Question

Subject is health care ethics

What are the current dominant principle-based ethical theories utilitarianism and deontology; their strengths and limitations? What do the ethics of care, virtue-based and feminist ethics offer us? Charles Curran in his paper says that “Catholic moral theology should be understood not only as determining whether acts are right or wrong but also with the need to bring about change so that what is right becomes present in our society and justice replaces injustice.” Please give an example that demonstrates his statement.

Answer 1

Answer :

Ethics involves a discipline that examines good or bad practices within the context of a moral duty .

Utilitarianism :

• Famous proponents : jeremy bentham , J.S mill.
• What makes something good or bad ,right or wrong ,is that it produces the greatest amount of pleasure of the greatest number of people .

Strengths :

• It is straightforward and based on the single principle of minimising pain and maximising pleasure and happiness.
• It relates to actions which can be observedin the real world .
• It consequentialism is also a strenth ,as she We act it is only natural to weigh up the consequences
• Utilitarianism acceptance of universal principle is essencial For any ethical system .
• The idea of promoting the well being of greatest number is also important .
• Preferance utilitarianism also gives the valuable principle of being an impartial observer.it is important to think about others interests or preferences as long as one also includes behaving justly.

Basic principles :

• Maximising positive outcomes For the largest number of people negative outcomes For lowest number of people .
• One should chose the action which will lead to the greatest happiness (i.e pleasure ,lack of pain )overall.
• One's own pleasure and pain only count as much as any other person's affected .
• Ex : assessing the effects of pollutant discharde from a factory on the immediate surrounding environment and those down stream or down wind from the factory .
• Two forms : act and rule

Limitations :

• Hard to Use in difgicult to quantify situations
• Does not include rights and justice .

2) deontology :

Basic assumptions :

• No matter how morally good their consequences ,some choices are morally forbidden .
• What makes a choice right is its conformity with normal norm.
• The right is said to have priority over the his .
• If an act is not in accord with the right ,it may not be undertaken ,no matter the good that it might produce .

Strengths :

• Motivation is valued over consequences ,which are beyond our control .
• An immoral motive cannot be justified by unforeseen good consequences but good motive is worthy of value .
• It is a humanitarean principle in which all men are considered to be of equal value and worthy of protection.
• Justice is an always absolute ,even if the majority of people do not benefit .
• It recognises the value of moral absolutes that do not change with time or culture .there must surely be some things which are beyond Dad or fashion .
• It provides objective guidelines For making moral decisions ,without the need For lengthy calculation of possible outcomes .

Limitations :

• Deontological theories are accused of being inflexible and are said to be deficient in their ability to guide kgs daily decisions .
• Kant's ethic is said to be lacking in content .
• However, kant did not set out to give specific answers in concrete situations but rather provide a framework within which decisions affecting concrete situations could be made.

Ethics of care ,also called care ethics ,feminist philosophical perspective that uses a relational and context bound approach toward morality and decision making ,since the impulse to care is universal ,caring ethics is freed from charge of moral relativism to the same degree as is virtue ethics .

Yes ,justice is replacing injustice .in present society is changing badly and people are forgetting moral values and doing wrong things and escaping easily from that with money and other things etc.