Deck 20: Appendix B: Evolving Attitudes toward Ending or Preventing Human Life

Question 1

In the Greco-Roman world, the intentional termination of early human life was considered

A) An acceptable method of birth control only for seriously impaired infants or fetuses
B) An acceptable method of birth control whether the infant or fetus was impaired or not
C) Never an acceptable method of birth control

Answer 1

B

Question 2

China has which model of the legal status of abortion?

A) A privacy model
B) A prohibition model
C) A permission model

Answer 2

C

Question 3

By the 19th century, most physicians found it a professional duty to ease a dying patient's pain at the bedside by

A) Administering opiates as pain relievers
B) Administering opiates to hasten death
C) Neither A nor B

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Why was Sigmund Freud given euthanasia on his deathbed? Because

A) Freud suffered from a severe congenital impairment
B) Freud was terminally ill
C) Freud believed that he had lived long enough

Question 5

In 1886, the French biologist Louis Pasteur decided to end the life of six Russians bitten by a rabid wolf. Explain what might have been Pasteur's motive and discuss whether it justifies his action.

Question 6

What reason might the Hippocratic physicians have had for refusing to provide assistance in suicide or euthanasia?

Question 7

Compare the legal models of abortion most prevalent in Britain and the US and discuss the one you consider best.

Question 8

What was the impact on the abortion issue of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of sperm cells?