Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need

Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need by David Edmonds

Is this a history of philosophers? Or thought experiments? I'm not sure what the full goal of this book was, but it was a fun time. There are a number of thought experiences that boil down to "would you allow harm to come to somebody if it would reduce harm to a greater number of people?" In many cases, we we would do things that would not maximize total value. However, things are not that simple. When we know we cause harm or death to somebody, we feel the pain. The "saving" of others is often a theoretical. The book even pops in a real life "experience" similar to the thought experiments. Things end up a bit different in real life. 

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

What are morals and where do they come from? Hume has an analysis of the morals people have and why they exist. Despite having some nice insights, I had trouble staying interested in the book. The librivox narration was not too bad.

Reasons and Persons

Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit

This is a long book that explores ethics and morals. What makes something ethical? Sometimes there appear to be simple situations. Then there are complex situations. The temporal dimension adds many challenges. Would you do something now that negatively impacted you of the future? Can you complain about those of the past since you would not be there without them? What should you do for the future? How does this differ from impacts of other people? There are challenges with many different philosophical theories.

A big section of the book explores science fiction topics. What entails your identity? If you have a device that transfers you to a different place by reading your body and reassembling it elsewhere, is that new person you? What if both the old and new are maintained? What if there are small changes made to you?  There are challenges for multiple definitions of "sameness"

There are a number of interesting arguments here, though it does go on for a long time.

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

Medical Apartheid was written with a few purposes in mind. Primarily it presents an anecdotal history of medical experimentation on blacks. During the time of slavery, blacks slaves were viewed as subhuman. They were the properties of their owners and had few rights of their own. They were also believed to have a high tolerance for pain. Doctors would test procedures out on the slaves. They might lose a few in the process. These early stories are truly frightening. As time progresses, the anecdotal nature fails the argument. The author describes studies where blacks were treated poorly. Some of these were due to lack of informed consent. Other cases they thought they were getting therapy, but were actually being experimented upon. The author posits that they were singled out because they were black. In most of the studies mentioned, there were a disproportionate number of black people impacted. However, since this is anecdotal, we don't know if they were just random bad studies that happened to impact blacks, or if there was something worse involved. Alas, thus actually helps the author's final argument that blacks should trust the medical establishment more. She seems to have to dig more and more to find negativity towards blacks as time progresses. (There does not seem to be grave robbing for cadavers going on like it used to.) However, there are still relaxed standards in Africa. How can we test the efficacy of new medicines without a willing audience of guinea pigs? How can we ensure everyone benefits? Who will pay? And the big one - does western medicine even make sense?