Ethics Sparring

Two Cases; Ilona and Stork

PhD, Docent, Jukka Mäkinen, Aalto University

Aim and Agenda

• Aim: help you to reflect your presentation from the alternative ethical perspective

• Approach: Devil’s advocate, critical interpretation based on your PP presentation slides

• Cases Ilona and Stork

• Team works

• General discussions

CASE 1: ILONA

From Scarcity Framing to Capability Framing

Economic Framing

Are your main customers economists

or officials in the ministry of finance?

Is this old lady aiming to spend or save some

scarce money?

Why scarce money takes the central stage in healthcare of elderly people?

Care as interaction with elderly and technical applications?

Capability Framing

Main Customer

WHO

Capability to Function

Rather than look for psychological or

material indicators of well-being

Let’s draw attention to what each person is able to do and to be.

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Capabilities are better metrics of well-being than…

• material resources (income, wealth etc.) since different people have different needs and abilitiesto use resources.

• utilities or preference satisfaction since utilities and preferences are adaptive to circumstances.

• functioning since different people value different functions and capabilities leave room for individual choice.

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List of Basic Capabilities1. Life

2. Bodily Health

3. Bodily Integrity

4. Senses, Imagination, and Thought

5. Emotions

6. Practical Reason

7. Affiliation

8. Other Species

9. Play

10. Control over one’s Environment: a)Political b) Material

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Conception of Well-Being

Life

Bodily Health

Bodily Integrity

Senses, Imagination,Thought

Emotions

Practical Reason

Affiliation

Other Species

Environment

Play

Capability Framing

• What is she able to do and to be?

• How Ilona promotes her capability to function?

Case 2: Stork

stork

Markets in Life

The two sides of the marketThe question of where

markets belong is really about how wewant to live together

(Sandel, 2012)

Virtues and Vices of Markets

• Efficiency

• Freedom

If suitable institutional background conditions

• Property Rights

• Free Information

• Trust

• Competition

However some markets

• Produce bad outcomes for individuals and society

• Involve highly asymmetric knowledge and agency

• Reflect vulnerabilities of market participants

Two Basic Objections to Markets

Fairness

Injustice may arise whenpeople buy and sell things

under conditions of inequality or dire

necessity

Corruption

Certain moral or civicgoods are dimished or

corrupted if bought and sold

Objections to Sperm Markets

• Gift of life vs. force of material benefits• Sperm donation as deviant behavior (”yuk”

factor)• Religious objections• Distrust of donor motivations• Opening door for eugenics• Gendered nature of the market

Source (Krawiec, 2015 Daniels & Heidt-Forsythe, 2012)

Markets in Life

• Are there only tworelevant sides?

• Other significantstakeholders and theirinterests?

• Criteria for donors and seekers?

The two sides of the market

Motivation

Donors:

Time-consumingUncomfortableNo motivation

Seekers:

Lack of supplyLack of trustUnreliability

MotivationEmpirical evidence suggest that:

1. People care about material payoffs.2. People consider the interests of others they know.3. People are willing to sacrifice their own material well-being to

help those who are kind to them and to punish those unkind to them.

4. People take into account the well-being of strangers whose interests are at stake.

5. People are interested in their reputations – what others think about their behavior.

6. People care about their self-conceptions – what kind of persons they wish to be.

(Source: Joll, Sunstein & Thaler 2000)

Markets Crowding out Morals

Sometimes offering payment for a certain behaviour may get you less of

it, not more (Sandel 2012)

Blood for Sale

”The commercialization of blood and donorrelationships leads to chronic shortages, wasted

blood, higher costs, and a greater risk of contamination. It represses the expression of altruism and erodes the sense of community.”

Eugenics

Simple solution

Home donation kit

Genetic test

Search engine platform

If your idea is to use genetic test as a

requirement to donors and as an incentive to

seekers, does it open the door to eugenics?

Main Question

Are there only two relevant sides of the market?