The University of Hong Kong

Department of Politics and Public Administration

CCHU9009 Moral Controversies in Contemporary Society

Semester: First Semester 2016-17
Course Time: Wednesdays, 14:30-16:20
Course Location: CPD-LG.18 (Centennial Campus)
Course Level: Introductory

Instructor: Professor Joseph C.W. Chan

Office: The Jockey Club Tower, Room 949
Email: jcwchan@hku.hk

Instructor: Dr. Franz Mang

Office: The Jockey Club Tower, Room 934
Email: franz@hku.hk

Tutor: Dr. Amy Pao

Office: The Jockey Club Tower, Room 965
Email: paoamy@hku.hk

Tutor: Miss Yudi Feng

Email: yudifeng@hku.hk

1. COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course critically examines some moral controversies in contemporary society. It aims to
help students develop their ability to think in intellectually sophisticated ways about difficult
issues of personal and public morality. The course focuses on four controversial moral
topics: animal use, prostitution, assisted suicide and human enhancement through biomedical
technologies. These topics concern not only personal morality but also social or public morality.
Students will be asked to discuss not only whether the above practices are moral or immoral, but
also whether they should be prohibited, regulated, recognized, or supported by law. It is hoped that
students will be better equipped to evaluate opposing arguments about the proper use of law in
regulating personal conduct and social interaction. In the course of discussing these topics,
students will be introduced to major moral approaches, such as consequentialism, deontology, and
virtue ethics, as well as methods of critical thinking in moral reasoning.

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, students will have demonstrated the ability to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Open-mindedly consider different viewpoints in moral controversies;

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of different philosophical and popular arguments in the
four topic areas of the course;
Understand the major moral philosophical approaches and techniques in moral reasoning;
Formulate and critically assess personal positions or convictions.

3. ASSESSMENT (100% COURSEWORK)

Tutorial performance (9 sessions):

30%

Mid-term essay:
(2,000-2,500 words on Topic I or II)

35%

Due: 31 October 2016, Monday

5:00pm

Final essay:
(2,000-2,500 words on Topic III or IV)

35%

Due: 5 December 2016, Monday,

5:00pm

4. ESSAY

For each essay, you will be required to hand in a hard-copy of your essay to the Politics
and Public Administration General Office (The Jockey Club Tower, C963) and a soft-copy
to Turnitin via Moodle by the deadline. Details regarding submission will be given later.

Please save your soft-copy in this format:

UniversityNo._TopicNo._LASTNAME_Name.
Also, please save your file in either .doc or .docx format; do not save it as a PDF file.
(E.g.: 2015654321_Topic2_LAU_DakWahAndy.docx)

Penalties for plagiarism and lateness:

The soft-copy of your essays will be run through plagiarism-checking software.

Essays found guilty of plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) will be given a failing grade.
Acts of plagiarism could result in heavy penalties, including disciplinary action. For
more information about the policy on plagiarism at HKU, please visit:
http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism.

Late essays will be penalised by one sub-grade per day. (Therefore, a paper that was
initially awarded a B would receive a B- if submitted one day late, and a C if
submitted three days late, etc.)

5. TUTORIALS

You are able to sign-up for your tutorials on 5 September 2016 (9.00am HK time) via
the Moodle system. Spaces will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If you
have time clashes, please email the tutor with your current timetable.

Tutorial attendance is mandatory. If you have a legitimate reason for your absence
(medical certificate), you will be required to submit a 700-word paper on the topic you
missed, within two weeks. If you do not have a legitimate reason for your absence, you
will still be required to submit a 700- word paper on the topic you missed, within two
weeks. In addition, your absence will be reported to the PPA office, where it will be
recorded in your student file.
2

6. READINGS

Please note that a course pack containing all the readings assigned for tutorials is available
for purchase from the photocopy shop (in Chinese). (Opening hours: MondayFriday: 11:00am-7:00pm; Saturday: 11:30am-7:00pm; Sunday and public holidays: closed.)
The shop is located outside of campus. To get there, exit the campus from the East Gate
(only one-minute walk from the East Gate). Cross the zebra crossing. Turn right and walk
towards the bus stop. The photocopy shop is right behind the bus stop.

Lecture PowerPoint slides, tutorial guidelines and other related notes will be uploaded
onto Moodle. You can access Moodle via the My eLearning tab in your HKU Portal
account.

7. LECTURE OUTLINE
#

Date

Lecture

Sep 7

Introduction to the course; a brief discussion of moral objectivity.

