Philosophy 1120: Social Ethics E Portfolio Assignment Part II

1. Overall, how has your understanding of your personal values, if any way, been impacted by the
course material?
I believe that a lot of my values stayed pretty close to what I have thought previously. If anything has
changed it was questioning why I think the way I do, and what new information that I have now to back it
up. I have learned that there are a lot of other points of view and arguments that I haven’t thought of
before. I have learned that in order to fully have a true opinion about a topic its not always just black and
white and I have learned that because we have those grey areas, this is what makes new law so hard to
make.

2. What are your thoughts on Cultural relativism after taking this course?
Before I took think class I thought that all cultures should be practice and not judged by others. When we
were talking about how some religions treat women in the middle east this was really hard to have respect
for what they believe. I don’t think that religion should harm others. I believe that harming others is against
morals and if morals are based on religion then this should be something that doesn’t happen.

3. What are your thoughts on Utilitarianism after taking this course?

I think that the idea of utilitarianism is something that a lot of people believe even if they don’t realize it. I
think that a lot of laws today are based on things that the majority of people believe right or wrong. I think
that this is a good idea but there are also flaws in the system because there are some things that may be
right to do at the time and have a greater good for a time but it can still have backlash. I think of the
ethical dilemma that we had to do about banning seal killing from a culture that made a living on seals. This
was a good effect on the seals but it had a detrimental effect on the culture.

4. What are your thoughts on Kantianism or Deontology after taking this course?
I thought that this concept was a little bit difficult to understand before the class lecture. I think that a lot
of people do moral acts because they think they are right at the time and they don’t think about a lot of
things that can come after that. I know that I do a lot of things that I think are right in that specific time but
some things can have a backlash effect eventually.

5. What are your thoughts on Virtue Ethics after taking this course?
I really resonated with this idea. I believe that people should do good because it feels good and because it is
something that is within them. I think that if people were only to do good because of the consequences that
can forgo then they aren’t really good. Those people are just scared. I think that people are raised to
experience morals in different ways but I think that even if someone might have been abused at a young age
the majority of them still want to do good things.

6. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Abortion.
I believe that abortion was a hard topic to digest. More than what I thought it would have been before
taking this class. My thoughts about abortion before this class was that I think that women should have a
choice but I think that if you are old enough to know better and have the means to have a child you should
suffer the consequences, have the child, and give it up for adoption. I didn’t realize how picky people were
about adoption, I didn’t realize how expensive adoption was. But where it gets really grey is the thought
that people are having abortions because they didn’t want that specific sex of the child. I think that this is
cruel and selfish. If people were getting abortions because of sex this can have a lot of effects on the well
being of human population.

7. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of euthanasia.
I think that this is a topic that my ideas didn’t change a lot. I knew a lot about euthanasia because I am in
the medial field and because it is something that is interesting to me. I think that people have the right to
do whatever they want with their own bodies. But where it gets harder is if people with mental illness are
of sound mind to decide what they want. People with mental illness may experience a low and want to take
their lives, but then a few days later love their life.

8. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Stem cell
Research
I didn’t realize that with stem cells you can only use the cells to a certain time then doctors have to dispose
of those cells because it starts forming into human growth. I do believe that stem cells is a really good
medical accomplishment and is something that we will be able to use. It has already showed a lot of promise
with healing heart diseases, and other scars within the body because of trauma. I think that it would be
really promising if we were able to grow organs with stem cells because a lot more lives would be saved.

9. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Cloning
I always thought that cloning was weird. I didn’t really see the purpose of it. I think that just because we
can do something doesn’t always mean that we should do it. I really thought it was crazy to know that if we
clone someone that is 17 years old then that clone will only live to be 17. I also think that if a clone is able
to make its own decisions the clone should have rights. We should respect death. life is beautiful and tragic
because of death and thats just how things are.

10. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Genetically
Modified Foods
I don’t think that a lot of things has changed my thinking of genetically modified foods. I think that people
don’t understand that the use of GMOs helps crops grow in harsh weather, crops are larger, crops are more
nutritious, and we are able to make a lot of medication and vaccines within crops. The crops are also
resistant to some bugs. Some things that are difficult is that since we have changed the crops the ecosystem
surrounding that has changes as well.

11. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Designer Babies
I love the idea of being able to decide what sex my baby is, what hair color they would have, what eye color
they would have, how smart they would be. I think that this is a fascinating idea. I think that it is fascinating
but unrealistic and unreasonable. I think that we shouldn’t change what our children would be. I think that
if the child new about this then they may have other mental disorders because they could think they are
better than others or be sad because they aren’t who they are they are who you want them to be.
 12. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Organ
trafficking and donation
I think that people don’t know a lot about the effects an organ donation can have on the body. Yes, we have
two kidneys. Just because we can live without one doesn’t mean that our body wants to live without two.
When someone donates a kidney it an have effects on their blood pressure, heart disease, kidney failure and
even death. All of those side effects and the person getting the kidney could reject it in the process and it
was all done for nothing.

13. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of Genetic
Engineering
I believe that genetic engineering is really interesting. I really like the idea of scientists to go in, modify
genes so that your child could not have a certain disease. I think that it is really promising. I think that if we
were able to edit out disease in the body then that is a medical breakthrough. People can talking about well
if we edit genes then would the product of that gene edit cause other diseases that are worse of effect the
natural order of evolution. I believe that if we don’t try it then we wont ever know.

14. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of drug use and
abuse
There are a lot of things with drug use and abuse that I didn’t know previously. I think that people should be
able to live in full control over their own bodies. I think that if we aren’t able to have control over what we
do with our own bodies then we are just slaves to a system. I think that people should be able to choose to
live or die and to do drugs or not. I think that a way to get people to have less deaths from drug use is to
continue to education people.

15. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of guns and
personal liberty
I think that people should be able to have guns. I think that people should have guns for protection and for
recreational uses. I don’t think that the military or certain personnel having guns would be a good thing. I
think that we should just have more training on the use of guns. I think that people should have a thorough
background check, gun training, and every few years have to take refresher classes.

16. How has your understanding and perspectives changed or not changed on the topic of capital
punishment
I am really for capital punishment. I think that our prison system is really messed up. I think that if a person
is sentenced to living in prison their entire lives with no chance of getting out then it’s cruel to keep them
alive and being subjected to the tortures that they may face in prison. I think that if we can’t find a better
use for these people or a better way to rehabilitate prisoners than we shouldn’t have all these corrupt
prisons.

17. Of all of the topics above, which three were most interesting to you and why?
I think that the topic that is most interesting to me is the topic of drug use. I think that this is the most
interesting topic because after researching whether it should be decriminalized or not there was a lot of the
sides of the argument that I agree with even though they are opposing views.
 18. Of the topics above, which topic did you learn the most about after this course?
The topic that I learned most about would be freedom of speech and abortion I think. There was a lot of
things that I didn’t know about what a persons rights were with freedom of speech. After talking about this
topic in lecture, doing research about it within the assignments I learned a lot. I also learned a lot with
abortion. I now know what cultures get the most abortions and more about the time frame and process. I
thought that it was crazy to know that they’re having issues in Europe with sex related abortions, which is
something that I didn’t even think about prior.

19. Of the topics above, what was your favorite overall topic and why?
My favorite topic was euthanasia. I thought that this was a really good topic because it really questioned if
people should be able to control their own bodies. I think that it is cruel to make people live against their
will. I think that it was wrong that it is illegal for a person to commit suicide. I really liked learning about
personal experiences people have had with choosing euthanasia and how it effects peoples families.

20. Any personal message to me about the course and your journey as a student with Social Ethics
I really enjoyed this class. It was definitely one of my favorite classes that I have taken this semester and I
am taking eight classes. There is a lot of work within this course but I think it is necessary. I really liked
being challenged in the way that I think. I have definitely learned a lot more points of views in the different
moral challenges we face within our world now.