University of Notre Dame
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1995
San Francisco, California, United States of America
  •  10
    Lawrence Masek, Intention, Character, and Double Effect
    Journal of Moral Philosophy 18 (2): 194-197. 2021.
  •  9
    Capax Veritatis: Against Student-Commodification
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 94 1-21. 2020.
  •  9
    The Nazi! Accusation and Current US Proposals
    Bioethics 11 (3-4): 291-297. 1997.
    In contemporary ethical discourse generally, and in discussions concerning the legalization of physician‐assisted suicide (PAS) and voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) specifically, recourse is sometimes had to the Nazi! accusation. Some disputants charge that such practices are or will become equivalent to the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ program in which over 73,000 handicapped children and adults were killed without consent. This paper reflects on the circumstances that lead to the use of this charge and …Read more
  •  6
    In what follows, I reply to critical appraisals of my book entitled Hippocrates’ Oath and Asclepius’ Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession. Professors Tollefsen, McPherson, and Potts separately offer these thoughtful critiques. Professor Tollefsen approaches the work from the standpoint of the physician-patient relationship. Professors McPherson and Potts both address it in terms of virtues. Potts treats the theme of virtue generally while McPherson focuses on the virtue of piety. Since vir…Read more
  •  4
    T. A. Cavanaugh's Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession articulates the Oath as establishing the medical profession's unique internal medical ethic - in its most basic and least controvertible form, this ethic mandates that physicians help and not harm the sick. Relying on Greek myth, drama, and medical experience (e.g., homeopathy), the book shows how this medical ethic arose from reflection on the most vexing medical-ethical problem -- injury caused by a p…Read more
  •  2
    Double-effect Reasoning Defended: A Response to Scanlon
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 86 267-279. 2012.
    Common morality endorses some form of an exceptionless prohibition against killing innocents. Natural lawyers employ double-effect reasoning to address hard cases involving deaths of the innocent. Current deontologists criticize DER-proponents as conflating act-with agent-evaluations. Scanlon develops this critique extensively. I respond to his criticism. He maintains that the DER-advocate tells a badly-motivated agent to refrain from an obligatory act. Thus, he asserts, the natural lawyer who e…Read more
  • Double Effect Reasoning: A Critique and Defense
    Dissertation, University of Notre Dame. 1995.
    Double effect reasoning is a nonconsequentialist analysis of the ethical status of an agent's acting to realize an end which is ethically in the clear when the realization of such an end inextricably causes some effect the causing of which is, prima facie, not ethically in the clear. In this work, I remove certain misunderstandings which attend discussions of DER: the relation between contemporary accounts and Aquinas's originating account , the relation between the intended/foreseen distinction…Read more