Ch.48 Cahn Virtue Theory and Abortion Complete Test Bank

Test Bank

to accompany

Exploring Ethics, Sixth Edition

Cahn

Chapter 48

Virtue Theory and Abortion

Rosalind Hursthouse

[NOTE: Questions marked with “*” also appear in the student self quizzes on Learning Link.]

Multiple Choice

1. According to Hursthouse, the familiar facts of pregnancy include*

a. it is the result of sexual intercourse.

b. it lasts about nine months.

c. parents tend to care passionately about their offspring.

d. All of the above

2. To determine the morality of abortion, which of the following questions would be relevant for Hursthouse?

a. At what point does human life begin?

b. In having an abortion, would this woman be acting virtuously, viciously, or neither?

c. Does a woman have the right to do as she chooses with her own body?

d. All of the above

3. Hursthouse argues that the current philosophical literature on abortion is badly out of touch with reality because it*

a. ignores familiar biological facts about human reproduction.

b. fails to take the anti-abortion perspective seriously.

c. disregards the role of politics in moral disputes.

d. overlooks the history of the women’s rights movement.

4. Hursthouse believes that a virtuous person would never

a. recommend an abortion to someone whose life was not at stake.

b. view miscarriage as a less than tragic loss.

c. see abortion as simply the exercise of a moral right.

d. take a woman’s decision to have an abortion as a reflection of a moral failing.

5. According to Hursthouse, a woman who decides to have an abortion because she believes she is “not ready for motherhood yet” may be showing which of the following?*

a. Cowardice

b. A lack of seriousness

c. Humility

d. Any of the above

6. According to Hursthouse’s understanding of the morality of abortion, what follows from the supposition that women have a moral right to terminate their pregnancies?

a. The morality of abortion is a matter of individual conscience.

b. Legal prohibitions against abortion are at best misguided.

c. Men should have no role in deliberations about whether to have an abortion.

d. None of the above

7. Hursthouse emphasizes that abortion is a serious matter because of its connection with

a. the claims to authority over women’s bodies made by the state.

b. all our thoughts about human life and death, parenthood, and family.

c. gender roles and the injustice often surrounding them.

d. N not one of the above

8. Which of the following does Hursthouse consider to be crucial considerations for the ethics of abortion?

a. The status of the fetus

b. The rights of women

c. Both the status of the fetus and the rights of women

d. Neither the status of the fetus nor the rights of women

9. In response to the criticism that virtue ethics has unresolvable conflicts built into it, Hursthouse*

a. denies that such a problem arises.

b. admits that there is a problem but claims that it is very easily solved.

c. admits that there is a problem but claims that other theories face the same problem.

d. admits that there is a problem and that it is unique to virtue theory.

10. The Greek word eudaimonia roughly means

a. flourishing.

b. justice.

c. duty.

d. pleasure.

True or False

11. Hursthouse believes that it is possible to act viciously in doing something one has a moral right to do.*

a. True

b. False

12. Hursthouse believes that abortion is intrinsically immoral.

a. True

b. False

13. Hursthouse claims that every virtue generates a positive instruction, and every vice, a prohibition.*

a. True

b. False

14. According to Hursthouse, virtue theorists are committed to defining all of our moral concepts in terms of the virtuous agent.

a. True

b. False

15. Hursthouse thinks that it is possible to seek an abortion for shallow or selfish reasons.*

a. True

b. False

16. Hursthouse sees abortion as the cutting off of a human life.

a. True

b. False

17. The developmental stage of the fetus is not relevant to the morality of abortion according to Hursthouse.*

a. True

b. False

18. Hursthouse thinks that a secular ethics of abortion should make no claims about the “sanctity of life.”

a. True

b. False

19. Hursthouse sees abortion as fundamentally the same as any other form of killing.*

a. True

b. False

Essay

20. Why doesn’t Hursthouse consider the moral problem of abortion in terms of a general rule or principle? In your view, is this evidence of the strength or the weakness of her virtue theory approach?

21. Hursthouse claims that to take pregnancy lightly is to display callousness and light-mindedness. What argument does she supply in support of this claim? Do you find this line of argument compelling? Why or why not?

22. Why does Hursthouse dismiss the dominant considerations of most discussions of abortion as “irrelevant”? Is she right to do so?

23. What implications does Hursthouse claim that virtue theory has for the abortion debate? Does virtue theory provide reasonable moral guidance on this issue? Why or why not?