ethics 104 short answer 1
Consider the following imaginary case.
In a certain clinic, there are five patients in urgent needs of organ transplants. All five patients are middle age people, who are significant contributors to the society (we can assume that they are a well-known physicist, an important military officer, neuroscientist, a great politician, and a social reformer.) One day a new patient comes to this clinic, a middle age janitor, with very advanced brain cancer.
The janitor does not have a chances to recover from his brain cancer. He does not have any family, and he is a volunteer organ donor. His organs would save lives of the five other people. But the janitor wishes to live as long as he can. The doctor (who is the owner of this clinic) estimates that the janitor will live for another six months. Unfortunately, none of the five other men is able to wait for the organ transplant that long. If this situation is left to its natural order, all six people will be dead in six months.
By the virtue of his profession, the doctor is committed to saving human lives (and not to terminating human lives). By his rational judgement, the doctor thinks he should try to do what will bring the best possible outcome; it seems the right thing to do is to save as many (significant) people as possible.
What should the doctor do?
- Should he let all the six people die out of their natural causes? Or,
- Should he arrange an urgent surgery for the janitor, and conduct it in the way the janitor dies during the medical procedure (the doctor would be the only one who knows what really happened)? This way he can use the janitorâ€
s organs to save the other five men.
YOUR WORK
-Please choose either (A) or (B) and provide reasons for your moral decision.
-Please justify your moral decision referring to the moral theories you have studied.
-Your work should be double-spaced, about 250-300 words.
-You may present your view in a bullet point format, or in the ordinary paragraph writing
(3-4 paragraphs).
-Please write straight to the point, there is no need for introduction.
REQUIRED READING
The Fundamentals of Ethics, Russ Shafer-Landau, Oxford University Press.
ISBN# 978-0-19-999723-7
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