A discussion on us and them, but mostly them.
Questions to ponder
-
Who are you and why aren’t you any other?
-
What is it about the existence/presence of “others” that compels us to act differently than we might otherwise?
-
Why is hard to know what others know? Or to know that they know? Or to know that you know that they know?
-
On average, are you a “better” person in the presence of “other” people?
-
Should undocumented immigrants have access to a nation’s healthcare (system) to the same extent as citizens of that country do?
-
Does one lose rights when incapacitated? What limitations of rights must/should be employed to deal with the “brain damaged” or those in vegetative states?
-
Is there “someone” in there for other primates? Other mammals? Reptiles? Insects?
-
How do you know “someone” is in there? How do you know when someone is “not”?
-
What basic human rights ought to extend to treatment of human bodies? Human minds? Human souls?
-
In the absence of all other information you might know about a particular person, how ought we treat a human being? What hard and fast limits exist? What etiquette so foundational it requires compulsion? That is, how should we treat others?
-
Farah (2008) contends, “behavior is particularly unhelpful as a guide to mental status: severely brain-damaged patients who are incapable of intentional communicative behavior, and nonhuman animals whose behavioral repertoires are different from ours and who lack language”. What rights do severely brain-damaged patients have that they might otherwise lack? What rights do/should they have as compared to a nonhuman animal?
-
How do children go from having virtually no rights but a lot of protections to adults with many rights (and possibly liberties!) but fewer protections?
-
Thomasma (1997) proposes the following bioethical “rules” for international peace: peaceful dialogue, against xenophobia, respect for cultural pluralism rule of common good, cultural apprehension, respect for persons in context, existential a priori. To what degree do you believe such a list is necessary and sufficient to serve as an ethical foundation for bioethics (as opposed to a more “patient-centric” approach traditionally taken)?
-
Ought we be “Against culturally sensitive bioethics” as Bracanovic posits?
-
There is no “us” and “them”, but them, they do not think the same?
Essays to consider
- Neuroethics and the Problem of Other Minds: Implications of Neuroscience for the Moral Status of Brain-Damaged Patients and Nonhuman Animals
- Undocumented Patients: Undocumented Immigrants and Access to Health Care
- Bioethics and International Human Rights
- Against culturally sensitive bioethics