Topic I. The Moral Problem of Animal Use

Sep 14

Sep 21

Sep 28

The following questions will be discussed: What is the moral status of animals?
What do we owe non-human animals? Is speciesism wrong? Can animals be
said to have rights? Is factory farming morally wrong? Should it be regulated or
banned?
Moral Theories I
The perspectives of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics will be
introduced. Emphasis will be placed on how these approaches provide different
ways of evaluating the morality of meat-eating.
Topic II. Commodifying Sex: Prostitution and Legalization

Oct 5

Oct 12

Is prostitution unethical? What is the value of sex? Is sex work just another use
of the body for purposes of earning a livingnot especially different from other
paid activities such as singing, massaging or teaching? Do sex workers have
sexual autonomy? Do they have labour rights?
Topic III. Assisted Suicide: Morality and Law

Oct 26

Nov 2

Nov 9

Moral Theories II
Different versions of consequentialism and deontology will be discussed and
their strengths and limitations examined. Some moral dilemmas will be
discussed.
Is suicide ever justified? Is there a right to choose death? Is the idea of selfownership acceptable? What are the various types of euthanasia? What are the
pros and cons of voluntary assisted suicide and should it be allowed? Do
medical doctors have a duty to assist suicide? Should it be allowed all-thingsconsidered?
3

Topic IV. Biomedical Enhancement

10

Nov 16

11

Nov 23

What are the various types of biomedical enhancements? Are genetic

enhancements wrong because they change or destroy human nature? Are they
wrong because they amount to playing God? What are the pros and cons of
selection of traits deemed desirable in our offspring?

12

Nov 30

Conclusion

8. TUTORIAL TOPICS
(Required Readings for Tutorials Are Included in the Reading Pack)
#

Date

Tutorial

Sep 8, 9,12 Housekeeping

Topic I. The Moral Problem of Animal Use

Sep 19,22,
23

Singer, Peter (2006) All Animals Aare Equal, in James E. White (ed.)
Contemporary Moral Problems. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, pp. 379-87.
Delineate and evaluate Singers arguments on animal use.

Sep 26,29,
30

Regan, Tom (2006) The Case for Animal Rights, in James E. White (ed.)
Contemporary Moral Problems. Belmont. CA: Thomson Wadsworth, pp. 387-96.
What is Regans rights view of animal use? What are the practical
implications of the differences between Regans and Singers views?

Nobis, Nathan (2002) Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does Consequentialism

Demand Too Little? Social Theory and Practice 28(1): 135-56.
3

Oct 3, 6, 7

The scale of factory farming is so vast that my refraining from eating meat
will not make any difference to that wrongful practice. So I do not have any
responsibility to refrain from eating meat. Do you agree with the above
statement?

Topic II. Commodifying Sex: Prostitution and Legalization

1) Anderson, Elizabeth (1993) Value in Ethics and Economics. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, pp. 150-58.

2) Nussbaum, Martha (2006) Whether from reason or prejudice: Taking

Oct 13, 14, Money for Bodily Services, in Jessica Spector (ed.) Prostitution and
Pornography. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 175-208 discuss section
24
V only.
Is there anything wrong with sexual commodification? Discuss with
reference to the arguments of Anderson and Nussbaum.

Satz, Debra (2006) Markets in Womens Sexual Labour, in Jessica Spector

(ed.) Prostitution and Pornography. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp.
Oct 27, 28, 394-418.
31
What is Satzs stance on prostitution? Critically comment on her arguments
against the economic approach (pp. 67-70) and for an egalitarian approach
(pp. 74-85).
Topic III. Assisted Suicide: Morality and Law
Dworkin, Ronald (1993) Lifes Dominion: An Argument about Abortion,
Euthanasia and Individual Freedom. New York: Knopf, pp. 179-217.

Nov 3, 4, 7
Critically evaluate Dworkins arguments for and against the legalisation of
euthanasia.

Kamisar, Yale (1978) Euthanasia Legislation: Some Nonreligious Objections,

Nov 10, 11, in Tom L. Beauchamp and Seymour Perlin (eds.) Ethical Issues in Death and
Dying. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 220-31.
14
Delineate and evaluate Kamisars arguments on euthanasia.
Topic IV. Biomedical Enhancement

Singer, Peter (2009) Parental Choice and Human Improvement, in Julian

Savulescu and Nick Bostrom (eds) Human Enhancement. New York: Oxford
Nov 17, 18,
University Press, pp. 277-90.
21
What are the pros and cons of a genetic supermarket?

