Computer Science Assignment - COMMENTS ON ETHICAL PRACTICE

Paper 1: The experience I wish to use to illustrate an ethical decision has to do with a doctor friend of mine, who told me about the event several years ago. My friend was a young medical doctor, actually just graduated from medical school. His grandfather at that time was a very old man and had a number of ailments he was battling with. My friend was one of the doctors who was taking care of the old man, and he was well acquainted with his situation. One night, in fact in the middle of the night, around 2 am, my friend’s grandfather became very ill, and emergency medical facilities like ambulances were not readily available at that time of the night. The family was at a loss as to what to do. Then somebody remembered that one of the neighbours was working in a hospital, either as a pharmacy technician or assistant, or some similar job description-he was not a medical doctor, in any case. Due to the desperate situation at hand, it was suggested that this hospital staff should be contacted and pleaded with to come and examine the old man and see whether he could help in any way. The hospital staff was contacted and begged to come and see the old man, and he reluctantly agreed to do so, despite the interruption to his sleep. Upon examining the patient, the hospital staff concluded that the man was a having a severe attack of asthma. He then went ahead and administered a drug for asthma patients to the old man by intravenous injection. A few hours later, the old man died. My friend the young doctor was informed the following morning on what happened to his grandfather, and he was utterly shocked. His grandfather had never had any history of asthma-he had never in his life been treated for asthma. No medical doctor would have prescribed that drug for that patient. It is at this point that the ethical question arose, and there was need to make an ethical decision on what to about this person who was not a medical doctor but went ahead to not only prescribe, but...