CASE Library
Explore The Issues that Matter.
We excitedly invite you to browse, search, and explore our newly redesigned library of over 300 case studies which render some of the most complex and controversial moral and political issues of our time. These cases were formerly used for official NHSEB competitions at the Regional, Divisional, and National Championship levels. They are freely available for public use under Creative Commons licenses.
The NHSEB Case Library is an excellent tool for competitive preparation, internal or intramural competition, or beyond the context of the Ethics Bowl activity completely—as a classroom resource for Grades 9-12 and beyond.
Featured Cases
NAVIGATING THE LIBRARY
NHSEB’s Case Library is now fully browsable by individual case, or by Case Set—using the filters below. Or, if you already know a bit about what you’re looking for, the entire library of over 300 Ethics Bowl cases is newly indexed, referenced, and searchable by title, topic, keyword, year, and category. Each individual case entry contains the full text of the case and discussion questions as they originally appeared for competitive use, all references assembled in hyperlinked footnotes, and additional contextual resources curated by NHSEB HQ.
CASE SET COLLECTION
REGIONAL CASE SETS
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2017-2018 | 2016-2017 | 2015-2016 | 2014-2015 | 2013-2014 | 2012-2013
National CASE SETS
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2017-2018 | 2016-2017 | 2015-2016 | 2014-2015 | 2013-2014 | 2012-2013
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ATTRIBUTION AND CITATION
All National High School Ethics Bowl cases are the intellectual property of the Parr Center for Ethics, and all are freely available for public use under Creative Commons licenses once retired from use in NHSEB competitions. This library represents thousands of hours of work from our Contributing Authors, Editors, and others. Please do not reproduce NHSEB cases or sets—in part or in whole—without attribution, or modify the text of individual cases or sets. If you reproduce or make reference to NHSEB cases from this library (e.g., in classroom materials, academic papers, etc.), please attribute and/or cite those materials:
National High School Ethics Bowl (Ed.), <YEAR>. “<Case Title>.” National High School Ethics Bowl Case Library. UNC Parr Center for Ethics: Chapel Hill, NC. http://nhseb.org/case-library
Browse The Library
Unwarranted Interventions?
Police officers are often present in emergency rooms with the guise of security, which makes it easy for them to get private patient information. Some states have mandatory reporting requirements where hospital staff are required to involve the police. Critics of this practice argue that it is opportunistic at the hands of police, and them to use hospitals as "traps" for those not yet convicted of crimes. However, this practice can also make hospital workers feel more at ease and effectively hold suspects responsible for their actions.
CRISPR Conundrum
The innovative CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology allows scientists to pinpoint defective genetic material, opening doors to treating illnesses like sickle cell anemia. Another type of gene editing, germline, works on reproductive cells at the embryo level. Germline editing poses the risk of the level of control going as far as creating "designer babies" by selecting for desired traits.
Are You My Mother?
In vitro fertilization (IVF) has allowed for many women to become mothers where they otherwise would not have been able to. However, this has led to many issues arising, such as the case of Adrea Patel, who went to an IVF center, had the wrong embryos implanted, and was then sued by the genetic parents of the children and forced to hand over custody. These errors, along with IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, have come to redefine parenthood as it is known.
Priorities, Priorities…
Due to the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals, specifically ICU’s, have been operating at or above capacity due to increased numbers of people with the virus. Many of these patients are unvaccinated, where if they were vaccinated the risk of severe illness would drastically decrease. This has led many to wonder if the unvaccinated should be prioritized in hospitals since their illness was avoidable.
Project Prevention
Project Provention aims to stop drug addicts from having kids due to the negative stigma of how they treat their children. There are a number of critics u[on this topic, due to the fact that the project seems to be taking advantage of people when they are in no shape to make the judgement of sterilization or not. Is it wrong to offer this to someone going through a drug addiction? Do drug addicts hold an obligation tot their potential children to get better first?
Forced Chemotherapy
17 year old Cassandra, battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, refuses to take chemotherapy due to the harmful toxic chemicals not being worth the decrease in life quality. Her family and her would rather explore other options, but since she is a minor and that decision will likely lead to her death, Supreme Court has the power to deny her opinion, forcing her to undertake chemo. Is it morally correct to force such a decision upon a minor, even if it's her life and she doesn't agree with it?
