Ethics Paper Part 1: Argument Summaries

In your final assignment, you will review two opposing argument and critique one of them. In this unit, you will get started by identifying and summarizing those two arguments.
Summarize 2 papers that take opposing stands on an ethical problem.
Evaluate the merits and shortfalls of opposing arguments.
Provide an argument for the position you consider most reasonable.
Articulate how competing ethical theories would approach this ethical issue.
Identify different fundamental approaches to ethical thinking and explain the ethical issues in public policy from several different ethical standpoints.
Recognize the strengths, weaknesses and fallacies of particular ethical arguments.
Correctly identify the place of solutions and politics in the ethical approach to public policy.
Construct and criticize the best possible argument for a position you disagree with in public policy.
Directions
Choose whether you want to write on the moral status of animals (veganism, factory farming, etc.), or euthanasia (i.e. the right to die).

Read two opposing papers on the topic you chose. You should also watch any videos posted in Module 6 that pertain to your topic. They will help you understand the opposing arguments.

Alastair Norcross ‘Puppies, Pigs and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases’

Frey ‘Moral Standing, the Value of Lives, and Speciesism’
OR

James Rachels ‘The Morality of Euthanasia’

David Velleman ‘A Right of Self-Termination?’ OR Philippa Foot ‘Killing and Letting Die’

Write two short argument summaries (200-300 words).