Chapter 1
Theory of Health Care Ethics
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Why Study Ethics?
Because health care is changing, you need tools for making necessary and difficult decisions.
It will help you better understand patients, fellow professionals, and the system in general.
It will assist you in building and maintaining your career.
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Types of Ethics
Normative ethics Is the study of what is right and wrong.
Metaethics Is the study of ethical concepts and theories.
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Types of Normative Ethical Theories
Authority-based Egoistic Natural law Deontological Teleological Virtue
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Ethical Relativism
Ethical relativism purports that there is no absolute theory for ethics.
However, this lack of a complete theory does not mean everything is relative.
People need to make rational decisions about ethics-based issues.
Therefore, ethics theories are useful.
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Egoism as Ethics Theory
Egoism is based on the idea that ones self interest is the basis his or her ethics decisions.
Theory is not helpful in health care ethics because professionals are taught to set aside self-interest.
The interests of the patient should come first.
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Authority-based Ethics Theory
Decisions about ethics (right or wrong) are based on central authority such as in a theology or an ideology.
For health care ethics, there may difficulty deciding which authority is the correct one.
However, knowing this view of ethics helps with understanding patients and health policy decisions.The students will complete a Case study tasks that contribute the opportunity to produce and apply the thoughts learned in this and previous coursework to examine a real-world scenario. This scenario will illustrate through example the practical importance and implications of various roles.
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