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Requirements

• 1,000 to 1,500 words, typed, double-spaced; MLA with Works Cited page and annotated bibliography with at least three sources.
• At least four (4) of these sources should be books, reference works or articles (full-text electronic articles are fine); others can be websites. Make sure your sources are found on both or multiple sides of an ethical position, and that you fairly examine and evaluate both or multiple sides of your topic. Consider incorporating some original interviews.

• Your essay should be well argued and well-written, and your assertions should be supported by evidence.

• Your conclusion may argue for one side, or conclude the evidence & ethical argument is finely balanced.

• Argue the ethical issues while considering other dimensions (political, scientific, religious etc.).

Topics:

Feel free to choose from the topics below or come up with your own topic. To help develop ideas, carefully review Chapter 5 in IA, pp 219-268

Not all American citizens share a common set of values. Some would even claim that in the USA we now have a culture war. Can we – and should we – argue for moral absolutes in a pluralist democracy? If so, how? What is the relationship between ethical perspectives, religious commitments, & political views? What does that relationship imply for religion? Does it matter? Is there a tension between ethics & democracy? Develop your answer by considering one or more of the following issues: censorship, abortion, contraception, gun control, public display of the Ten Commandments or religious symbols, or gay & lesbian marriage/adoption.

It has been said that Science deals with “what is,” while ethics deals with “what ought to be.” If this were true, how could there be an ethical use of science? How can we combine "is” language with "ought" language? Consider this question in relationship to one or more of these debates: cloning & stem cell research, AI (artificial insemination), vivisection & animal research, Terri Schiavo & “right to die” cases, euthanasia & assisted suicide, or the Human Genome Project. Give concrete examples.

What are the ethics of war & terrorism? Examine the traditional arguments for the Just War. Do you think they apply to the “War on Terrorism”? Why? Discuss some of these ethical dilemmas: the relevance of the Geneva Convention, poison gas, WMD, land mines, use of torture, ends & means in counter-terrorism, the indefinite detention of “terrorists” without due process, lack of habeas corpus for suspects, privatization of the military, intelligence and counterterrorism, & balance between freedom and security, civil & military law, etc.

Discuss the ethics of legalizing gay & lesbian marriage or unions and/or gay and lesbian adoption. What are said to be the positive and negative consequences of such a change? On what ethical principles are such legal changes argued for, and on what ethical principles are they argued against? Along with the ethical, what political, religious, economic, and cultural dimensions are relevant to these issues? Give concrete examples.

Discuss the ethics of journalism. What ethical problems do the Press and Broadcast Media encounter? In a free society, what are the ethical responsibilities of journalists? What new ethical situations do innovative media technologies such as 24/7 cable news (CNN, Fox, MSNBC), Blogs, and the Internet present for journalists? Is there a constitutional right to privacy? How can we balance government secrecy with accountability, and what is the role of the media? Give concrete examples to illustrate your argument.

How does a person develop a personal sexual ethic in contemporary American society? What might that involve? Evaluate the relationship between principles and situations, and outline some of the reasons (religious, social, medical, etc.) that sexual morality has changed in the last hundred years, and why. Discuss such issues as premarital sex, abortion, affairs outside marriage, homosexuality, sexuality and religion, etc.

Discuss the ethical perspectives to be brought to one (1) of the following issues: affirmative action, legalization of drugs, lowering the drinking age, adoption by gay & lesbian couples, drug use in sports, gun control laws, contraception, & abortion. Carefully distinguish the ethical issues (“ought language”) from the political, religious, legal, scientific, cultural, and medical perspectives. Support your argument with evidence.

Resources

Wikipedia has an excellent article on Ethics. The URL is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics.

CQ Researcher is very useful. To access this database, first login to http://my.usf.edu, then select USF Libraries & http://library2.cqpress.com.proxy.usf.edu/cqresearcher/

See also CQ Weekly on Congress.

The Lexis-Nexis Academic database, available through the USF virtual library.

Good reference works in the library on Ethics. Check the Library of Congress subject headings

Evaluating Resources (USF Libraries) http://web.lib.usf.edu/ref/instruction/eval.html

Ask-a-Librarian at http://www.lib.usf.edu (top of the page).

“An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief […] descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited” (Cornell University: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm ).