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utsfl:classroom:seminars:pba460h [2018/03/25 22:09] – removed "gradualism" and transferred to new page- pba465h mmccannutsfl:classroom:seminars:pba460h [2020/03/27 15:00] (current) – balleyne
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-====== PBA460H: Moral Intuitions, Gradualism, and the Burning IVF Lab Thought Experiment ======+====== PBA460H: The Burning IVF Lab Thought Experiment ======
 Start with this thought experiment, then ground it in Dr. Kaczor's philosophical reflections on gradualism. Start with this thought experiment, then ground it in Dr. Kaczor's philosophical reflections on gradualism.
  
 FIXME should these two things go together? FIXME should these two things go together?
 +FIXME Dank PL Memes racist/sexist question Twitter post
  
 ===== The Burning IVF Lab ===== ===== The Burning IVF Lab =====
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   * Abortion advocates want to say that since virtually everyone would save the little girl, that this indicates that the 5-year-old has a higher moral status than the embryos. If pro-lifers really believed that all human beings have equal status, then they'd save the larger number of people.    * Abortion advocates want to say that since virtually everyone would save the little girl, that this indicates that the 5-year-old has a higher moral status than the embryos. If pro-lifers really believed that all human beings have equal status, then they'd save the larger number of people. 
 +
 +Summarized another way:
 +> You are in a burning IVF clinic. In one corner, a child. In the other, 1000 embryos. Which do you save? If you save the toddler, this shows that you know they’re not equal. And if you’d just admit this, you’d understand that abortion is ok.
  
 ==== Relative Suffering ==== ==== Relative Suffering ====
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     * The fate of the embryos is extremely uncertain; the 5-year-old has a 100% chance of survival if you rescue her.     * The fate of the embryos is extremely uncertain; the 5-year-old has a 100% chance of survival if you rescue her.
       * (This is not like the car sinking into a lake, where in that situation you have a duty first towards the more dependent person and the more capable person might have a better chance to fend for themselves, because both the baby and the mother have a 100% chance of survival if you rescue them in that scenario)       * (This is not like the car sinking into a lake, where in that situation you have a duty first towards the more dependent person and the more capable person might have a better chance to fend for themselves, because both the baby and the mother have a 100% chance of survival if you rescue them in that scenario)
-==== Relationships and attachment ====+==== Relationships and Attachment ====
  
   * What if you knew 100% of the human embryos would survive, and be implanted, and our technology had a 100% success rate for implantation?   * What if you knew 100% of the human embryos would survive, and be implanted, and our technology had a 100% success rate for implantation?
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       * Or, to return to our starting example: if Spiderman had only saved Mary Jane, would it somehow follow that it would be OK to kill elementary school children?       * Or, to return to our starting example: if Spiderman had only saved Mary Jane, would it somehow follow that it would be OK to kill elementary school children?
     * **The question "Who do you save?" tells us nothing about "Who can we kill?" or "Who has human rights?"**     * **The question "Who do you save?" tells us nothing about "Who can we kill?" or "Who has human rights?"**
-    * But, as Klusendorf notes, moral intuitions are important, but not infallible +    * (But, as Klusendorf notes, moral intuitions are important, but not infallible) 
-      * However, **even if we were inconsistent by rescuing the adults over the embryos, this would do nothing to negate our arguments against abortion.** So as we see, allowing these embryos to die in the fire to rescue another human does nothing to show that we don’t believe embryos are full human persons, and it certainly doesn’t justify us taking their lives through abortion.+        * FIXME quote Klusendorf uses about old attitudes towards slavery, "no people were killed" -- from Huckleberry Finn? Or Tom Sawyer? 
 +      * **Even if we were inconsistent by rescuing the adults over the embryos, this would do nothing to negate our arguments against abortion.** So as we see, allowing these embryos to die in the fire to rescue another human does nothing to show that we don’t believe embryos are full human persons, and it certainly doesn’t justify us taking their lives through abortion. 
 + 
 +<note> **An amusing dialogue example** 
 + 
 +//The scene: Union Station, rapid fire exchange amidst a crowd// 
 + 
 +Angry guy: Can I ask you a question? 
 + 
 +Blaise: Sure 
 + 
 +Guy: Okay, so, let's say there's a clinic. Oh, I mean, a fertility clinic. And it's on fire. And, uh, the fertility clinic-- 
 + 
 +B: It's fire and who do I save, the two-year-old or the 1000 embryos? 
 + 
 +Guy: Yeah 
 + 
 +B: Well, the problem with that question is-- 
 + 
 +Guy: No, just answer 
 + 
 +B: Okay, the question "who do you save"-- 
 + 
 +Guy: No, just answer it, who would you save? 
 + 
 +B: The two-year-old. 
 + 
 +Guy //(smug)//: There you go. //(starts walking a way)// 
 + 
 +B: Can I ask you a question? 
 + 
 +//(guy turns slightly)// 
 + 
 +B, //stun move//: You're the Flash, building is on fire and Batman and Wonder Woman are trapped, but you only have time to save one. Who do you save? 
 + 
 +Guy, //stops and turns//: That's ridiculous, that's not even real 
 + 
 +B: Okay, building's on fire, two-year-old and five-year-old are trapped, who do you save? 
 + 
 +Guy: Uhh.... 
 + 
 +Me: The question "Who do you save?" tells us nothing about "Who can we kill?" or "Who has human rights?" 
 +</note>
  
 "Consider the real-life example of Noah Benton Markham, a survivor of Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in August of 2005. He was an embryo contained in a canister of liquid nitrogen, frozen along with fourteen hundred embryos, which police officers rescued from a hospital. He was later implanted into his mother, Rebekah, and born on January 16, 2007 in Covington, Louisiana, some seventeen months later. When Noah becomes an adult and looks back over his life, he can say with all certainty that he was rescued from the flood in 2005. If he had not been rescued, he would not be with us today." "Consider the real-life example of Noah Benton Markham, a survivor of Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in August of 2005. He was an embryo contained in a canister of liquid nitrogen, frozen along with fourteen hundred embryos, which police officers rescued from a hospital. He was later implanted into his mother, Rebekah, and born on January 16, 2007 in Covington, Louisiana, some seventeen months later. When Noah becomes an adult and looks back over his life, he can say with all certainty that he was rescued from the flood in 2005. If he had not been rescued, he would not be with us today."