Anne And Mark: The Five Ethical Theories Of Doctors

Anne is the only child of a family and is 12-years-old. She has a heart condition and needs a transplant immediately. Mark, a 48-year-old father of four, works as an executive to support his wife and children. He too has a heart condition and needs a transplant as well. When a heart becomes available an important decision will need to be made, and a team of doctors will be asked to decide which of the two patients will receive the heart. After much discussion, they choose Anne. There are five ethical theories that help doctors make difficult decisions like this one, which is what this essay will be exploring. The theory of utilitarianism attempts to do the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. It is concerned with the final

Looking at the numbers, Anne’s family is made up of three people, while Mark’s family is made up of five people. Giving Mark the heart would be more beneficial for the greatest number of people because his family is larger. Mark also makes an income to support his family, and without this, the family would suffer greatly. Anne does not contribute to her family’s income, so losing her would not affect the family’s financial status. Finally, losing Mark would be detrimental to the company that he works for because he is an executive. He makes many of the decisions for the business and understands how the company functions productively. Without him, the company would lose a significant part of helps them stay in business. Anne, on the other hand, does not contribute anything to a major company. Although Anne’s community would be upset that she did not receive the heart, I think that losing Mark as a father, husband, and worker would have a greater impact on society. Mark is the obvious choice from the utilitarianism perspective because he has the greatest affect on the most amounts of

The need to let both patients and their families know that a donor heart has become available, but there are two patients who both need it. The physicians should simply leave it at this description because anything else would be a violation of privacy. The physicians on this case need to let the families know that it is a difficult decision to make, but there is not much time because the heart needs to be put to use quickly. The doctors are allowing each patient and their family to make a choice, which is exercising their right to free choice. The physicians need to tell the families their professional opinions as well in order to make the families feel more comfortable when making their decision. They tell Mark and his family that his age might have an affect on whether or not his body will accept or reject the heart, and they let him know that the other patient is younger and has a better chance of accepting the heart. They let Anne and her family know that she has the best chance of accepting the heart, and the highly recommend that she gets this organ. The physicians think it is best to choose the younger patient and so does Mark. He decides to make a sacrifice because he knows that it is the right thing to do. Based on the physicians’ professional opinion, he came to the decision that he can wait for the next heart and let the younger