Question

Describe the ethical decision making and its stages ?

Answer 1

An ethical decision is one that engenders trust, and thus indicates responsibility, fairness and caring to an individual. To be ethical, one has to demonstrate respect, and responsibility.

Stage One: The Knowledge Stage

The first stage is the knowledge stage. It begins before you are faced with the ethical decision. As is implied by the name, this stage is concerned with knowing a number of things that are involved in the ethical decision making process.

Stage Two: The Identification Stage

The second step or stage is the identification stage. There are three important things to identify in this stage: 1) who the client is; 2) the various ethical principles and interests in operation within the actual situation that is before the clinician; 3) potential options for solving the problem.

Stage Three: The Evaluation Stage

The evaluation stage is next. It is concerned with taking the principles and interests that have been identified as being at stake in the situation, and evaluating which are the most important to consider.

This will incorporate knowledge of the codes of ethics, and understanding of the principles and interests themselves.

Stage Four: The Selection Stage

The fourth stage or step is the selection of the best option or solution, and the putting of the option or solution into effect. This is the point at which the world of the abstract and theoretical meet the world of real life consequences and effects.

Stage Five: The Assessment Stage

The fifth stage is the assessment stage, in which the clinician assesses the real life effects of the selection that has been made to solve the ethical dilemma.

The real life effects must be evaluated both from the perspective of the clinician and the ethical obligations the clinician holds, and from the perspective of the client, whose life will be affected by the ethical choice that has been made.

Stage Six: The Adaptation Stage

The last stage of this process is the adaptation stage. In this stage, the clinician will look to adapt the selection or solution of the ethical dilemma by refining it, or by returning to the evaluation and selection stages to find and choose a better solution.

This staged process will become clearer as we look at an analysis of the scenarios. With this section completed, we will now turn to an examination of the principles and interests at stake in the decision making process.