Medical Ethics And Organ Transplants

Medical Ethics Essay The field of medical ethics is one is of severe complexity, diversity and covering a wide range of topics in the medical world. Within medical ethics it is especially important to consider religious principles and the effect they have on the options for religious believers and effects on faith. One of the key issues for debate, considered to be the most controversial and varying is organ transplantation and organ donation. Religious principles and ethical values directly affect the outcome of an organ transplantation or donation, and for many faiths they should be upheld in all circumstances, even in a matter of life or death. Many medical developments in organ donation are often very controversial and use cutting edge research and development which many religious believers deem unacceptable and religious principles should be upheld. In the words of Albert Einstein ‘science without religion is dumb, religion without science is deaf’. Science and religion therefore must co-operate and coincide in the complex field of organ donation. The first successful transplantation was in 1945 however the idea of transporting tissue or organs from a deceased or living donor has been around since the 3rd century. There are many religious faiths that would reject organ transplantation. There are a huge number of people waiting for a donation organ, as of April

  • Word count: 3233
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Is there a tension between ethics and aesthetics in design? BA Design Yr2

Is there a tension between ethics and aesthetics in design? BA Design Yr2 Goldsmiths College Adam Coward Ethics are a fundamental element of any functioning society, essentially providing the codes of conduct that must be followed by a majority to ensure social survival. These, often unspoken rules, give us a sense of right and wrong but are not common to all cultures and are often subject to temporal change. This is evident if we examine the historical change in attitudes towards a subject such as suicide. For example, the ancient Greeks and Romans considered suicide as an honourable and heroic act, whereas in early Christianity it was pronounced a 'mortal sin'. In fact, in England suicide was considered a criminal act until as recent as 1961, perhaps due to the social importance of maintaining the family unit up to this point in time. This would suggest that ethics are not pre determined by our nature but rather are rationally constituted by a specific culture for its continued existence, depending on the conditions by which that society is to survive. Ethics can also be defined as moral ideals belonging to a culture and also those belonging to the individual. There is often much overlay concerning the two instances but it is important to recognise that every individual will inevitably put his or her unique spin on the dominantly recognised set of ethical values. So

  • Word count: 3087
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Consider the arguments for and against paid organ donation.

Discussion (3073 words) After the research I have done into organ donation, I hold an absolutist position about whether kidney donors should receive payment in the UK. I believe that in principal, paid organ donation could be a good thing for society in terms of increasing the number of organs available for donation, but in practice, the increase in available organs would be minimal, and the negative side-effects created from the system would outweigh the positives of more organs becoming available, therefore, payment for organ donors should not be introduced. The main argument in favour of paid organ donation would be that it would increase the number of available organs for donation, by providing an incentive that the donor would consider as more useful to them than one of their kidneys. In theory, this would result in the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people, so would be favoured by a utilitarian. The donors would benefit from money that they need to lead a better life and the recipients would benefit from a new organ that would hopefully save their life. However, looking at the situation from a relativist approach, this argument is only valid as long as there is a significant increase in donors coming forward, otherwise all the negative effects of the system would create more of a problem than the gain from the insignificant raise in

  • Word count: 3087
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Does the "War on Terror" mean the just war doctrine is dead?

The aftermath of the two counter terror wars waged by the Bush administration at the turn of the twenty first century has brought up the question; if a just war is dead. To assess that assertion, we must first considered what is a just war by looking at the just war tradition. Then using that as our basis of a just war, we will compare if the two wars fought in Afghanistan and Iraq abide by the just war tradition to determine if they were just. The principles of just war originated with classical Greek philosophers like Plato and Roman philosophers like Cicero. Principles of just war was later refined by Christian philosophers saint Ambrose and Augustine in the fifth century and later reinterpreted by Suarez, Vitoria and Grotius in the seventeenth century to what we know now was just war theory. Just war theory aims to provide a framework for the right way to proceed in a potential military conflict, it is not intended to justify wars, but to prevent them by showing that going to war except in exceptional circumstances is wrong. It was written so that states will reflect on our moral and political practices before and during the use of force, so that there is some humanity in the business of war. Like with any frameworks of action, the original documentation are adapted and evolved by different schools of thought throughout time and so is the case with just war theory. The

  • Word count: 3031
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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"Religious ethics are not the best approach to environmental issues". Discuss.

"Religious ethics are not the best approach to environmental issues". Discuss. In recent years climate change has come to be recognised as perhaps the most important issue facing modern society. The Conservative Party's adoption of the slogan "Vote blue, go green" is a measure of the changing attitude towards environmental issues and highlights the fact that climate change is now at the forefront of the political agenda. This may be due to the fact that the global community is now beginning to witness the effects of global warming in the form of extreme weather conditions resulting in floods, droughts and landslides. The devastating effects of these recent natural disasters, including the loss of thousands of human lives, makes climate change a more real and immediate threat than ever before. Whilst it is now widely acknowledged that human activity has made a significant contribution to global warming, there is still debate over whether or not humankind's destruction of the environment is morally unsound. An important question to address is whether or not it is justifiable to continue our exploitation of the Earth's natural resources in order to fuel extravagant lifestyles in the knowledge that this will cause further damage to the environment, and therefore threaten the existence of humanity. In order to evaluate the above statement effectively, this essay will examine the

  • Word count: 2957
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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“Without real freedom there would be no ethical decisions to make,” Discuss.