Buchanan, Allen (2011) Better Than Human: The Promise and Perils of
Enhancing Ourselves. New York: Oxford University Press, Ch. 6. Is
Nov 24, 25,
Enhancement Corrupting? pp. 133-71.
28
Are biomedical enhancements corrupting our moral character?

Oct 2016

Sep 2016

9. COURSE CALENDAR
SUN MON

TUE

WED
7
Lecture 1:
Introduction

11

12
Tutorial 0:
Housekeeping

13

14
Lecture 2:
Animal
Use (I)

18

19
Tutorial 1:
Animal Use

20

25

26
Tutorial 2:
Animal Use

27

21
Lecture 3:
Animal Use
(II)
28
Lecture 4:
Moral
Theories I

THUR
8
Tutorial 0:
House-keeping

15

FRI
9
Tutorial 0:
Housekeeping

16

SAT
10

17

22
Tutorial 1:
Animal Use

24
23
Tutorial 1:
Animal Use

29
Tutorial 2:
Animal Use

1
30
Tutorial 2:
Animal Use

SUN MON

TUE

WED

3
Tutorial 3:
Animal Use

5
Lecture 5:
Prostitution
(I)

6
7
Tutorial 3: Tutorial 3:
Animal Use Animal Use

10

11

12
Lecture 6:
Prostitution
(II)

13
14
Tutorial 4: Tutorial 4:
Prostitution Prostitution

15

16

18
17
Reading
eading Week

19
No Lecture

23

Week ESSAY
25
24
Tutorial 4:
Prostitution

26
Lecture 7:
Moral
Theories II

THUR

20

FRI

21

27
28
Tutorial 5: Tutorial 5:
Prostitution Prostitution

SAT
1

22

29

Nov 2016

SUN
30

MON
TUE
31
1
MIDTERM ESSAY
DUE
Tutorial 5:
Prostitution

WED
2
Lecture 8:
Assisted
Suicide (I)

THUR
3
Tutorial 6:
Assisted
Suicide

FRI
4
Tutorial 6:
Assisted
Suicide

SA
T
5

8
7
Tutorial 6:
Assisted Suicide

9
Lecture 9:
Assisted
Suicide (II)

10
Tutorial 7:
Assisted
Suicide

11
Tutorial 7:
Assisted
Suicide

12

13

15
14
Tutorial 7:
Assisted Suicide

16
Lecture 10:
Biomedical
Enhancement
(I)

17
Tutorial 8:
Biomedical
Enhancement

19
18
Tutorial 8:
Biomedical
Enhancement

20

21
Tutorial 8:
Biomedical
Enhancement

22

23
Lecture 11:
Biomedical
Enhancement
(II)

24
Tutorial 9:
Biomedical
Enhancement

26
25
Tutorial 9:
Biomedical
Enhancement

27

28
Tutorial 9:
Biomedical
Enhancement

29

30
Lecture 12:
Conclusion

December
5
(Monday)
FINAL ESSAY
DUE

10. RECOMMENDED READINGS

Introduction to Moral Theory or Ethics
*Voorhoeve, Alex (2009) Conversations on Ethics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
*Baron, Marcia, Philip Pettit, and Michael Slote (1997) Three Methods of Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Timmons, Mark (2002) Moral Theory: An Introduction. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield,
Chs. 5-7 and 9.
Thomson, Anne (1999) Critical Reasoning in Ethics: A Practical Introduction. London: Routledge.

Topic I. The Moral Problem of Animal Use

Donaldson, Sue and Will Kymlicka (2011) Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights. Oxford:
Oxford University.
Frey, R.G. and Heath Wellman (eds) (2003) A Companion to Applied Ethics. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.
McMahan, Jeff. Ch. 39: Animals, pp. 525-36.
Jamieson, Dale. Ch. 48: Values in Nature, pp. 65061.
Arthur, John (ed.) (2002) Morality and Moral Controversies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Steinbock, Bonnie. Speciesism and the Idea of Equality, pp. 164-71. Callicott, J.
Baird. The Land Ethic, pp. 176-89.
Cohen, Carl and Tom Regan (2001) The Animal Rights Debate. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Des Jardins, Joseph R. (2001) Ch. 6: Responsibilities to the Natural World: The Case for
Animals, in his Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy,
3rd edn. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson, pp. 112-26.
Hursthouse, Rosalind (2000) Ethics, Humans and Other Animals: An introduction with readings.
New York: Routledge, Chs. 4-6.
Shafer-Landau, Russ (1994) Vegetarianism, Causation, and Ethical Theory, Public Affairs
Quarterly
8: 85-100.
Feinberg, Joel (1980) Rights, Justice and the Bounds of Liberty. Princeton: Princeton University
Press. The Rights of Animals and Unborn Generations, pp. 159-84.
Human Duties and Animal Rights, pp. 185-206.

