Phil 205 S20: Essay 4 Prompt

General Instructions: Your assignment is to write a 3-5 page paper on the following topic. The paper should be typed, double-spaced in a 12 point legible font. It is due at the beginning of class on Wednesday May 6. Because of the response papers that you will be asked to write, you will need to turn in two hard copies of your essay, in addition to the copy you submit to me. You may submit a hard copy to me, or submit it over email. If you submit a copy to me over email it must be either a Word file in .doc or .docx, or a Google doc where you have given me editing privileges. 

Prompt: This paper will lead directly into your final research paper, and will serve as part of the pre-writing for that paper. Consequently, you should exercise great care in selecting a topic, as you will be working with this topic for the remainder of the semester. Your assignment is to pick one of the issues discussed in our textbook Bioethics, and explain the background and arguments involved in that issue. You may pick any issue in the textbook except for the topic of Abortion. You must pick an issue that is discussed in our textbook.

A successful paper will do the following:
  1. Contain a thesis statement that takes a stand on the issue under discussion. 
  2. Lay out the history of the issues, accurately describing the medical and technological advances and concerns that gave rise to the issue in the first place.
  3. Articulate the strongest arguments you can find either for or against the issue in question. Be sure to relate that issue to one of the ethical values or ethical theories we discussed in class. For this paper you should only explore one side of the issue. 
  4. Evaluate the arguments by explaining whether it is a good or bad argument and why.
  5. Include at least two non-Wikipedia sources (these may be articles from the textbook).
  6. Cite all sources using the CMS citation style as discussed in Appendix B in Writing Philosophy.
  7. Contain a Works Cited page.
Pre-Writing: There are several pre-writing activities
  1. In addition to the final draft which is due Wednesday, May 6, you will also need to bring three copies of a draft of your essay for in-class peer editing on Wednesday, April 29. 
  2. During the week of May 4 I will conduct individual conferences with students about their papers during class time. A sign-up for times will be distributed as we get closer to that date. 
Grading: This essay will be graded using the attached rubric. Each column in the rubric will count equally towards the essay grade.
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