Bio ethics PHI-324

PHI 324 - Module 1 Guiding Assignment

Complete Steps 1 and 2 below. Refer to the Assignment Guidelines document in the Course Home menu for further information regarding critical thinking standards and grading.

Submit this assignment to the Dropbox no later than Sunday 11:59 PM EST/EDT. (This Dropbox basket is linked to Turnitin.)

Step 1: Answer all of the questions below.

1. How does Devettere describe the ethics of the good and why does he consider it important to retrieve?

2. How does he describe contemporary bioethics and why does it contrast with his own approach?

3. In defining ethics, Devettere suggests that most ethical approaches include four features. List and describe what each feature involves.

4. “Ethics is the discipline or science (a way of knowing) by which we determine which human actions are good or bad...This implies that there are norms or measures for judging human actions” (O’Rourke 3). According to Chapter 1 of A Primer for Health Care Ethics, list the norms for the ethical practice of medicine.

5. Ethical decision making involves choosing to fulfill our basic human needs in a balanced or virtuous way. If we accomplish this, then our action is good. According to Chapter 1 of A Primer for Health Care Ethics, what are these basic needs?

6. The process of ethical decision making, in an attempt to promote the well-being of the patient, is called reasoned analysis or personalism, because it endeavors to use prudential reasoning to seek to benefit persons in their quest for human fulfillment. How does Chapter 1 of A Primer for Health Care Ethics describe the steps of the collaborative process of reason analysis?

7. According to Chapter 4 of A Primer for Health Care Ethics, what is the ultimate goal of health care? Based on this goal, what are the four value statements that are normative for individuals and corporations involved in health care?

8. Culture and religious beliefs enjoy the presumption of respect because of the importance of human freedom. However, the expression of these cultural values and religious beliefs must be “tethered to the protection of the well-being of the individual and society” (37). According to Chapter 10 of A Primer for Health Care Ethics, in health care decision making what are the three basic realities on which the appropriateness of an action stems?

9. “Respecting a person’s freedom may entail allowing the person to make a cultural or religiously based decision that may not coincide with what we think is in the best interest of the patient” (39). According to A Primer for Health Care Ethics, what does a care giver need to do to deal successfully with multicultural and religious pluralism?

Step 2: After answering the questions, conclude with the following process:

1. Summarize the main points made in the reading or readings as concisely, but as completely, as you can. What went on in these texts (whether in print or online)? Feel free to provide brief illustrative quotations from the texts (with page numbers in parentheses after the quotations) to help make your point. Where there are many readings assigned, their main points generally overlap; therefore, do your best to succinctly present what’s most crucial.

2. State what you thought was most interesting about what you read. Your aim should be to personalize (that is, say what these readings taught you, what you found interesting or of value), rather than to summarize (as you did in the first part). Use phrases like the following: “From these readings, I learned...” or “I didn’t used to understand...but now I do because...,” or “What I found interesting was...,” and so on.