¶ … illegal drugs and why they should be legalized. It is not that Block and Steinbeck disagree about making drugs legal, but that they disagree about why that should be done. Block's argument is mostly economic in nature, while Steinbeck's argument is much more geared toward the reduction of overcrowding in prisons. She argues that much of the crime that is related to drugs is because those drugs are illegal and people are committing crimes to get them. If they were legal, she believes, much of the criminal activity that takes place in order to get them would go away. While this is somewhat persuasive, people who want drugs and cannot afford them are still going to commit crimes to get them, whether they are legal or not. For Block the argument is more persuasive, because legalizing drugs would allow for a great deal of money to be made from them in taxes and fees. It could stimulate the economy of the entire country.
When it comes to Hare and Thompson, their positions on abortion differ. Hare believes that abortion should be up to the person having it, because the personhood of the fetus cannot be established. In other words, it is an argument against the idea that abortion is wrong because the fetus is a person. That is difficult to prove and the definition is somewhat arbitrary, so calling the fetus a person is not realistic. Thompson states that the fetus is a person, and that every person has a right to life. The argument behind this line of thinking is actually more persuasive because of the ability of technology to show such clear images of the fetus while it is still in the womb. By the age...
It is also clear that it feels
pain, which is another attribute of a person, and all people deserve to have the chance at life. Hare's argument is understandable, but Thompson's is the more persuasive of the two.
3. Evolutionary Ethics as applied to suicide is an interesting concept and way of looking at things. However, it does create implications that have to be addressed. This form of
ethics is concerned with a biological approach to
morality, and that
evolution shapes human behavior and
psychology. This would seem to be the case, as people who have come from generations of others who have committed suicide and/or have tried to do so are more at
risk for suicide, as well. Many of these people also have serious mental illnesses of some type, such as
bipolar disorder,
depression, or
anxiety. These cannot all be explained away as products of the
environment, so they have to come from evolutionary roles. Whether it is ethical to commit suicide or not is one of the questions that cannot really be answered definitively. The evolution of
society, however, has created the belief that suicide is the wrong choice. Evolutionary ethics can be applied to it in that way.
4. Confucian Role Ethics can also be applied to suicide, but there are implications to consider there, as well. For example, these ethics…
