Forum #3

General Instructions

1. Spend at least 20 minutes brainstorming your answer to the question; don't be satisfied with the first answer(s) that come(s) to mind, but continue to think more deeply about the problem for the entire 20 minute period. Think about your answer for a while, and then walk away and come back to the question. Try to really ponder the issues.
2. Write your answer in a text-editing or word processing program - don't write it directly in the comment box!
3. The, spend another 10 minutes editing your answer - challenge yourself about your answer, ask yourself why you think the way you do, and develop your answer more completely.
4. Finally, copy and paste your answer in the comment box, below.
5. A good answer will be at least 3/4-page long as you're writing it in your processing program.
6. Answers are due by Friday at midnight.
7. Respond to one of your colleagues. You can (respectfully) challenge the person's reasoning, expand on what someone else has said, use a colleague’s idea as a jumping off point to develop something else, or ask a colleague (in detail, and showing why and how you’re confused or unsure of their reasoning) to expand on what they’ve said. But be sure you’re demonstrating serious engagement with the ideas. Your response to a colleague is due by Sunday at midnight.

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Question

Do you think that the way the aliens were treated was just? (Justice is a broad ethical term that takes several important ideas about rightness into account: fairness, individual and group rights, following the rule of law, and security of persons). Be very specific about your reasons for thinking so. As you think about this question, there are several things to consider:

·         There were several levels at which we might think of the aliens as being treated justly or unjustly:
o   By the state
o   By the private corporation MSU, operating under the authority of the state
o   By individuals
·         Although the aliens have very different DNA and a very different phenotype (observable characteristics), they appear to share many if not all of the essential features we identified as human. Does that mean that they have rights? If so, what are they? How far are we obligated to go to ensure those rights are upheld? Do rights disappear when others have reason to be scared of you (I mean ethically – in practice they often do)?

·         Integrating the aliens into society, guiding them through the transition, housing them in decent conditions, educating and training them, would have been a huge and extremely expensive undertaking – probably far more than any one country could have done on its own (and therefore, it would have required a huge international cooperative effort). Do you think that all the nations of earth had an obligation to help (and given the large population, that would probably have involved agreeing to take some of the alien population into each country)?.