid out in a logical structure, clearly indicating which statements (which are premises) support others (which are conclusions).
Your writing style should be straightforward and without any fluff or fill. You should explain any philosophical terminology/jargon you bring up.
Grammar & Spelling (10%):
Your essay should be proofread for proper grammar and spelling (as well as typos). We all miss something sometimes, but the fewer minor errors your texts have, the more your reader can focus on the substance of what you have to say. When mistakes interrupt the flow of your writing, the reader fails to experience your ideas at their best.
For this essay, you do not need to explicitly quote any texts. That being said, if you do quote something from a text, you should be sure to appropriately cite it. A good rule of thumb is to do parenthetical citations using the author’s last name and page number, e.g., (Kant, 27), with the full name of the author and title of the work at the end of your paper.
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