In this episode of The Open Door, Catholic philosophers Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder present the thought of Robert Koons, a Thomist, and today's Public Discourse Joint Statement.

(Robert Koons)
1. How does the precautionary principle point in two directions?
2. Why is the common good always of primary importance?
3. Can putting a monetary value on a single life square with the view that every human life
is priceless?
4. The World Health Organization uses “disability-adjusted years of life” as one of its
measures. How does his work?
5. What is the economic model of practical reason?
6. What is the Thomistic model of practical reason?
7. How are we to understand St. Thomas Aquinas’s “order of charity” (Google it!)? What is
its basis?
8. Discuss Robert Koons’s principles of scarcity, certainty, causality, normality, proximity,
and alteration for the worse.
(Public Discourse Statement)
1. Is there a moral difference between an allowed casualty and an intentional killing? If so,
does using the expression “choosing who will live and who will die” tend to ignore that
difference?
2. If all human lives are of equal worth, how is it a matter of common sense to give priority
to health care workers in allocating scarce medical resources?
3. Compare and contrast a public health analysis based on “life-years” with one based
simply on “human lives.”
4. In a pandemic what might count as a supererogatory act of generosity?