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| 1 | Tännsjö, who argues that moral relativism is correct, explicitly claims that a helpful analogy for understanding the construction of moral universes is: |
 | A) | the descriptive and prescriptive rules of grammar. |
| B) | the reports of modern social scientists who study beliefs and practices in a wide variety of different societies |
| C) | Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. |
| D) | the scientific method of testing hypotheses. |
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| 2 | Pojman, who argues that relativism is not correct, suggests that there is an incompatibility in believing in relativism while also believing that |
| A) | abortion is always wrong (except to save the life of the woman). |
| B) | killing is always wrong (except in self-defense). |
| C) | everyone, everywhere, has the same moral ideas. |
| D) | in moral matters, a person has the right to follow his or her own conscience. |
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| 3 | C. Stephen Layman, who believes that morality needs religion, contends that |
| A) | the existence of God and the idea of life after death are
importantly related. |
| B) | history demonstrates the moral superiority of a social group that believes in God. |
| C) | moral value is an emergent phenomenon--i.e., it is a feature of certain effects although it is not a feature of their causes. |
| D) | moral value is brought into being by God's commandments. |
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| 4 | John Arthur, who does not believe that morality needs religion, states that, at least at first glance |
| A) | religion and morality appear to be concerned with the same things--especially with the question of how to live a good life. |
| B) | religion and morality appear to be concerned with different things; religion has primarily to do with beliefs about the supernatural and morality has to do with our attitudes toward behavior. |
| C) | religion and morality seem to approach the same thing from opposite sides; that is, religion tells us what we have to do in order to be saved and morality tells us what we should not do. |
| D) | religion is logically connected to morality; given a certain religion, a certain morality logically follows. |
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| 5 | Steven Rhoads, who believes that casual sex is harmful, states that a culture of casual sex |
| A) | forces men to acknowledge women’s sexual freedom, causing men to become resentful. |
| B) | encourages both men and women to separate the act of sex from the act of procreation. |
| C) | puts men in the position of competing for the approval of women. |
| D) | allows men to enjoy sex without commitment, and makes it more difficult for women to find a marriage partner. |
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| 6 | Raja Halwani, who does not believe that casual sex is intrinsically wrong, argues that the immorality of specific acts of casual sex |
| A) | cannot be detached from its cultural embeddedness and considered simply on its own. |
| B) | is always dependent on a factor other than the casualness of the sex. |
| C) | is always connected to the differences between male and female preferences and expectations. |
| D) | must be definable in terms of specific acts that are permitted or forbidden within cultures. |
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| 7 | According to Mary Meehan, who believes that abortion is immoral, abortion is morally akin to murder because |
| A) | a fetus is not a rational agent and so must have its life
protected and its interests served by the woman who is carrying the fetus. |
| B) | God is the only one with the authority to give or take life. |
| C) | a fetus possesses life from the moment of conception. |
| D) | the complexity and rapid development of the embryo demands awe and respect. |
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| 8 | Amy Borovoy, who does not believe that abortion is immoral, says that the language of “choice” and “rights” |
| A) | is the best way to balance the interests of the fetus and the pregnant woman. |
| B) | fails to address the broader social circumstances in which women make decisions about abortion. |
| C) | exploits patriarchal concepts in order to subvert masculine control over the women’s decisions. |
| D) | provides a model that other countries, such as Germany and Canada, have emulated. |
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| 9 | Helen Alvaré, who believes that it is right to prohibit same-sex marriage, claims that the government has a legitimate interest in |
| A) | procreation in the context of marriage. |
| B) | stable adult relationships. |
| C) | adoption by opposite-sex couples only. |
| D) | linking marriage and romantic love. |
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| 10 | David Boonin, who does not believe that it is right to prohibit same-sex marriage, reasons that if the government must accommodate public disagreement on controversial issues by maintaining the status quo, it would have been unable to |
| A) | provide Social Security. |
| B) | allow free speech. |
| C) | discontinue the draft. |
| D) | abolish slavery. |
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| 11 | Michael J. Sandel, who believes that human cloning should be banned, perceives a moral problem with reproductive cloning that lies not in its asexual character, but in its assault on the understanding of children as gifts rather than |
| A) | vehicles for our happiness. |
| B) | possessions. |
| C) | projects of our will. |
| D) | all of the above. |
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| 12 | John A. Robertson, who does not believe that human cloning should be banned, suggests that |
| A) | there is no reason to think that the ability to clone humans will cause many people to turn to cloning. |
| B) | once it is possible to clone human beings, there will naturally be great demand for this service. |
| C) | there is no need for a ban on human cloning because,
realistically speaking, cloning human beings (as opposed to animals) will never actually be possible. |
| D) | the underlying factor in debates about human cloning is, simply put, that whoever is first to develop a reliable process for cloning human beings will enjoy rich financial rewards. |
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| 13 | Autumn Fiester, who argues that cloning pets is indeed ethically justified, believes that one of the good things about cloning pets is that |
| A) | it can give grieving pet owners a resurrected version of a pet that has died. |
| B) | expending the kind of time, money and effort that cloning a pet involves will encourage a wider perception of animals as having value and importance. |
| C) | pets that have especially good features (such as intelligence, fondness for children, a healthy constitution, etc.) can be cloned so that future pets will be even more appealing to pet owners. |
| D) | the process of breeding can now be significantly speeded up: we can have hunting dogs, show dogs, etc. in a matter of years instead of in a matter of generations. |