Supervised Injection Sites
Supervised injection sites aim to reduce health and safety issues related to public consumption of illicit drugs by providing people a place where they can use drugs under the observation of trained staff. Many argue that these sites encourage their users to seek treatment for substance abuse. Some argue that money spent on them would be better directed elsewhere, such as to programs that aim to prevent drug use in the first place. What obligations do we have to help those who suffer from addiction? To what extent does the establishment of supervised injection sites promote and/or conflict with those obligations?
Deception in Dementia Care
Amara works in a dementia care home, where the patients are in various degrees of physical and cognitive decline. Barry suffers from dementia and can’t remember his wife died years ago. Amara wonders whether she should lie to him. Some think that lying to patients with dementia is inappropriate, but others defend lying in dementia care by saying that the diminished mental capacity of dementia patients justifies it. Are there circumstances in which we are morally required to lie to dementia patients?
In Pursuit of the Perfect Child
Advancements in reproductive and genetic technologies have opened up numerous possibilities for the way we have children as well as which children we decide to have. Some people criticize prenatal testing—especially when it is used to determine whether or not to terminate a pregnancy—as an unnatural attempt to influence the genetics of the human race. Other defenders of current practices argue that there is nothing wrong with wanting to have the healthiest child possible—especially given that genetic disorders can sometimes create significant personal and financial costs for families and that many families do not feel like they are in a position to take on these additional costs.
Shhhh!
Carol is a terminally ill woman on life support, whose health has rapidly declined over the past week. Her children argue about her future loudly, and a nurse must decide whether to kick them out or not. On the one hand, their arguing is clearly disruptive to the other patients and their families as well as to the hospital staff. Yet, on the other hand, what Carol’s children are faced with is understandably extremely difficult and emotional.
Love Drugs
In the United States, approximately 40% to 50% of marriages end in divorce. With new scientific interventions, we may be able to reduce this number by increasing or prolonging feelings of love. What, if anything, makes loving relationships (including romantic relationships) valuable or important? How, if at all, would “love drugs” add to or detract from that value or importance?
Liver Allocation
Given that donated organs have a limited time frame for their viability, the U.S. is divided into 11 geographic areas for liver-donation purposes. A new policy change will work to mitigate this geographic disparity. Is it fair to distribute organs by geographic availability? What should we use as the primary criteria for determining how to distribute livers and other vital organs?
Sperm of the Dead
A recent widow wants to have a child with her deceased husband's sperm. Some of his family members are uneasy about this and argue that she does not own or have a right to his sperm. Husband and wife had previously agreed that they would like to have a child together. How relevant should their prior conversations be in this decision? How relevant should his family's opinion be? Would it make a difference if her husband's religious beliefs precluded organ donation after death?
Smokers Need Not Apply
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the US but prevalence of smoking is decreasing. However, this decline is not equal across various groups within the US. For several reasons, some employers are adopting anti-tobacco hiring policies, especially in healthcare settings. These policies disproportionately affect minority groups that have relatively higher smoking rates. Is it morally permissible to discriminate on the basis of tobacco use? How much control should employers have over (potential) employees' lives?
Breed-Specific Legislation
BSL refers to legislation or policy that bans or restricts certain breeds of dogs that are purported to be more aggressive. People that support BSL think that it will help to reduce dog attacks, while opponents of BSL think that it is unjustified. Is BSL morally permissible? If this kind of discrimination is morally wrong when applied to humans, is it wrong to apply it to animals? Are some versions of BSL more morally acceptable than others?
Bodily Identity Integrity Disorder
Jewel Shuping has BIID and has always wanted to be blind. BIID is a rare condition characterized by a conflict between a person's actual, physical body and their idea of how their body should be. Is it in the interest of someone with BIID to give them the body modification they want? If they are at serious risk of harming themselves, should doctors perform these modifications? Do BIID patients harm themselves by going through these modifications?
Non-Human Animals in Biomedical Research
Biomedical experiments often use nonhuman animals as test subjects. This can lead to important scientific advances but exposes research subjects to injury/death without the possibility of consent. How should we compare the value of scientific knowledge with the wellbeing of nonhuman research subjects?
Up and Down
Naloxone is a medication used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. Is naloxone enabling opioid addicts, and if so, do the harms outweigh the benefits? When it comes to drug policies, is it more morally important to promote the wellbeing of drug users or reduce rates of drug use?
Donor Babies
When, if ever, is it morally permissible to bring a child into existence so they can donate tissue to somebody else? Does this cheapen the perceived value of human life, even if they are loved as much as other babies?
Selecting for Deafness
A deaf couple decides to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis to select for a deaf child so they can be in a better position to parent the child. Is it morally wrong to select for a disability? Are they harming their child if the alternative is that embryo remains frozen?