Topic II. Commodifying Sex: Prostitution and Legalization

De Marneffe, Peter (2010). Liberalism and Prostitution. Oxford University Press.
Fabre, Ccile (2006) Ch.7: Prostitution, in her Whose Body is it Anyway? Justice and the Integrity
of the Person. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 154-85.
Spector, Jessica (ed.) (2006) Prostitution and Pornography. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Ertman, Martha M. and Joan C. Williams (eds) (2005) Rethinking Commodification: Cases and
Readings in Law and Culture. New York: New York University Press.
Lucas, Ann. The Currency of Sex: Prostitution, Law and Commodification, pp. 248-70.
Davidson, Julia OConnell (2002) The Rights and Wrongs of Prostitution, Hypatia 17(2): 84-98.
Estes, Yolanda (2001) Moral Reflections on Prostitution, Essays in Philosophy: A Biannual
Journal.
2(2). Available at: http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~essays/estes.html
Marshall, S.E. (1999) Bodyshopping: The Case of Prostitution, Journal of Applied Philosophy
16(2): 139-50.
Primoratz, Igor (1993) Whats Wrong with Prostitution? Philosophy 68(264): 159-82.
Ericsson, Lars O. (1980) Charges Against Prostitution: An Attempt at a Philosophical
Assessment,
Ethics 90(3): 335-66.
Topic III. Assisted Suicide: Morality and Law
Boylan, Michael (ed.) (2013) Medical Ethics, 2nd edition. Wiley-Blackwell. Ch. 4.
Huxtable, Richard and Maaike Mller (2007) Setting a Principled Boundary? Euthanasia
as a Response to Life Fatigue, Bioethics 21(3): 117-26.
Dieterle, J.M. (2007) Physician Assisted Suicide: A New Look at the Arguments, Bioethics
21(3): 127-39.
White, James E. (2006) Ch.3: Euthanasia and the Duty to Die, in his Contemporary Moral
Problems.
Belmont: Thomson-Wadsworth, pp.157-212.
Varelius, Jukka (2006) Voluntary Euthanasia, Physician-assisted Suicide, and the Goals of
Medicine,
Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 31: 121-37.
Brassington, I. (2006) Killing People: What Kant Could Have Said About Suicide and Euthanasia
But Did Not, Journal of Medical Ethics 32: 571-74.
9

Urofsky, Melvin and Philip E. Urofsky (eds) (1996) Definitions and Moral Perspectives:
Death, Euthanasia, Suicide, and Living Wills. New York: Garland Publishing.
Dworkin, Ronald. The Right to Death, pp. 387-98.
Kurtz, Paul. The Case For Euthanasia: A Humanistic Perspective, pp. 399-406.
Kadish, Sanford H. Letting Patients Die: Legal and Moral Considerations, pp.
407-38.
Rachels, James (1993) Euthanasia (Arguments supporting the morality of active euthanasia) in
Tom Regan (ed.) Matters of Life and Death: New Introductory Essays in Moral
Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 30-68.
Brock, Dan W. (1993) Ch. 8: Voluntary Active Euthanasia, in his Life and Death:
Philosophical Essays in Biomedical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.
202-34.
Beauchamp, Tom L. and Seymour Perlin (eds) (1978) Ethical Issues in Death and Dying.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Ch.4: Euthanasia and Natural Death, Introduction, pp. 216-19.
Williams, Glanville. Euthanasia Legislation: A Rejoinder to the Nonreligious Objections,
pp. 232-39.
Topic IV. Biomedical Enhancement
Boylan, Michael (ed.) (2013) Medical Ethics, 2nd edition. Wiley-Blackwell. Ch. 5.
Buchanan, Allen (2011) Better Than Human: The Promise and Perils of Enhancing Ourselves.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Buchanan, Allen (2011) Beyond Humanity? The Ethics of Biomedical Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Agar, Nicholas (2010) Humanitys End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Savulescu, Julian and Nick Bostrom (eds) (2009) Human Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Sandel, Michael J. (2007) The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic
Engineering.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Glover, Jonathan (2006) Choosing Children: Genes, Disability, and Design. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Buchanan, Allen, et al. (2000) From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
10