Please read and respond to Case 5.2 “Drug Dilemmas” (Shaw, pp. 230 – 232)

Please read and respond to Case 5.2 “Drug Dilemmas” (Shaw, pp. 230 – 232)

You should not answer the discussion questions found at the end of the case in the textbook; they can be a fine place to help you get going, but what I want you to do is to write your own assessment of the case.

Each response should be between 500 and 1000 words in length. These responses will be graded on clarity of argumentation (yes, these responses should be argumentative!) as well as your usage of the moral theories we have learned in the course. Merely mentioning a moral theory is not enough – so, for example, if you think that raising the minimum wage would be the correct course of action for utilitarian reasons, then you ought to proceed to give an argument why utilitarians in particular should agree with you. That is, you should argue not just that raising the minimum wage would be nice, or make people feel good, but that it would have the best consequences (this line of thinking will make sense when we cover what Utilitarianism is). Moreover, you should be specific about what those consequences would be, and why they support the conclusion you claim they do.

The purpose of the CSR is for you to get comfortable writing about moral issues, and using the theories we will learn in the class. You can think of them as a kind of preparation for the Research Paper and the Proposal for that paper.