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Ethical and Legal Issues in Healthcare Essay

Decent Essays

Ethical and Legal Issues in Healthcare

AIU Online – HLTH320
Individual Project Unit 1

SCENERIO
I am a paramedic arriving at an emergency scene. A group of scouts have entered a cave that is now filling with water. They were led into the cave by a rather large scoutmaster. Unfortunately, while leading them out of the cave, the scoutmaster somehow managed to get stuck in a narrow opening with only his head and shoulders protruding out. With his upper torso stuck outside the cave, it appears the scoutmaster will survive, but all the boys below will drown if they cannot escape.
After I have checked all possible escape routes and have attempted to extricate the scoutmaster, it becomes clear that the …show more content…

Sadly with these circumstances, the scout leader would have to be sacrificed.
Duty-oriented reasoning is an actions consequence isn’t as important as the actual moral law behind the action. Just to give an example: a person must be honest only because it is morally the right thing to do, even if the truth has a bad outcome in the end. One shouldn’t lie because it’s their duty to be honest and not tell an untruth even if it would save a life. The reasoning behind duty oriented reasoning is the intention, and is based on universal principles that guide actions (Fremgen, 2009).
Consequence-oriented reasoning, or consequentialism, uses a cost/benefit analysis to benefit as many people as possible (Fremgen, 2009; Rosenstand, 2003). This is the part that was mentioned above in regards to having a greater significance than the actions taken. Or simply put: the consequences signify that the end results are justified by the means. So in this situation, it would be the lives of the troop are in a way more important that one person which would be the scout master. Morally, it is imperative to always help as many as possible. In this scenario, although its sad to have to sacrifice anyone, it would be neccessary on moral grounds to save the greatest number of individuals and let the least amount suffer.
Virtue-ethics reasoning is based on what a virtuous

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