Introduction
Moral status determines who is capable of making moral judgements. Meaning, it gives power or authority to certain individuals to make decisions of right versus wrong. Morality itself can be defined as an individual’s ethics. One particular situation, outlining morality is seen through the eyes of Jessica and her husband Marco. Recently this couple found out that the unborn child Jessica was pregnant with will have Down syndrome. With the child facing a decreased quality of life, this couple struggles between making the moral decision of carrying on with the pregnancy. This paper will outline moral status theories, the influences these theories have, our personal agreement, and the theoretical influence these theories have on
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Finally, this theory also explains the role that God plays in influencing Jessica’s decision.
How does the theory determine or influence each of their recommendation for action? The theory of human properties clearly influences each individual, as humans automatically have an opinion in any circumstance that develops based on ones worldview.
The unborn child is equally Jessica and Marco’s child, which means they are the caretakers who are responsible for the child. Dr. Wilson has to make the decision to tell Jessica all of her options so that she is aware. The theory of moral agency influences Jessica and Aunt Maria as Jessica is feeling torn between her personal belief that all life is valued and her desire to better to socioeconomic status. However, Aunt Maria is very against aborting the child and urges her to take responsibility because it is moral. Dr. Wilson sides more with the scientific alternatives because the quality of life would be greatly reduced. Marco chooses to support Jessica in either situation that she decides is best. Ultimately this theory influences Jessica the most because she in the end will be the only one to make the decision to carry on with the pregnancy or not. The theory of relationships plays the large role in the dynamic of these four characters. While Marco urges Dr. Wilson to not tell Jessica right away, he must fulfil his duty as a doctor to Jessica.
How do you determine who has a higher moral status. What properties should you base your criteria on? We will isolate and divulge on the significant properties that present guidelines on how to address the moral rights of vulnerable groups. Some examples are human embryos, fetus, research test animals, adults in mentally compromised state. There are five theories suggested by
Maria is very clearly using the theories based on moral agency and relationships. She is urges Jessica to put trust in her relationship with God and go through with the pregnancy, based on the idea that God has a plan for her family. It is clear that Maria does not believe in abortion, which conforms the theory related to moral agency, as she believes the best decision would be to avoid the abortion.
In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World, John (referred to as “the savage”) is the voice of freedom in a society ruled by an inexorable pursuit of superficial happiness. In the dystopian setting, the world controllers maintain public satisfaction “but at a very high price—the sacrifice of freedom, individuality, truth, beauty, a sense of purpose, and the concept of God” (Neilson). John’s unorthodox beliefs about monogamy, God, drugs, and freedom clash with that of the overwhelming majority of people in the totalitarian London utopia. This barrier is rooted in John’s natural moral development as opposed to the artificial conditioning of the rest of society and it leads to John’s complete isolation from the people of London.
When working in a health or social care setting professional practitioners are very often with situations involving moral dilemmas. Therefore it is important for the health, care and social workers to understand morality and the meaning of moral decisions and how they are linked to the practice of heath and social care.
Libertarians support the view that people have free will and so we are free to make moral decisions. For a Libertarian, the key evidence for this is the act of decision making in our daily lives. Hume states that “experience is what we see to be true”, each human being experiences the feeling of being free to make a decision. If experiencing any other action constitutes it to be true, then why not the same for free will? Libertarians argue that we have awareness of the choices we make; we can choose to do anything that we are capable of. Though we are influenced by our environment and experiences, ultimately we can make our own decisions, nothing is
The theory that I find true to the true nature of moral responsibility and its relation to human freedom and determinism would be compatibilism. Compatibilism is the claim that we are both determined and that we have moral responsibility (Lawhead 120).
All individuals possess their set of values, principles, and integrities they have progressed over time, and they have all shaped their experiences and associations in life. The ensuing paper classifies and discusses various worldview models that individuals such as Aunt Maria, Doctor Wilson, Jessica, and Marco identify with and employ, which influences their moral recommendation and perception of the status of the fetus in "Fetal Abnormality," a case study from Grand Canyon University. In evaluating the case study, the essay explores and describes the most appropriate theories and their impact on resolution. Additionally, the paper offers the author 's recommendation on the issue.
Jessica is torn between her desire to be financially independent and her belief that all life has value. Her belief is what Sebo (n.d.) describes as moral status based on
This view is very broad when covering the human personality, and had huge followings at times. Many psychologists agree that we are influenced by instinct and
A woman called Susan who find out that her unborn baby was Down Syndrome was unsure if to keep her baby is moral to do or not. The main purpose of this essay is to analyze ethical thinking and determine how the Christian worldviews relates to the situation compared to my personal worldviews. Ethical Dilemma After Susan, has try to have a baby for a long time, at last she gets pregnant. During the regular checkup for blood work and the result confirmed positive for down syndrome.
A person’s character can have a lot of influences in weather or not they can maintain their morals. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the town of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony is taken over by witch trials. They are started by young girls who accuse people of being witches in order to avoid getting into trouble for having been caught dancing naked in the woods. Reverend Hale, who is considered an expert in witches, is called in to assist the courts with the trials and give his opinion on the severity of the situation. At first he believes these cases are true, however he changes his opinion when the credibility of the accusers come into question, and he also denounces the courts proceedings. Various townspeople believe that
The link between morality and human nature has been a progressive reoccurring theme since ancient times (Prinz, 2008). Moral development is a characteristic of a person’s general development that transpires over the course of a lifetime. Moral development is derived by a wide variety of cultural and demographic factors that appear to influence morally relevant actions. Turiel (2006) defined morality as an individuals “prescriptive judgments of justice, rights, and welfare pertaining to how people ought to relate to each other.” Individuals’ moral judgments are frequently considered to be a product of culturally specific controls that provide a framework for behavioral motivations that are sensitive to the effects of gender, education, religion and politics (Banerjee, Huebner & Hauser, 2010). While several approaches have been utilized to examine the interaction of multivariate contributors to fundamental moral differences such as: disputes about family life, sexuality, social fairness, and so on, research has suggested that ideological considerations have provided a potent and diverse explanation for the polarization of contrasting views (Weber & Federico, 2013).
At eighteenth century, the cost of increasing development of capitalism is anomie: people chasing material life insanely even sacrifice others’ benefits. Because of this, Adam Smith, a successful philosopher and economist, released that the original morality principle was not suitable for that society anymore, and it needed to build another new theory system to suit the developing society. He wrote two masterpieces that proposed his ideas: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which discusses the human development by analysing the human emotion, and The Wealth of Nations, which summarises the development of capitalism and it is also a foundation for today’s economy. This essay will analyse the self-interest, plays as a motivator role in morality and economy field, and benefits the development in that society. Moreover, will suggest some limitations of Smith’s idea.
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were based on a moral philosopher by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg. His main interest was to observe children during growth to develop and conclude which stages they best fit into. After observing both adults and children, he concluded that, “Human beings progress consecutively from one stage to the next in an invariant sequence” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”). All of the 6 stages he created, represent the morality in which a child or adult can be at; he created an age zone for each stage. There are a total of 6 stages but each main concept consists of 3 levels. Level 1 is the preconventional stage. This stage focuses on punishment/obedience and how the person decides to act due to the
The second level of moral development is the conventional moral reasoning; “Beginning in middle school, up to middle age – most people end up here” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.”). At this level,