[Review of Ethics week 18-24 Feb]
Sunday: Genocide
What shall we do with the felons if they are your grandparents?
The tragic collision of the Tasmanians and Whites led to conflict almost as soon as British sealers and settlers arrived that island around 1800. Whites kidnapped Tasmanian kids as labourers, kidnapped women as consorts, mutilated or killed men, trespassed on hunting grounds, and tried to clear Tasmanians off their ground. As a result, the native population of Northern Tasmanians in November 1830 had been reduced to 72 adult men, 3 adult women, and no children. Later four shepherds ambushed a group of natives, killed 30 and threw their bodies over a cliff remembered today as Victory Hill.
Many whites on the Australia mainland envied the thoroughness of the Tasmanian solution and wanted to imitate the extermination. The government formed a branch of mounted police termed Native Police, who used search-and destroy tactics to kill or drive out Aborigines. A typical strategy was to surround a camp at night and shoot the inhabitants in an attack at dawn. They also made widespread use of poisoned food to kill Aborigines. The Aborigines were too numerous to exterminate, nevertheless since the arrival of British colonist in 1788, the population of Aborigines slumped from 300,000 to 60,000 in 130 years.
In the same period of time major genocides of greater scale were being carried out all around the world. In the US, more than one million of Indians were massacred over two centuries. See also genocides in history.
[excerpt from The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond]
How shall you react when you realise that the country today’s achievement is derived from the bloody extermination of somebody else?
享受着先祖辛劳开荒及屠杀旁人的成果，良心何以安？
Monday: Abortion
The condom just break…
Let’s set aside the hard cases: rape victims, babies jeopardizing maternal lives. When a women accidentally get pregnant is she entitled to a choice? The pro-life people object any attempt to abort the foetus, claiming that they are standing up for rights of the unborn babies. The proponents question why shall a women be condemned and stuck with the baby which can change herself profoundly. In this male dominated society women tend to be the passive recipients in sexual relationship and whenever anything happen they are the one to bear the consequences while men continue to fool around with impunity. Do women have a choice over her own body? Is the society obsession with maternal capacity degrading women into a mere vessel for reproduction? Can she say ‘no’ to unplanned pregnancy?
On the other hand argument by Practicality always begin with the line: “let’s face the reality…” Abortion is a fact and it is happening everyday. Why not legalize it so that you can regulate it? The current system does not prevent the people from having abortion abroad and it only discriminate the poor people. Then the line continues so to appeal to morality concern: Criminalizing it isn’t going to stop person that want to abort from getting it from some where else; conversely, legalizing it won't make people that anti-abortion go for it. After all it boils down to individual value judgment. Personal morality shall be confined to church and the church shall not interfere with the secular to establish morality.
Tuesday: Genetic counselling
The burden of information and the right to not know
If you know that you have a chance of becoming dementia at the age of 40, do you really want to confirm the disease?
It is a painful decision for the physician, but probably more painful for the proband himself. It is a decision that can potentially change the outlook of the rest of your life. For anyone aspiring to become a doctor, the medical degree, internship plus the postgraduate training and specialisation will probably take you 20 years before you could reach the position of a consultant. However If you are going to develop Huntington’s disease in your 40s you might want to reconsider your career planning. But do you really want to know? How if the result is positive? That’s like being sentenced to death penalty and all you can do is just wait for the day to come. Can you imagine a life marching inexorably to a tragic end at the definite time? To tell or not to tell?
只要一日不确认，都还能心存侥幸；当一切已成定局，悲剧只是迟早的。保护病人的不知情权：说还是不说？
Tuesday: Normative Ethics
Establishing the theory
I think ethics is socially constructed as in the case of genocide above. If I were the white settlers in Australia and it appears to be completely permissible to kill the native in order to get the land. Judging by today’s standard and the universal ethics code, genocide is certainly wrong and most probably the most horrendous crime of the human species. But the question is: is there a universal ethical code?
真的有放诸四海皆准的规范吗？
Ethics
Tuesday: Concealment
Honesty may not be the best policy
If you were Christina would you cover up for Dr. Burke? I guess most people will, plus she is also gaining from this inappropriate symbiosis. Above all “There is no malpractice there!” as Dr. Weber exclaimed. But then he talk privately to Dr. Burke: “the hand worth two millions, I want you to get it fixed.” That sounds more like his main consideration in deciding his course of action. From a utilitarian point of view, his action is indisputable.
Why risk losing an experienced surgeon when he can still do his job? His sacking is nothing beneficial to the hospital and patients. In light of this, the chief tacitly use the term “malpractice” which connotes “practise in a ruthless manner with scant regard of the patient’s interest.” Apparently Dr. Burke is not harming human’s life but arguably they are putting the patients at greater risk, which is why George refused him operating on his dad when he found out the truth.
Wednesday: Infidelity
You committed yourself only to find that your partner is two-timing you
我以为你已经选择了我，没想到你还在三心两意。
Feeling cheated is the look on Dr. Dev’s face when I told him that I am also applying to other places, implying that he is not my only choice and I might opt for other offers and forsake him. I know I am in a ugly situation, just like the infidel husband confessing his affairs to the angry wife. I have to explain clearly before he get mad and decline my application at all. This shall not turn out to be a zero sum situation or either-me-or-she situation. I tried to quote Ms. Boylan words: you might not be getting any offer at all so just apply everything. I effectively shifted all the responsibility to she: it is her advice, while I continue to act innocent. The technique is taught by our clinical tutor: shift the decision making to patient and I am just applying the same the principle here.
Go to the sequel
Now I am being double-crossed
Just to be fair…
Thursday: Atheism
Can science eventually replace religion and will it heralds a collapse of morality?
I only knew Richard Dawkins is the Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. All along he has always been well known for his work on the selfish gene, he appeared to be a keen social biologist based on evolution science. In his book The God Delusion, he argued for atheism as superior substitute for religion.
Friday: Taking advantage
Poverty in mind
有人说：爱占别人便宜的人是心理贫穷。
When taking advantage is viewed as smart, nobody ever mind about integrity any more. As far as remember, Integrity is never a value in the moral textbooks. Integrity is not like honesty or being truthful, it is something like being righteous and hold on to principles. It is a virtue that is hard to come by in a society where everyone is (try to be) smart. People learn how to bend the rules for their own advantages, taking public stuffs for personal use, exploit public goods especially the free ones… how do people think of taking public toilet paper back home? Does such petty act constitute a violation of ethics or it never matter?
Friday: Backstabbing
There is a limit on how ethical one can be…
顺得哥来失嫂意
I think there is an ethical constrain on how ethical one can be. Arguably it is impossible to do no harm: the fact that you have a fleshy body that needs to be taken care of means that at some stage of your life you inevitably have harmed some animals and the environment to sustain your lives. Resources are scarce and everyone has to compete for survival in the society. Referring to the Wednesday event, I just want to secure my place and I can't bet everything on a single application. However this inevitably means that I am using up other people chances.
Friday: Rights
How can the personal right be justified?
为一己私利负天下人，可为吗？
Sometimes I don’t like using pedestrian traffic light when crossing roads. I know I have the right but I just don’t like to trouble everyone else. It does not appear to be right to stop twenty cars just for one person to cross the road. But sometimes people just choose to exercise their rights and do whatever they like without considering people’s feeling.
Are they being selfish?
Wednesday: Compensation Ethics
Can your prior misfortune redeem you of something in return?
塞翁丢失了马，就可以名正言顺地牵回别人的马吗？
