Wk 3 forum

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Philosophy

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Apr 3, 2024

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Uploaded by Wendigo54

The Terri Schiavo case is a great tool to use for Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. After reading the timeline, it brought back a lot of memories about this ordeal in the news. With so many players in this game, Robert and Mary Schindler, and Michael Schiavo are the players we are going to examine closely. However, I will add a few others to the end of the forum, considering their moral decisions in this ordeal. The moral stages in this situation could be either in stages 3,4, 5, or 6. This is where some definitions of the stages will help decide the final moral stage the parents and husband are at. Stage 3 is defined as living up to what the community and the family expects of them, living with good motives and interpersonal feelings (Crain, 2010, p. 161). Stage 4 is defined as keeping up with the status quo of social order, where an individual is about obeying laws, authority and doing one’s social duties (Crain, 2010, p. 162). Stage 5, considers a view that everyone should consider individual rights and settle disputes through a chain of processes (Crain, 2010, p. 163). Finally, stage 6 is defined as how to define the justice needed to settle the disputes in a chain of processes, or democratic process (Crain, 2010, p. 164). Now that there are basic definitions describing how each moral stage is viewed. Now we can look at which moral stage the parents are using, and if they change stages any. The parents and their son-in-law, at an early point in Terri’s situation, were living together. After Terri’s husband received permission to be her guardian, a falling out happened. At this point Michael (Terri’s husband) and parents decided to live separately. This is not a moral decision, just a point, before moral decisions start to be made. After the separate living conditions are made, the Schindler’s and Michael wanted to do what was what they thought were the best interest for Terri. This is where moral decisions started to be made.
The parents believed Terri wanted to live, while Michael stated that Terri would want to have the PEG removed, allowing her to die. Since the parents raised Terri, they thought that she would want to live, because of the belief they had, should resonate into the beliefs Terri would have. On the other hand, Michael, had stated, from conversations with Terri before her ordeal started, she would want to end her life, if she could not have a full life ahead of her. Therefore, the parents and Michael were at different moral stages in their decision making. The moral stages the parents and Michael were at, during the battle of Terri’s life, was a long legal struggle for all of them. For the parents, they were at Kohlberg’s moral stage of five. The reasoning behind this, is how stage five is more than a right to live, but individual rights, and to take out the PEG tube is to kill Terri, which is murder in their eyes. Michael, is working between two stages of Kohlberg’s moral stages. He is in the third and fourth stages of moral development. He did not want Terri to be a burden towards society, and that he had her best interests at heart. Furthermore, he has already asked the courts to provide an answer, to whether he can remover the tube, or not. The legal standing, or what is accepted in society. As I mentioned before, there were some other players in this ordeal. I will go over just one other player (actually, politicians) who entered into the ordeal. There were a few of them who believed that Terri’s life should not be ended. Therefore, new laws were voted into existence, and all legal remedies were used by both parties in the dispute. The politicians were using stages five and six, in Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. The politicians wanted justice for Terri. Therefore, they created new laws, a way to provide justice, because the current laws were going to allow Michael to kill his wife, because she was not going to have any quality of life, but she was able to breath and sustain life, except she could not feed herself. Furthermore, stage five is present, because the politicians believed there is a social contract that they must
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