Blog Assignment #10

(1) Choose one inquiry, from inquiries 1 - 28 (pages 114 - 117). Indicate which inquiry you chose, and then briefly explain it in your own words: I chose the one about the 2 doctors having to choose between the 2 patients to give a heart transplant to.

(2) Stakeholders: The doctors, both patients, the families, other people on the list.

(3) Are the details given sufficient? Why or why not? No because you need answer to make a fair and ethical decision.

(4) What additional questions does this inquiry raise? Transplants are normally done on a first person on the first to recieve a heart basis. We have no idea who is first on the list. We also don't know what other preconditions each patient could potentially have.

STEP TWO: THE RELEVANT CRITERIA

1. Obligations (aka "duties"): Optional this week
2. Moral Ideals (aka "virtues"): See breakdown of ideals below
3. Consequences (aka "outcomes" or "results"): Optional this week

NOTE: Not ALL of the following ideals will apply! Only consider the main ones that you believe apply, in the inquiry you chose. Don't just pick the easy ones to consider, because you didn't take the time to thoroughly read the chapter and learn what each one of these actually means. I will quiz you when we do group work on Thursday.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Prudence: No because they should have thoughtfully decidied and weighed all the options before making a decision.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Justice: Yes because you should count each person as equal and give to higher value to either of their lives. They are both equally important to the people around them and it should be done fairly and without prejudice for age or anything else.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Temperance: No because this based on more indiviualistic views which aren't really present here.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Courage: No unless you put the patients next to each other to make the decision of who got the heart which I doubt would happen.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Loving Kindness: No because they should be making their choice based on a set of rules or other ideals more than just love since they are patients rather than family or friends which complicate the matter.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Honesty: Yes because they should be honest about who is on the list and not about who necessarily deserves or needs it more.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Compassion: Yes I think it does because the doctors may want to choose the child because they think she has more to live for than the older lady but they should add in other judgements to help them.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Forgiveness: No because I don't see any wrong doing that cause the issue.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Repentance: No because I don't think the doctors should feel sorry for their decision as long as it was fair.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Reparation: No because no harm was done unfairly to another person.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Gratitude: You could maybe say the recipient of the heart could give gratitude to the doctors for picking them but I think that is more just the emotions rather the ethics.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Beneficence: The surgery could be deemed beneficence but other than that they did the act because it was their job rather just for no reason.

* Conflicting ideals--consider the relative importance of each; determine which ideal represents the greater good (or the lesser evil). See pages 110-11 for clarification. Erase this sentence & insert your own answer. I don't see any conflicting ideals. The rules and obligations should be set out for the doctors. Whether they agree or not is up for debate but it should be much simpler than that.

STEP THREE: POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION

Alternative #1: To give the heart to the other lady.

Alternative #2: To wait for 2 hearts if possible so both get one and neither is out of a heart.

Alternative #3: To continue with giving the young girl the heart as the decided before.
STEP FOUR: THE MOST ETHICAL ACTION

Examine the action taken or proposed and decide whether it achieves the greater good (the most widespread "respect for persons")...if it does not, choose one that will, from your alternatives. Where the choice of actions is such that no good can be achieved, choose the action that will result in the lesser evil.

I think as long as they followed the rules set down to them by the obligations of work and location than giving it to the young girl is correct but if they passed over the other lady because of her age that is not right and it should be given to her.

SELF EVALUATION

1. In your own words, describe something new that you learned from this week’s assigned reading material and guidance. I learned are much more complicated than previously thought and that you need to weigh them and give them each a proper examination so that they are followed and thought out. You may even think of ones not previously and could end up changing your decisions.

2. In your own words, describe in detail some insight you gained, about the material, from one of your classmates' blogs this week. MCK-thics was the blog and I learned that he posted about weighing consequences early even though we haven't covered that but they do go hand in hand with the ideals because it may look good with the ideal but it may have very serious consequences depending on which path you choose.

3. Did you post a thoroughly completed post to your blog on time this week? I think mine is pretty thorough but that could be up to debate depending on your definition of the word. :)

4. Did you ALSO print this out, so you can bring it to class and earn total points? Nope because I am in Atlanta for work reasons for the rest of the week so it did not happen though I wish I was there to learn the lesson.

5. Of 25 points total, my efforts this week deserve: I deserve a 12.5 since I posted the online version but did not show up to class for the week. Sorry!!!!