A significant portion of your grade will be based on case studies, which I am asking you to write up, on issues in ethics and the professions that appear in the news.

Each current events case should be from some current news (or commentary) source. The source of the information should be indicated so that a reader may locate it.

The point of this assignment is to get you to think about the issues in this course and see their application to what goes on "out there in the real world."

Suitable Sources:

Suitable sources for relevant items are: newspapers (e.g., Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, New York Times), good news broadcasts (e.g., "60 Minutes," "PBS Newshour," "Nightline"), television specials, good radio programs (e.g., "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition"), good magazines and journals (e.g., TIME, Journal of the American Medical Association), and good web sites (e.g. "Yahoo News" http://www.yahoo.com/headlines, and "CNN Interactive" http://www.cnn.com/). My experience is that "60 minutes" nearly every week has a long segment (about 15 minutes) on some issue in professional ethics and that "PBS Newshour" has such a segment (perhaps 10 minutes) twice a week or more. Thorough reading of a good newspaper should provide at least two such items a week as well.

Look especially for issues in which some professional (doctor, lawyer, journalist, engineer, etc.) or public servant (judge, legislator, mayor) considered or took some action that might by some be regarded as morally proper and by others as morally improper.

News sources should be current or recent: nothing older than two months prior to the beginning of the term.

Do your own work. You may help one another by pointing out to one another sources of information (e.g., calling someone on the phone when Jim Lehrer comes on with a relevant focus segment or lending someone a copy of a newspaper), but each student should have read or listened to the item in question and your comments on the items should be your own.

Grading:

Each case is worth 15 points.

Details of the expected format:

Use this Template.

Rich text format (which you are asked to use) may not save pictures, or tables. If you need to include pictures, tables, or other elements not expressible in .rtf format, make arrangements (e.g., to use a .doc file) with the instructor.

Example:

Here are a couple of sample case studies: sample1, sample2

Submission:

• Case studies should be submitted by the due date or risk losing points due to lateness.
• Case studies must follow for the format in the template.
• Each case study must be saved as an ".rtf", i.e. a "Rich text format", file. (All word processors written since about 1988 can, I believe, read and write rich text format files.)
• Case Studies are to be submitted electronically to rlee@uark.edu.
• Do your own work. Use of unacknowledged sources (e.g., books, friends, tutors, web pages, other papers) for this assignment constitutes cheating.

• Do pick an issue that involves a judgment of ethics for the professional or public servant in her/his role as such.
• Don't bring up an "obligation to support one's family."
• Don't write on sports or entertainment figures.
• Do explicitly appeal to a GMP in each argument.
• Don’t appeal to implausible ethical theories, such as egoism.
• Don’t appeal to implausible general moral principles.