Phil 222 Final Paper Topics

Write on one or more of the following in essay form (produce a total of around 10 to 15 typed pages). You may also propose a topic of your own. I recommend but am not requiring that you submit a preliminary draft of your work by May 1.  The final version is due on May 13.

1) Write on the ethics of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide with respect to the cases of Terry Shiavo, Karen Ann Quinlin, and Jack Kevorkian. Be sure to discuss definitions of death, and alternative positions on "the right to die." Show the way in which those positions draw moral conclusions regarding your case studies, and consider whether one position or perhaps some combination of positions is best able to guide us in this area.

2) Consider the ethics of medical experimentation on humans with respect to the practices of the Third Reich as well as the Tuskegee study in the United States. Consider whether the Institutional Review Boards established by the U.S. National Research Act are adequate for protecting experimental subjects from abuse.

3) Write an extended philosophical review of Ivan Illich's book Medical Nemesis (the first nine links under Medicine and Power on the course website). On what grounds does Illich criticize contemporary medicine? Is he correct in rejecting what he calls "The Medicalization of Life?" How might people care for their health if our society were "de-medicalized?"