info@snapandsolve.com
A 58-year-old has been diagnosed with an aggressive terminal cancer. The adult children of the patient meet...
QUESTION 1
A 58-year-old has been diagnosed with an aggressive terminal cancer. The adult children of the patient meet the attending doctor before the patient is informed and asks the doctor not to disclose the diagnosis to the patient. They argue that it is the family, not the individual, that carries such a burden and decides on care.
Using the DECA method, analyse what the doctor ought to do. In your analysis, evaluate the case through all three normative ethical theories, and address the tension between patient autonomy, the obligation of beneficence, and paternalism.
QUESTION 2
A provincial hospital has one functioning dialysis machine and four patients who need it: a 24-year-old unemployed mother of two; a 52-year-old surgeon; a 70-year-old pensioner; and a 35-year-old man whose kidney failure resulted from long-term untreated diabetes he was repeatedly advised to manage.
Critically discuss the problem of distributive justice this case represents. Identify and evaluate at least three criteria that could be used to allocate the machine (for example medical need, likelihood of benefit, social utility, ability to pay, first-come-first-served, or random selection), assessing each against deontological, teleological and virtue-ethical considerations. Also argue for the allocation principle you find the most defensible.
A 58-year-old has been diagnosed with an aggressive terminal cancer. The adult children of the patient meet the attending doctor before the patient is informed and asks the doctor not to disclose the diagnosis to the patient. They argue that it is the family, not the individual, that carries such a burden and decides on care.
Using the DECA method, analyse what the doctor ought to do. In your analysis, evaluate the case through all three normative ethical theories, and address the tension between patient autonomy, the obligation of beneficence, and paternalism.
QUESTION 2
A provincial hospital has one functioning dialysis machine and four patients who need it: a 24-year-old unemployed mother of two; a 52-year-old surgeon; a 70-year-old pensioner; and a 35-year-old man whose kidney failure resulted from long-term untreated diabetes he was repeatedly advised to manage.
Critically discuss the problem of distributive justice this case represents. Identify and evaluate at least three criteria that could be used to allocate the machine (for example medical need, likelihood of benefit, social utility, ability to pay, first-come-first-served, or random selection), assessing each against deontological, teleological and virtue-ethical considerations. Also argue for the allocation principle you find the most defensible.