Competencies
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
Use ethical frameworks in decision-making
Analyze the impacts of a professional field’s code of ethics
Recommend ethical improvements to a solution
Overview
People often find themselves in situations where they need to make decisions or propose solutions that are well supported and based on established ethical principles. Throughout this course, you have selected a case study, looked at ethical frameworks and related principles, and considered a set of professional codes of ethics related to your selected case study. For this project, you will take that information and incorporate it into the two parts of this project, analyzing a case study, presenting the related facts, suggesting an equitable solution, and applying relevant ethical frameworks toward a final solution.
Directions
For your project, choose the following:
A case study (see below)
An ethical framework (see below)
A professional code of ethics (see below)
Use the same case study, ethical framework, and professional code of ethics you selected earlier in this course.
Specifically, you must address the following criteria:
Part One: Case Analysis (*SEE ATTACHED FILED FOR FIRST PARTS DRAFT*)
In this section, you will introduce the audience to the key problems and issues of the case. You will also analyze the ethical components of the case and determine the most ethically justifiable course of action from a set of solutions.
Describe the background of the case. In your description, make sure you include:
The summary of the case
The people and events behind the case
A citation of your chosen case study.
Explain the ethical issues of the case. In your explanation, make sure you include:
The key members
The significance of the case.
Determine the principles from your chosen ethical framework that apply to the case.
Explain how the ethical framework can be used to examine the ethical issues of the case.
Explain how your chosen professional code of ethics applies to your case.
Identify possible solutions to the case.
Describe the strengths and limitations of each solution you identified.
Recommend a solution from the ones you identified. Then, justify your recommendation as the most ethical solution.
Describe the ethical implications of your solution.
Part Two: Reflection (Your main objective to add)
In this section, you will reflect on your experience writing a case analysis. You will also discuss how your personal ethics may have influenced your solution to the case.
Describe your experience analyzing the case. In your description, make sure you include:
The difficult choices you had to make
Your moral intuition of the case
Discuss how your personal ethics helped to guide your conclusions. In your discussion, make sure you include:
Specific examples of ethical principles from the framework you used
How the solution may have been different if you had used a different ethical framework
Describe how the identified professional code of ethics aligns to your interests or values.
Explain the importance of this code of ethics in society.
Case Study:
I’m 80. I’ve had a good life—mostly pretty happy, though certainly with some ups and downs. My wife died seven years ago. My children are healthy and happy, busy with their kids, careers, friends. But I know they worry about me; they feel increasingly burdened with thoughts about how to care for me when I can no longer care for myself, which—let’s not kid our- selves—is coming all too soon. I live four states away from them, so either they will have to uproot me and move me close to them or I’ll have to go live in a nursing home. I don’t relish either option. This town has been my home for nearly my whole adult life, and I don’t fancy leaving. On the other hand, I do not want to live among strangers and be cared for by those who are paid minimum wage to wash urine-soaked sheets and force-feed pudding to old people.
I’m in decent health—for the moment. But things are slip- ping. I have prostate cancer, like just about every other man my age. It probably won’t kill me . . . but having to get up and pee four or five times a night, standing over the bowl for long minutes just hoping something will come out, this might do me in. My joints are stiff, so it doesn’t really feel good to walk. I’ve got bits and pieces of skin cancer here and there that need to be removed. These things are all “treatable,” or so they say (there are pills to take and procedures to have done). But it seems to me a waste of money. Why not pass my small savings on to my grandkids, to give them a jump on college tuition?
What I don’t understand is why people think that it is wrong for someone like me to just call it a day, throw in the towel. How can it be possible that I don’t have a “right” to end my own life, when I’m ready? (Apparently I don’t.)
I’m tired and I’m ready to be done with life. I’d so much rather just quietly die in my garage with the car running than eke out these last few compromised years. (Even better would be a quick shot or a small dose of powerful pills—but, alas, these are not at my disposal.)
If I do myself in, I will be called a “suicide.” My death will be added to the statistics: another “elder suicide.” How sad! (So many elderly people commit suicide—and with much greater rates of success, I must say, than any other demographic group—doesn’t this tell you something?) Why can’t this society just come up with a humane, acceptable plan for those of us ready to be finished? Why can’t we old folks go to city hall and pick up our End-of-Life Packet, with the financial and legal forms to put things into order for our children, with assistance on how to recycle all our unneeded furniture and clothes, and with a neat little pack of white pills: When ready, take all 10 pills at once, with plenty of water. Lie down quietly in a com- fortable place, close your eyes, and wait.
How can choosing my own end at my own time be consid- ered anything other than a most dignified final exit? (Anony- mous, June 2003)
Ethic Framework: Utilitarianism
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/calculating-consequences-the-utilitarian-approach/
Code of Ethics:
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/coe-view-only/
