QUESTIONS AND DETAILED SOLUTIONS
◉ How do we approach healthcare ethics philosophically?. Answer: -
We are all natural philosophers: it is a profoundly human and
humanizing endeavor
◉ philosophy. Answer: "the love of wisdom"
- wisdom = holistic understanding aiming at living well
- merely thought that has been thought out
◉ key philosophical activities. Answer: (1) contemplation
(reflectively attending to reality/ the world around us)
(2) analysis (breaking things down in order better to understand them,
seeking conceptual clarity; Socrates: what do you mean by X?)
(3) synthesis (putting things together, seeing the "big picture," and
trying to achieve an integrated worldview/ wholeness/ wisdom);
(4) argument/reasoning (aimed at establishing the truth).
◉ What do philosophy and health care have in common?. Answer: (1)
Both involve confronting ultimate questions
+ Confronting big questions in reflective manner in way delivered
care
(2) Both aim at wholeness
+ wisdom: holistic understanding
+ therapy: heal the soul
, + medicine: healing of the body yet need to understand holistic being
when delivering care
(3) Both can be regarded as a spiritual exercise / way of life
+ become more whole persons, growth, development
◉ Ignatian values highlighted by the college of nursing. Answer: -
Men and Women for and with Others
- Faith that does justice
- Cura personalis (care for the whole person)
- Finding God in all things
◉ principlism. Answer: - belief system based on a set of moral
principles that are embedded in a common morality
- the major theory in bioethics, first articulated in 1977
- presented by Thomas Beauchamp (Georgetown) and James
Childress (University of Virginia) in "Principles of Biomedical
Ethics"
◉ Beauchamp and Childress' principlistic approach to bioethics.
Answer: - ethical dilemmas involve clashes between 4 prima facie
principles:
+ respect for autonomy
+ nonmaleficence
+ beneficence
+ justice
◉ prima facie principles. Answer: - apply unless overridden by other
principles
- "primary, on its face"