II.  Other items

       1.  Know the truths of Christian faith outlined in the Apostles’s Creed, especially those which have particular bearing on the moral issues discussed in this course:  “…was crucified, died and was buried;…the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.”

       2.  Be able to name the Ten Commandments and state  in detail what each requires and forbids, and explain the moral logic of each prohibition and command.  Be especially attentive to the obligations that we have to God, including the use of his name, to our neighbors and to lawful authority; that civil authority has to its citizens and to families; that parents have to children and children to parents; that employers have to employees and employees to employers.  Also so the rights we have to self defense, to establish a family and live in a morally, physically, and spiritually safe environment, to religious freedom, to the truth, to just laws, to freedom of conscience, the goods of the earth, to all that human dignity requires, to human life – especially in matters pertaining to both the beginning and the end of life. 

       3.  Be able name the six Holy Days of Obligation in the United States.

       4.  Be able to apply the principles taught in this course to particular moral situations to determine whether something objectively wrong has been done and/or whether the doer of the act is culpable; or whether a particular act is morally permissible – and why or why not.  Pay special attention to the following: war, capital punishment, abortion, organ donation, removing life support systems from a terminally ill patient; removing water, food or normal medicines from a terminally ill patient; reproductive technologies; stealing and/or keeping what is lost; making restitution; sex outside of marriage; birth control; sex inside of marriage; cloning; artificial insemination; masturbation; lying, obligations with respect to the truth, cremation; alcohol and drug use; health care; reckless behavior, gambling. 

III.  Consider the following problems.

1.  New Jersey had a budget question on the November ballot – namely whether the citizens are willing to approve a $450,000,000 allocation for embryonic stem cell research.  What is the voter to do or consider?   

2.  Consider the following recent news story – and comment in light of the principles studied in this course. 

New Jersey Forces Pharmacists to Dispense Abortifacient Drugs Regardless of ConscienceBy Hilary White
TRENTON, New Jersey, November 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) –

                The state of New Jersey has passed a law denying the conscientious objection right of pharmacists, won in other states through lengthy court battles, to refrain from dispensing abortifacient and contraceptive drugs. 
                “Discussions of morals and matters of conscience are admirable, but should not come into play when subjective beliefs conflict with objective medical decisions,” said state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, a bill sponsor. 
                The decision comes just days after Pope Benedict XVI gave his support to pharmacists worldwide who reject the culture of death in their profession. “Pharmacists must seek to raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death, and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role,” the Pope said on Monday. 
                He called the right of conscientious objection, “a right that must be recognized for people exercising this profession, so as to enable them not to collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia.” 
                The New Jersey law was passed in the context of numerous battles in courts and legislatures between pro-abortion governors and pharmacists fighting for conscience rights currently raging across the US. 
                Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich was forced by courts to back down on a law similar to that passed last week in New Jersey. The order which attempted to force pharmacists in Illinois to dispense death-dealing drugs, was recently obliged by the courts to back down. The decision followed a long-running dispute between four pharmacist employees of Walgreens stores who were fired when they refused to dispense

               The American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest law firm, sued Walgreens on behalf of their former employees, saying the company had violated the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which makes it illegal for any employer “to discriminate against any person in any manner ... because of such person’s conscientious refusal ... to participate in any way in any form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.” 
                In 2005, Janet Napolitano, Arizona’s aggressively pro-abortion governor vetoed legislation that attempted to recognize the rights of conscience of pharmacists. Napolitano said, “Pharmacies and other health care service providers have no right to interfere in the lawful personal medical decisions made by patients and their doctors.” 
                In Wisconsin, when pharmacist Neil Noesen refused in 2002 to dispense oral contraceptives he was reprimanded and fined by his pharmacy board and limits were set on his license to practice as a pharmacist. 
                Currently Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota have laws protecting the rights of pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs according to their conscience and Florida, Illinois, Maine and Tennessee have some legislation that could be so applied. 

                New Jersey joins California where pharmacists must fill all prescriptions and may only refuse with the approval of their employer and ensure that the customer can get the drugs elsewhere. In Washington state pharmacists are challenging a similar law.

 

3.  Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt live in Germany during the Nazi era.  The Schmidts know that German Jews are being imprisoned and killed simply because they are Jewish.  They take in a neighboring Jewish family and hide them in their basement.  During a routine patrol of the neighborhood, German police officers knock at the Schmidt's door and inquire whether any Jews are there.  Frame a morally good answer for the Schmidts to make to the police and explain why it is good -- that is, what goods it protects and what evils it avoids.