Week 5 Project
Week 5 Project
Assignment
Due May 27 at 11:59 PM
Before beginning work on this assignment, please review the expanded grading rubric for specific instructions relating to content and formatting.
APPLICATION OF ETHICS TO LEGAL ISSUES
In each of the previous weeks, you had the opportunity to explore an ethical theory—consequential ethics, utilitarian ethics, deontological ethics, and nonconsequential ethics—in the context of a case scenario from your textbook. In this week, the focus will be on how those ethical paradigms apply to legal issues involving patient abuse.
Tasks:
Download and save the assignment template to your computer and update the file name to include your last name.
Review the assigned case in its entirety.
Address the questions posed in detail and with appropriate scholarly support.
To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Submission Details
By the due date assigned, submit your document to the Submissions Area.
MHA6060: Health Law
and Ethics
Week 5 Assignment
APPLICATION OF
ETHICS TO LEGAL ISSUES
Please review the following case:
The defendant
in State v. Cunningham, the owner, and administrator of a residential care
facility housed thirty to thirty-seven mentally ill, mentally retarded, and
senior residents. The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals conducted
various surveys at the defendant’s facility between October 1989 and May 1990.
All of the surveys except one resulted in a fifty-dollar daily fine assessed
against the defendant for violations of the regulations.
On
August 16, 1990, a grand jury filed an indictment charging the defendant with
several counts of wanton neglect of a resident in violation of the Iowa Code
section 726.7 (1989), which provides, “A person commits wanton neglect of a
resident of a healthcare facility when the person knowingly acts in a manner
likely to be injurious to the physical, mental, or moral welfare of a resident
of a healthcare facility. . . . Wanton neglect of a resident of a healthcare
facility is a serious misdemeanor.”
The
district court held that the defendant had knowledge of the dangerous
conditions that existed in the healthcare facility but willfully and
consciously refused to provide or to exercise adequate supervision to remedy or
attempt to remedy the dangerous conditions. The residents were exposed to
physical dangers and unhealthy and unsanitary physical conditions and were
grossly deprived of the much-needed medical care and personal attention.
The
conditions were likely to and did cause injury to the physical and mental
well-being of the facility’s residents. The defendant was found guilty on five
counts of wanton neglect. The district court sentenced the defendant to one
year in jail for each of the five counts, to run concurrently. The district
court suspended all but two days of the defendant’s sentence and ordered him to
pay $200 for each count, plus a surcharge and costs, and to perform community
service. A motion for a new trial was denied, and the defendant appealed.
The Iowa
Court of Appeals held that there was substantial evidence to support a finding
that the defendant was responsible for not properly maintaining the nursing
facility, which led to prosecution for wanton neglect of the facility’s
residents. The defendant was found guilty of knowingly acting in a manner
likely to be injurious to the physical or mental welfare of the facility’s
residents by creating, directing, or maintaining hazardous conditions and
unsafe practices.
The
facility was not properly maintained (for example, findings included broken
glass in patients’ rooms, excessive hot water in faucets, dried feces on public
bathroom walls and grab bars, insufficient towels and linens, cockroaches and
worms in the food preparation area, no soap available in the kitchen, and at
one point, only one bar of soap and one container of shampoo found in the
entire facility). Dietary facilities were unsanitary and inadequate to meet the
dietary needs of the residents. There were inadequate staffing patterns and
supervision in the facility, and improper dosages of medications were
administered to the residents.
The defendant
argued that he or she did not “create” the unsafe conditions at the facility.
The court of appeals disagreed. The statute does not require that the defendant
create the conditions at the facility to sustain a conviction. The defendant
was the administrator of the facility and responsible for the conditions that
existed.
Please address the following
questions drawing support from your course resources and credible scholarly
resources cited in APA format:
1. Analyze this case from the
perspective of the four ethical theories presented throughout the
course—consequential ethics, utilitarian ethics, deontological ethics, and
nonconsequential ethics.
2. Discuss how ethics and the law
are intertwined in this case.
3. Present your assessment of the
court’s finding and whether it was just.
References
Special Note
Special Instruction/Notes for the Project:
Research is required for each section (a minimum of/at least three different citations per section). Note that the rubric calls for explicit research. At least three separate academic citations/sources per section!
Please show where all bullet points start and end.
Please provide a well-defined conclusion. All submissions are to have a conclusion.
Please provide three pages explaining and answering the questions.
Please ensure no substantial (huge) spacing gaps between the individual paragraphs and references.
Please make sure that the individual references are in alphabetical order.
