Issue summaries will be due most weeks, with the topic of the summary announced in class the week before the summary is due. The whole of the summary should not take more than a page or so. Summaries will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Typed summaries are preferred, but hand-written summaries will also be accepted.
To complete the issue summary, write a paragraph answering each of the questions below:
For example, for a class discussing the issue of organ donation, some of the main ethical questions are the questions of what constitutes death, what form of consent is required to harvest organs, who is entitled to give consent, etc.
For example, in regard to organ donation, the organ donor's right to life and right to self determination are at stake, as are the medical profession's interest in saving their patients, the organ recipient's interest in living, private companies' interest in covering costs or making a profit, etc.
For example, one solution to the problem of organ donation is to require organ donation from all eligible donors, a solution which would best serve the needs of patients who need donor organs to survive. This proposal also satisfies the obligation of physicians to save as many of their patients as possible, though there may be some concern that potential donors would receive less care than they deserve. Another solution to the problem is to maintain a voluntary system of donation, coupled with an education program to encourage donation. Such a solution better protects the donors' rights to self-determination, while also helping (though not as effectively as the first solution) to insure that organ recipients will get the organs they need to survive.
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