Question

1. What does it mean to be an ethical person? In what ways can we evaluate our own moral actions and the actions of others? In your response discuss moral theory (e.g. principles of medical ethics, meta ethical systems like deontology, utilitarianism, or virtue ethics).

2. What are the most important moral principles that a medical professional must follow in their profession? How would you define the Normative Basis for your profession?

3. Choose one of the ethical issues that we have discussed this semester and present it in depth? How might medical ethics principles (principles of the Normative Basis) be applied to this issue?

4. What bioethics questions that we have not discussed this semester do you find most interesting? Research one of these questions in depth and discuss in your presentation applying medical ethics principles (principles of the Normative Basis).

Answer 1

1. An ethical person is one who follows accepted ethical standards in his/her deeds. In any work environment, an ethical person always adheres to the excellent quality of service delivery without being affected by obstacles or persuasions against morality. To be an ethical person one should abide by moral values no matter what comes on the way of his service. Timely delivery of service upholding moral values without any other considerations is the foremost quality of an ethical person. He/she is an asset to any organization and is the front-runner who works tirelessly to make the organization a successful one. An ethical person knows to do the right thing in the right way under any circumstance even if it is unprofitable, unpopular, or inconvenient.

Evaluation of our own moral actions and the actions of others should be based on the same set of principles. We should be impartial while assessing others without any inhibitions holding us back from doing the proper evaluation. The yardstick of evaluation should be the same and no compromises should be made regarding the quality of evaluation. Morality of actions with a sense of duty is the same universally without any difference in ethnicity, region, gender, or age. So the judgment of moral actions should be free of any unfair means or variations. Evaluation of moral actions is built on common rules of conduct and is multi-layered for an ideal moral evaluator. These evaluations should have integrity, transparency, and humility.

Moral theory enlightens us about the morally right and wrong actions. Moral theories form the basis of moral reasoning and help us to see the implications of moral evaluations. These are the principles or guidelines, which serve as pointers to work ethics, which state what we ought to act and why. Some of them also explain why some actions are wrong even if they would maximize the positive outcomes. Yet another one states that any action that maximizes happiness can be considered as a morally right one.

Principles of medical ethics are four basic principles of healthcare ethics that guide clinical practice and decision making. These are affirmative obligations of healthcare professionals, which aids in their excellence in practice based on sound ethical reasoning. These four basic principles of medical ethics include beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence, and justice. Autonomy is the ability to think, make a decision, and take actions on the basis of that decision independently. The patient has the freedom to make decisions regarding his health. Beneficence gives emphasis to the ethical significance of doing good to others. This indicates promoting everything that is good for the patient or acting in the best interest of the patient. Non-maleficence is the opposite of beneficence. It states that the primary responsibility of healthcare professionals is not to do any harm to patients. Its scope of application is different from beneficence. Justice deals with the fair and equal distribution of healthcare resources, the burdens and benefits should be distributed equally among all in a society.

Deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, etc are some of the moral theories. According to deontology, the morality of any action must be on the basis of whether the action is right or wrong and not on the outcomes of the action. Utilitarianism states that actions that result in overall happiness should be promoted and actions of unhappiness should be rejected. Virtue ethics states that in ethical thinking, emphasis should be given to an individual’s character rather than the acts itself or their consequences.