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| 14 | Hilary Bok, who argues that cloning pets is wrong, claims that one of the things that is definitely wrong with cloning these animals is the |
| A) | large amount of money that is involved. |
| B) | presumption that one can "play God" with living creatures. |
| C) | pretense that this will not lead to cloning human beings. |
| D) | suffering that is involved. |
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| 15 | According to Cussen and Block, who believe that drugs should be legalized, if drugs were in fact legalized, the first and most important societal benefit we would realize would be |
| A) | enforceable gun laws. |
| B) | fewer drug addicts. |
| C) | reductions in crime. |
| D) | more affordable drugs. |
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| 16 | Theodore Dalrymple, who does not believe that drugs should be legalized, observes that one of the most violent and squalid cities in Europe is a city of relatively unproblematic drug access—namely |
| A) | Amsterdam. |
| B) | Paris. |
| C) | Rome. |
| D) | Berlin. |
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| 17 | According to Albert G. Mosley, who believes affirmative action is fair, backward-looking arguments in support of affirmative action would classify it as |
| A) | restitution, part of corrective justice. |
| B) | punishment, part of historical justice. |
| C) | fairness, part of distributive justice. |
| D) | obligation, part of legal justice. |
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| 18 | According to Roger Clegg, who does not believe affirmative action is fair, one of the problems with “affirmative discrimination” is that it seems to embrace the view that |
| A) | education is a cure-all for the problems of underrepresented minorities. |
| B) | underrepresented minority students cannot get into college on their own merit. |
| C) | white students of today are somehow responsible for slavery. |
| D) | numbers of students matter more than their qualifications. |
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| 19 | Michael Welch, who argues that the death penalty should be abolished, claims that the death penalty actually promotes murder because some killers |
| A) | see it as a challenge. |
| B) | shoot at the police when they are being arrested; since they are facing the death penalty anyway, they have nothing to lose. |
| C) | don’t identify with the criminal, but rather with the executioner. |
| D) | will continue to kill until the death penalty stops them. |
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| 20 | According to Ernest van den Haag, who argues that the death penalty should not be abolished, one of the main points in the debate over the death penalty is the question of whether or not |
| A) | capital punishment is constitutional. |
| B) | murderers can be rehabilitated. |
| C) | the cost of imprisonment is greater than that of execution. |
| D) | convicted killers are going to be set free to kill again. |
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| 21 | Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke, who believe that torture is sometimes justified, argue that |
| A) | torture can be a useful means of acquiring information in certain cases. |
| B) | in torturing terrorists who themselves use torture, we are simply fighting fire with fire. |
| C) | other nations recognize the use of torture, and if we do not do the same, then we will be at a disadvantage. |
| D) | torture has a bad name today because it was used by religious fanatics in the past, but today it can be used for people who commit serious physical crimes—not "sins" or theological offenses. |
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| 22 | Christopher Kutz, who does not believe that torture is ever justified, explains that the right not to be tortured |
| A) | has never been a concern of the Geneva Convention. |
| B) | is an institutional right that must be carefully weighed against other considerations. |
| C) | has been recognized since the Code of Hammurabi. |
| D) | is a pre-institutional right that cannot be overridden. |
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| 23 | Richard Doerflinger, who supports the idea that physician-assisted suicide is wrong, argues that |
| A) | there is an important priority among the values of "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"; life has the highest priority. |
| B) | even if the law were to allow "physician-assisted suicide," such suicide is a clear violation of the doctor's Hippocratic Oath, and few if any physicians would actually participate in it. |
| C) | the moral case against physician-assisted suicide is far clearer than the case against abortion, since (1) we clearly have a person, (2) the person is innocent, and (3) to kill this person would be murder. |
| D) | suicide is wrong, and so physician-assisted suicide is wrong too. |
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| 24 | Back, Baker, and their colleagues, who argue that physician-assisted suicide is not wrong, claim that there are morally important differences between |
| A) | attempted suicide and actual suicide. |
| B) | ordinary suicide and physician-assisted suicide. |
| C) | euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. |
| D) | euthanasia in the Netherlands and euthanasia in the U.S. |
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| 25 | Nathan Nobis, who supports the idea that morality requires vegetarianism, asserts that people should refrain from consuming meat because |
| A) | animals have the same kind of rights as people. |
| B) | animals’ rights are not the same as people’s rights, but still deserve moral consideration. |
| C) | people should not overlook animal suffering, or they will become less sensitive to the suffering of human beings. |
| D) | people should not participate in morally unjust practices, such as the inhumane treatment of animals in the meat industry. |
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| 26 | Beth Haile, who denies that morality requires vegetarianism, argues that |
| A) | the consumption of meat, if done in accord with virtue, can be part of a life directed toward the good. |
| B) | human beings must consume meat in order to thrive and live at their peak, and no morality can require them to do otherwise. |
| C) | human teeth show that they have evolved so that human beings can eat meat. |
| D) | the consumption of meat by human beings is an innate moral right because human beings are at the top of the food chain. |
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| 27 | Ronald Bailey, who believes that it is right to produce genetically modified food, describes “golden rice,” a beta-carotene-rich crop developed by Swiss scientists by inserting into rice three genes—one from a bacterium and two from |
| A) | daffodils. |
| B) | honey bees. |
| C) | carrots. |
| D) | pine bark. |
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| 28 | Michael W. Fox, who does not believe it is right to produce genetically modified food, contends that the creation of transgenic plants that are resistant to herbicides and virus infections, or that produce their own insecticides, belong in what Fox calls technology’s |
| A) | quicksand category. |
| B) | hard-path category. |
| C) | dead-end category. |
| D) | forked-road category. |