Assignments
The “You Decide” tab to the left presents a difficult and painful dilemma to you in an imagined professional role. Go through the You Decide presentation, make the decision it calls for, and write your weekly paper to make your decision and explain, in the given format, your reasoning and justification for it.
Your dilemma is that you have to make a painful medical decision and to explain, in writing, who benefits from what you decided, who gets denied a needed benefit, and why. The document is to be in the form of an official memorandum that will be kept for the record and could be potentially read by not only your Peer Review Committee, but also possibly those involved in charitable fundraising to support hospital development and others with financial interests in the choice made.
You will see in the You Decide tab that there is time pressure in the simulated situation to make your decision, so remember that you would not have the luxury to dawdle in the decision-making process, and as the decision-maker, you would not have the luxury of consulting others. It all falls on YOU!
Include in the document the utilitarian ethical philosophy of John Stuart Mill (from the lecture and audio for this week) and ONE OTHER ETHICAL PHILOSOPHER of your choice that we have studied to date, and use both of those philosophies to bolster your decision. This paper will be at least two double spaced pages but limited to three pages. Remember both professional written form and potential audience, as well as tone when writing this sensitive paper.
You may want to wait until at least Thursday to begin working on this assignment so you can include the information we are learning in the threads and in our readings in your thought processes.
Write your answer and save it in a Word document, entitled, “YourLastnameEthicsWeek5.docx.”
For example, Dr. Christian Barnard, who performed the first heart transplant surgery, would turn in a document named “BarnardEthicsWeek5.docx.”
This problem may take more than a few paragraphs to answer. I would think that about two pages should cover this. You may include a reference to up to two outside sources, if properly documented. Outside sources are NOT required.
Submit your lab to the Dropbox located on the silver tab at the top of this page. For instructions on how to use the Dropbox, read these step-by-step instructions or watch this Dropbox Tutorial.
See the Syllabus section “Due Dates for Assignments & Exams” for due date information.