It happened after a concert. Sixteen-year-old Mary Pluski had gone with three of her friends to hear Bruce Springstein at Chicago’s Blanton Auditorium. After the concert, in a crowed estimated at 11,000, Mary became separated from the other three girls. She decided that the best thing to do was to meet them at the car.
But when she got to the eight-story parking building, Mary realized she wasn’t sure what level they had parked on. She though it might be somewhere in the middle so she started looking on the fourth floor. While she was walking down the aisles of cars, two men in their early twenties, one white and the other black, stopped her an asked if she was having some kind of trouble.
Mary explained the situation to them, and one of the men suggested that they get his car and drive around inside the parking building. Mary hesitated, but both seemed so polite and genuinely concerned to help that she decided to go with them.
Once they were in the car, however, the situation changed. They drove out of the building and toward the South Side. Mary pleaded with them to let her out of the car. Then, some seven miles from the auditorium, the driver stopped the car in the dark area behind a vacant building. Mary was then raped by both men.
Mary was treated at Allenworth Hospital and released into the custody of her parents. She filed a complaint with the police, but her troubles were not yet over. Two weeks after she missed her menstrual period, tests showed that Mary was pregnant.
“How do you feel about having this child?” asked Sarah Ruben, the Pluski family physician.
“I hate the idea,” Mary said. “I feel guilty about it, though. I mean, it’s not the child’s fault.”
“Let me ask a delicate question,” said Dr. Ruben. “I know from what you’ve told me before that you and your boyfriend have been having sex. Can you be sure this pregnancy is not really the result of that?”
Mary shook her head. “Not really. I use my diaphragm, but I know it doesn’t give a hundred percent guarantee.”
“That’s right. Now, does it make any difference to you who the father might be, so far as a decision about terminating the pregnancy is concerned?”
“If I were to be sure it was Bob, I guess the problem would be even harder,” Mary said.
“There are some tests we can use to give us that information,” Dr. Ruben said. “But that would mean waiting for the embryo to develop into a fetus. It would be easier and safer to terminate the pregnancy now.”
Mary started crying. “I don’t want a child,” she said. “I don’t want any child. I don’t care who’s the father. It was forced on me, and I want to get rid of it.”
“I’ll make the arrangements,” said Dr. Ruben.
1. Reading Comprehension
For this case of Mary’s pregnancy what would each of the following authors hold and WHY : Provide a paragraph on each explaining their positions and use some quotations.
A. Sarah Jones
B. Sidney Callahan,
C. Peter Alward
Find descriptions of their positions here:
http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT/Chapter_8_Abortion/Readings.htm
2. Critical Thinking
Using the DIALECTICAL PROCESS state what your ethical position would be on the Case of Mary and why. You are to take a position and defend it. You should use some ethical principle to decide what you think is the morally correct thing to do. You must state those principles and explain how they have been applied to the situation. You should indicate that you have rejected alternative positions to your own and the reasons why you have done so. In so doing you need to enunciate clearly the values and ethical principle(s) you are using to both reject the alternative positions and to defend or support your own. The ethical principles were presented in Module/Chapter 2 and include Egoism, Utility, Natural Law, Categorical Imperative, Maxi-Min Principle, Existentialism, Feminism. Refer to one or more of these as ethical principles when answering assignments. Do not use the Moral Principles of Health Care as Ethical Principles. The Moral Principles involved in Health Care include: Autonomy, Informed Consent, Truth Telling, Confidentiality, Privacy. These are NOT the basic ethical principles such as include Egoism, Utility, Natural Law, Categorical Imperative, Maxi-Min Principle, Existentialism, Feminism. The moral principles are popular and recognized in several ways in health care including in “codes” and in statements of “rights” because there are so many of the Basic Ethical Principles that support the moral judgment that these MORAL Principles of Health Care are a MORALLY GOOD THING.
Use this template or form to make certain that you include each part of the process-parts a to e
Label your parts with the letters a to e to make very clear that you have done each part.
Dialectical thinking: the 5 parts
a. Take a position on this question or issue Be as exact as you can be. Be precise in your use of language (ethical principles and values).
b. Provide the reasons why you think this position is better defended by reason and evidence than are the alternative positions Position defended using reasoning (ethical principles and values) in support of the judgment (conclusion of the argument). You state the reasons why the position you take makes sense and has evidence and reasons (ethical principles and values) to support it other than your feelings or personal preference or your opinion or what you were brought up to believe or what just about everyone you know thinks or believes. Philosophers have offered such reasons (ethical principles and values). and evidence for the positions they have taken and you should consider them and if you agree you can and should so state them in support of your own position.
c. State the reasons why you found the other positions that use other (ethical principles and values). flawed or less defensible than the one you are defending
d. State the criticisms of your position from those who use other (ethical principles and values).
e. Respond to those criticisms from those using other (ethical principles and values).-a rebuttal- how do you defend your position in light of those criticisms?
