PHIL 223 Week 4 Assignment

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Eastern Michigan University *

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Philosophy

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Apr 3, 2024

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PHIL 223 (Medical Ethics) Assignment # 4 This assignment is due on Friday, February 3rd at 11:59 pm. Please submit it via Canvas. The assignment is based on Week # 4 readings. PowerPoint slides and lecture videos for Week # 4 are also available on Canvas. Part A: Indicate true or false for each of the following statements (each worth 0.5 points). 1. According to classical feminism, gender differences are products of acculturation. - True 2. Many feminists today emphasize that all forms of oppression whether based on gender, race, class, or disability—must be acknowledged and fought. -True 3. One of the central claims of feminist ethics is that experiences of women deserve respect and are vital to a full and accurate understanding of morality. -True 4. Difference feminism points out that despite their fundamental equality, women and men do have different traits, dispositions, and qualities. The ideal is to be able to integrate these differences. -True Part B. Answer both questions 1. In no more than one typed double-spaced page, explain the relevance of feminist thought to health care. (Worth 4 points) 2. Give an example of how at least two of these principles (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice) might come into conflict in medical practice and explain which principle would override the other in that particular case. (Worth 4 points). PS: Please don’t use the example in the textbook or the one I have given in the video lecture to answer question # 2. Feminism, in general, seeks to unmask and challenge all sorts of oppression and discrimination based on gender, race, and caste. Due to this inclusive approach, Feminist ethics influenced the healthcare field in many ways. One example is by providing access to healthcare to all types of people such as the disabled. The feminist thought of not oppressing any group of people due to their differences and fighting for their equality to live in society as equals to any other majority group, greatly paved the way for the disabled community to be given access to hospitals and institutions. Doctors could also provide disabled individuals with accommodations such as sign language interpreters during a hospital visit. The ethical principles are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice. However, in some cases these principles conflict with medical practices. One example of how autonomy conflicts with medical practices is on the topic of keeping a patient who is in a vegetative state alive due to the family’s
respect. Through the principle of autonomy, the physician would believe that keeping a vegetative patient alive is the best for that individual’s life. However, most patients in this state don’t ever wake up or live a normal life. Proving that in some cases autonomy could lead to conflict in medical practices. Another example of how beneficence conflict in medical practices can be seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic in some states in the USA, Bioethicists formed a COVID-19 relief plan which consisted of triage recommendations on who should be prioritized for treatment in the hospitals. During this time in the United States, treatments such as ventilators and other life-saving medication were declared to be at a shortage nationwide. Thus, these triage recommendations suggested that patients who were most likely to survive should be given top priority. Thus, people with disabilities, of any form intellectual or physical, such as individuals’ using wheelchairs, were turned away from hospitals. The above example shows how the bioethicist, and the physicians fostered the interests of the physically abled or the patient with the better odds, but by doing so discriminated against the vulnerable, minority group. This group is equally as important as the majority group and this differential treatment, though in the benefit of the majority, goes against all principles on how medicine does not discriminate against people with differences, and everyone deserves medical care.
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