Written Assignment for MODULE 13 ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES: SCARCITY AND TRIAGE
Choose only one of the three options below-only one!!!
Option 1: CASE: Lifestyle factors and wealth in the decision in allocating life saving resources, such as a transplant
From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 798, Decision Scenario #7
“Your baby’s liver is not fully developed,” Dr. Robert Amatin said, “The bile duct is missing, and blood can’t flow through the liver the way it’s supposed to.”
Clarissa Austin nodded to show she understood something wrong with her child. She had already made up her mind to do what ever she had to do to see to it that her baby was all right.
“That means the live can’t do it’s job and that the blood is backing up,” Dr. Amatin went on. “Surgery really can’t correct a problem like this.
“Can you give him a new liver?”
Dr. Amatin avoided answering the question directly. “A transplant is his best hope,” he said. “If we can surgically remove the malformed liver and attach a new one, the baby has a very good chance of living.”
“I’ll be happy to give my permission, if that’s what you’re waiting for,” Clarrisa said.
“It’s not that simple,” Dr. Amatin said. He looked uncomfortable. “It really comes down to a matter of money.”
“I don’t have much money,” Clarissa said. “You know I’m on Medicaid, and I don’t have any insurance.”
“I Medicaid will pay for the surgery, but not for any organ, and that’s the only way we can get one.”
“How much does a liver cost?”
“I’ve got a family right now that says it wants $15,000 for the liver of their baby. She died this morning.”
“I can’t get money like that,” Clarissa said.
“I can ask them to come up and talk to you. Maybe they would take less, or maybe you cold work out some kind of deferred payment with them.”
“What if I can’t?”
Dr. Amatin shook his head. “I can’t arrange for a transplant without an organ that size, and I suspect they will try to find somebody else to sell it to.”
“That don’t seem fair,” Clarissa said. “Just because I haven’t got the money, my baby is going to die.”
Should wealth and income be invovled in the allocation of scarce life saving medical resources? Defend your position using ETHICAL principles. Using the DIALECTICAL PROCESS state what your ethical position would be and why. You are to take a position and defend it. You should use some ethical principle to decide what you think is the morally correct thing to do. You must state those principles and explain how they have been applied to the situation. You should indicate that you have rejected alternative positions to your own and the reasons why you have done so. In so doing you need to enunciate clearly the values and ethical principle(s) you are using to both reject the alternative positions and to defend or support your own. The ethical principles were presented in Module/Chapter 2 and include Egoism, Utility, Natural Law, Categorical Imperative, Maxi-Min Principle, Existentialism, Feminism. Refer to one or more of these as ethical principles when answering assignments. Do not use the Moral Principles of Health Care as Ethical Principles. The Moral Principles involved in Health Care include: Autonomy, Informed Consent, Truth Telling, Confidentiality, Privacy. These are NOT the basic ethical principles such as include Egoism, Utility, Natural Law, Categorical Imperative, Maxi-Min Principle, Existentialism, Feminism. The moral principles are popular and recognized in several ways in health care including in “codes” and in statements of “rights” because there are so many of the Basic Ethical Principles that support the moral judgment that these MORAL Principles of Health Care are a MORALLY GOOD THING.
Use this template or form to make certain that you include each part of the process-parts a to e
Label your parts with the letters a to e to make very clear that you have done each part.
Dialectical thinking: the 5 parts
a. Take a position on this question or issue Be as exact as you can be. Be precise in your use of language (ethical principles and values).
b. Provide the reasons why you think this position is better defended by reason and evidence than are the alternative positions Position defended using reasoning (ethical principles and values) in support of the judgment (conclusion of the argument). You state the reasons why the position you take makes sense and has evidence and reasons (ethical principles and values) to support it other than your feelings or personal preference or your opinion or what you were brought up to believe or what just about everyone you know thinks or believes. Philosophers have offered such reasons (ethical principles and values). and evidence for the positions they have taken and you should consider them and if you agree you can and should so state them in support of your own position.
c. State the reasons why you found the other positions that use other (ethical principles and values). flawed or less defensible than the one you are defending
d. State the criticisms of your position from those who use other (ethical principles and values).
e. Respond to those criticisms from those using other (ethical principles and values).-a rebuttal- how do you defend your position in light of those criticisms?
______________________VIDEO on Dialectical Process http://www.youtube.com/user/PhilipPecorino#play/uploads/21/zziTWJPbYyU