"Without real freedom there would be no ethical decisions to make," Discuss. In making ethical decisions you are exercising an ability to make moral judgements and take moral responsibility. How does freedom tie in with this? Does an action have to be undertaken freely for you to be morally responsible for it? If an action is taken intentionally and consciously then surely he who took the action is responsible for the consequences of the action. So long as action was taken as a choice between various other actions and was a deliberate choice then the agent is accountable for the choice he made. If we can describe the action as being either right or wrong or good or bad then we assume that the agent took these factors into account when choosing to act. This shows that he had the capacity for deliberate choice, and acted freely towards his intentions. It was because he acted freely that he became responsible for the act and because he chose to act in that way when he was faced with a number of other choices he accepted his own free will as an autonomous moral agent. If an action is performed unintentionally or against will, then surely the agent is not responsible for the consequences? He did not have the freedom to decide and was unable to choose his actions and so, a difference is specified between voluntary actions and involuntary actions. Voluntary

  • Word count: 2938
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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How are religious and ethical principles used in the abortion debate?

Maisie Thornton How are religious and ethical principles used in the abortion debate? Abortion is a complicated issue and raises many significant ethical questions, for instance the nature of the personhood of the foetus, the issue of rights; i.e. should the foetus be assigned any, the extent of state authority over citizens decisions, and more. For some people, their approach to these questions will be secular, while for others religious values may play a heavy part. Although religious judgements have no direct relevance concerning the legal aspect of abortion in the UK, these beliefs have great moral significance and have contributed towards the ethical issues and past laws. Many argue that morality and religion should be autonomous and therefore completely independent of each other. They argue that scriptural authority is unreliable and leads to problems of interpretation. Such people, would therefore say that any decision regarding abortion must be based on personal autonomy, without reference to any possible religious response. Religion is, by its very definition, founded on beliefs and practices which are derived from various sources of authority. The major centre of authority in Christianity is God, although sacred writings such as the Bible, are also given great prominence as they can be said to contain contains the ideals of God. In general the Christian faith

  • Word count: 2840
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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Examine the differences in ethical and Christian views concerning homosexuality

Examine the differences in ethical and Christian views concerning homosexuality Homosexuality is a subject, which is forever being raised in today's media and society. It is constantly brought to the attention of many to be somewhat reassessed in terms of ethical and religious view points, whether through the newspapers or the television. While religious view points used to manipulate society in all matters, it now seems to be the media which influences and guides social attitudes towards homosexuality. For many years, it has been seen as intrinsically wrong to everybody, religious and secular. However, it is fast becoming more and more accepted by a larger number of people. Just the mention of homosexuality in a Roman Catholic Church is bound to be frowned upon or combated with a quick fire of biblical references to show you that homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God. Catholicism has often been blamed for the development of homophobia, particularly in the West. While this may seem a little unfair, it is most certainly true that homophobia is ubiquitous within this Christian denomination. Many Catholics often refer to what few references there are in the Bible to the subject of homosexuality. For example, the story of the town called Sodom (Gen. 19-21) is one of the most famous indications that people often refer to. Here, a man named Lot is greeted by two of God's

  • Word count: 2837
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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animal experimentation

EXAMINE AND CONSIDER RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL RESPONSES TO ANIMAL EXPERMINATATIONS In this Essay I will be examining and considering religious and ethical responses to animal experimentation reviewing whether the argument for or against outweighs the other. One of the questions facing society today is whether animals should be used in scientific experimentation. Animal experimentation is widely used to develop a range of medicines and to test the safety of them and other products. But many of theses experiments cause pain and suffering upon animals and some end up with a reduced quality of life. If it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer then experimenting on animals produces serious moral problems. Animal experimenters are very aware of this ethical problem and acknowledge that experiments should be made as humane as possible. They also agree that it's wrong to use animals if alternative testing methods would produce equally valid results. More than 2.7 million live animal experiments were authorised in Great Britain in 2002 is this ethically and religiously moral? The number of testing on animals has halved in the last 30 years as the laws and restrictions have become tighter, the British law requires that any new drug that has been produced must be tested on at least two different species of live mammal. One must be a large non-rodent however UK regulations are

  • Word count: 2829
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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The 21st century has raised more problems for equality than it has solved. Examine and comment on this claim with reference to homosexuality.

'The 21st century has raised more problems for equality than it has solved'. Examine and comment on this claim with reference to homosexuality. Social attitudes towards same sex relationships have differed over time. Peoples views have varied from expecting all males to engage in same-sex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing it under penalty of death. This shows many different attitudes towards homosexuality and how society can change. Ancient views towards sex included the beliefs of Pythagoreans and Stoics, who held the view that humans should abstain from the physical and live a quiet contemplative life instead. However, differing from this, Cyrenaics celebrated physical pleasure as the supreme good and led a life of sensual enjoyment. This view was also agreed by Ancient Hebrews, who shared a positive attitude towards sex and reproduction. However, this view then goes against homosexuality, as same-sex couples can not reproduce and therefore are using sex for pleasure instead of its true purpose. Legally, in the past, laws have occurred over homosexuality, changing as time has gone on. For example, at the time of the formation of the United Kingdom, the English law identified that anal intercourse was an offence punishable by

  • Word count: 2828
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Religious Studies & Philosophy
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