MIT OpenCourseWarehttp://ocw.mit.edu 24.06J / STS.006J Bioethics Spring 2009 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use, visit: http://ocw.mit.edu/terms.24.06 RESPONSIBILITY – HANDOUT Suppose that you have a medical condition, and you engaged in behavior thatsignificantly increased the risk of your getting it. Is it your fault? Levels of Risk DivingA bent cave-diver and a bent snorkeler both need access to a hyperbaric chamber. Should we give the snorkeler priority, because ‘it is the diver’s fault he got this way’? WalkingA hill walker and a couch potato both get struck by lightning. Should we give the couch potato priority? Fault for Behavior Alcoholism Two people need livers, one is alcoholic. Otherwise, their prognosis is the same. Shouldwe think – ‘it is the alcoholic’s fault she got this way’? ObesityShould health insurance companies be allowed to charge the obese higher premiums, onthe grounds that ‘it is their fault they got that way’? Here’s an unpromising argument for thinking that it is not the alcoholic’s fault: P1 (Genetic Determinism) There is some gene complex G, such that, given certainbackground environmental conditions, anybody who has it will become an alcoholic. P2 (Fault) For any event, E, and set of conditions C, you are not at fault for E if C is causally sufficient for E and you have no control over C. P3 Alcoholics do not have control over their genes or their background environmental conditions. C Alcoholics are not responsible for their alcoholism A more promising argument P1 (Fault 2) You are at fault for E only if you know (or should know) that E is a likelyconsequence of your free actions – where your actions are free when they aresensitive to your second order desires. P2 Typically, an alcoholic’s liver failure is not a consequence of his or her freeactions. C Typically, an alcoholic is not at fault for his or her liver
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