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Essay on eugenics
Moral and ethical implications of eugenics
Ethic in natural sciences
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The production of knowledge, the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject (New Oxford), has constantly been accomplished throughout the history of man as a result of the characteristics of creativity and curiosity. These attributes, besides ethics, have set humans apart from the other species allowing for constant and rapid development. According to (Rest), an ethical judgment is the process by which an individual determines that one alternative is morally right and another alternative is morally wrong. Ethicality and morality have a great influence on the different methods available in the production of knowledge, which has driven the evolution of our species. This allows us to consider, to what extent do ethical considerations limit natural science experimentation and research and constrain the way the arts are created? While looking specifically at examples regarding the arts and natural sciences we will see the ways in which ethical judgements impinge on the way we create the methods available in the production of knowledge. In the natural sciences, the ways of knowing that are predominantly used to evaluate the ethical judgements are reason and perception; where in the arts, emotion, language and perception are used. As a result, ethics has different influences on the production of knowledge in these areas of knowledge.
Natural sciences is a branch of science that deals with the study of the physical world, including physics, chemistry, geology, and biology. The production of knowledge through experimentation and research creates scientific laws and ideas to better understand and improve the environment we live in. Two methods of experimentation and research in the natural sciences that are limited due to ethical...
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... Decisions made in society should be influenced by ethics in most cases, however in some instances, it is crucial to disregard ethical judgement to portray a specific message or emotion.
Works Cited
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Galton, David J., and Clare J. Galton. "Francis Galton: And Eugenics Today." Journal of Medical Ethics, 24.2 (1998): 99-101. JSTOR. Web. 8 Mar. 2010.
Ethics is an important proponent when considering any decision. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is something everyone should know. However, the importance of ethics gets minimized when a decision that seems wrong actually has benefits. In the efforts of improving society, often ethics is violated. Sometimes in order for society to be better off as a whole, there has to be little sacrificing of ethical practices along the way to do so.
McNeel, S. (1994). College teaching and student moral development. In J. Rest, & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Moral development in the professions: Psychology and applied ethics (pp. 27-49). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Georgetown University "Chapter 5 the Nazi Eugenics Programs." Chapter 5 the Nazi Eugenics Programs. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
The problems with these critiques are that Niewyk ignores Germany's previous attempts at sterilization legislation in 1923 and the influence of foreign eugenic legislation and restrictions on the Nazi government. He also pays little attention to the evidence that shows the Nazi regime also strategically targeted individuals...
Ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. Discuss.
Perkins, H.F.. A Decade of Progress in Eugenics: Scientific Papers of the Third International Congress of Eugenics. 1993 Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company.
The history of harmful eugenic practices, spurring from the Nazi implementations of discrimination towards biologically inferior people has given eugenics a negative stigma (1,Kitcher, 190). Genetic testing, as Kitcher sees it through a minimalistic perspective, should be restrained to aiding future children with extremely low qualities of life (2,Kitcher, 190). He believes that genetic engineering should only be used to avoid disease and illness serving the role of creating a healthier human race. He promotes laissez-faire eugenics, a “hands off” concept that corresponds to three components of eugenic practice, discrimination, coercion and division of traits. It holds the underlying works of genetic testing, accurate information, open access, and freedom of choice. Laissez-faire eugenics promises to enhance reproductive freedom preventing early child death due to genetic disease (3,Kitcher, 198). However there are dangers in Laissez-faire that Kitcher wants to avoid. The first is the historical tendency of population control, eugenics can go from avoiding suffering, to catering to a set of social values that will cause the practice of genetics to become prejudiced, insensitive and superficial. The second is that prenatal testing will become limited to the upper class, leaving the lower class with fewer options, creating biologically driven social barriers. Furthermore the decay of disability support systems due to prenatal testing can lead to an increased pressure to eliminate those unfit for society (4,Kitcher, 214).
27 May 2014. The "Nazi Eugenics" Alpha History: Nazi Germany. N.p., n.d. Web.
The moral development of children can depend on many factors. Parenting and upbringing of the child, their environment, social environment, gender, and race are all aspects that can contribute to how a child develops their moral standards and expectations. Many psychologists have tried for several years to develop a theory of how morality is developed. One in particular is Lawrence Kohlberg (1958). His moral development theory is based on the cognitive development of children and it is thought that moral development proceeds and changes as cognitive development occurs (Arnett, 2012).
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Production of knowledge is generally seen in a positive light. However, when ethics and morality become involved in the process of production, judgements will undoubtedly be made that may seem to limit the availability of that knowledge. Ethical judgements are made by the combination of a knower, his or her standard of value, and the situation itself. In the field of the arts and natural sciences, ethics plays a crucial role in the extent one may possibly be allowed to go to when discovering new knowledge. Reason and emotion are important ways of knowing that help guide knowers in making certain moral decisions. Both ways of knowing can be associated with teleological or deontological arguments; the ethics are based on either an objectives-focused or obligations-focused mindset. In this essay, I will be discussing the limitations set on both the arts and the natural sciences as areas of knowledge. To what extent do ethical implications hinder the way art can be produced or the methods involved in expanding society’s knowledge of science?
Unethical experiments have occurred long before people considered it was wrong. The protagonist of the practice of human experimentation justify their views on the basis that such experiments yield results for the good of society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study ( Vollmann 1448 ).The reasons for the experiments were to understand, prevent, and treat disease, and often there is not a substitute for a human subject. This is true for study of illnesses such as depression, delusional states that manifest themselves partly by altering human subjectivity, and impairing cognitive functioning. Concluding, some experiments have the tendency to destroy the lives of the humans that have been experimented on.
Ethics is the study of moral values and the principles we use to evaluate actions. Ethical concerns can sometimes stand as a barrier to the development of the arts and the natural sciences. They hinder the process of scientific research and the production of art, preventing us from arriving at knowledge. This raises the knowledge issues of: To what extent do moral values confine the production of knowledge in the arts, and to what extent are the ways of achieving scientific development limited due to ethical concerns? The two main ways of knowing used to produce ethical judgements are reason, the power of the mind to form judgements logically , and emotion, our instinctive feelings . I will explore their applications in various ethical controversies in science and arts as well as the implications of morals in these two areas of knowledge.
Art is limited in a very large number of ways by the ethical judgements we make, but it is also often brought into existence as a result of our morals and emotions. These judgements seem to handicap the production of knowledge of and through art, but they are also vital to it. This is a sign that abandoning our morals would be difficult, but impractical for the arts. For science, however, abandoning these morals to avoid the obstacle of ethical judgements would allow us to understand much more than we do today, and even more than we did hundreds of years ago; however, these judgements also keep our developments in check. They may prevent some good, but they definitely prevent irreversible harm as well. It is clear that ethics has many drawbacks, but it is a necessary element of our lives.