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How Did Pellegrino And Macklin Challenge The Theory Of Ethical Relativism

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Ethical relativism proposes that there are no universal principles of morality; rather, moral principles are unique to and determined by a society’s culture. Both Pellegrino and Macklin challenge the theory of ethical relativism in their own respective papers by arguing that there are universal moral principles in healthcare. I concur with Pellegrino and Macklin’s assessment of ethical relativism, as I have two arguments against the applicability of ethical relativism in healthcare: First, like both Pellegrino and Macklin, I acknowledge that there are universal principles of morality in medicine. Second, I find fault with the premise of the theory of ethical relativism. When exploring ethics in healthcare across the world, Macklin examined …show more content…

Macklin further highlighted universal values that are integral to the practice of medicine, such as respect and trust between the healthcare workers and patients. Similarly, Pellegrino, while examining autonomy in our healthcare system, stipulates that there are universal moral principles foundational to medicine across the world such as beneficence, justice, and respect for autonomy. Regardless of a society’s culture, the relationship between the public and healthcare workers must be founded on the principles of trust and respect. Patients must respect and believe that healthcare providers have the knowledge and capability to be entrusted with their health, and as well believe they have their best interests in mind. Healthcare workers in turn must act with dignity and respect the rights of patients. Without these principles, the public would not trust the healthcare system with their health. These fundamentals are universally present in the practice of medicine, therefore, I agree that these are considered universal moral

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These other values include the survival of the community and/or the well-being of the individual, the ability to understand the full impact of the truth, and restoring a patient’s autonomy. Despite trumping the value of truth, the previous values are only temporary and should be played only under certain conditions. Thomasma writes that because the goal of healthcare is to provide help for an illness and causing no

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Healthcare ethics involves making well researched and considerate decisions about medical treatments, while taking into consideration a patient's beliefs and wishes regarding all aspects of their health. The healthcare industry has regard for the issues surrounding the welfare of their patients. Doctors, nurses, and other professionals who have the ability to affect a patient's health are all forced to make ethical decisions on a daily basis. I believe the result of ability to pay versus quality of care comes into ethical question in today’s society.

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(Cowey, 2012). By focussing on the four main principles, I will discuss autonomy, the right for the individual to make their own decisions regarding their health care treatment, which in this case will also involve a close connection with immediate family

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Ethical decision-making in healthcare: Balancing beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice in clinical practice. Journal of Medical Ethics - "The Journal of Medical Ethics" Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36688269/ Zolkefli, Y. (2020) - The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Healthcare ethics and principles in critical care settings: A framework for ethical decision-making. BMC Medical Ethics -. Retrieved from

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By design, healthcare is a continuously evolving industry. The rapid changes make it difficult to see when things go wrong. Whether the issues are obvious or complicated, it is easier to address when medical ethics is in place. Medical ethics can be defined as standards of conduct for a healthcare professional to carry out responsibilities with honesty, competence, respects, integrity, and trust. These moral guidelines can be interpreted by the American Medical Association (AMA) through the Principles of Medical Ethics, the Code of Ethics, and the “Declaration of Professional Responsibility: Medicine’s Social Contract with Humanity”.

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With experiencing a different upbringing, people across cultures tend to have contrasting views when it comes to morality. James Rachel’s is a philosopher who wrote an article on Ethical relativism and defined the term as, “The doctrine that there are no absolute truths in ethics and that what is morally right or wrong varies from person to person or from society to society” (Rachels, 2). Ethical relativism deals with three main concerns when evaluating a certain situation, the individual, the society in which they live in, and the historical time period. However, shouldn’t the whole general idea about ethics be a critical attempt towards finding reasonable, similar grounds of moral beliefs regardless of what cultural background someone is from? In the textbook The Moral of the Story, Anthropologist Ruth Benedict, declared that, “Cultures around the world should not be judged and that moral standards are not universal” (The Moral of the Story, 123).

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To cultural relativists certain actions are wrong because society does not view them as being morally acceptable, or are correct because they fall into society’s ideal. The subjectivist believes that moral acceptability relies entirely on whether the individual approves of an action and carries it out. Both of these views of relativism are inconsistent with ethical objectivism because they believe

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Any estimation on ethics and morality is subject to the cultural viewpoint of each person. Finally, this means that any moral or ethical system cannot be considered actual right and wrong. There are four consequences of moral relativism. Firstly, Cross-Cultural judgment as meaningless. It simply means that we cannot say Buddhism cultural is wrong or Christian cultural is wrong, we cannot even say that slavery was bad around hundred years ago it’s was just acceptable at that time.

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”(p.19) This shows that in the study of ethics, the study of moral relativism to be more specific, the idea of universal truth does not exist. That is to say what is perceived as “good” or “right” can vary form culture to culture, so there is no way to have one universal truth. Two major examples of cultural differences that are often cited in Support

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The four core ethical principles that are called into question in the movie “Miss Evers’ Boys” are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Autonomy refers to the right of the patient to function independently and the ability to self-direct. This means that patients are entitled to decide what will happen to them, and if deemed competent, they have the right to either consent to or refuse treatment. All nurses and healthcare personal would be required to respect the patient’s wishes, even if they do not agree with them. Beneficence is the core principle that refers to the act of ‘doing good’ and advocating for the patient.

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Ethical Complexity of Distribute Justice and Rationing Medicine is a practice based on moral standards applied to clinical values and judgments, also known as medical ethics. Ethical values consists of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice. However, these ethical principles are affected when distributive justice and rationing of health care resources are implemented “…in a world in which need is boundless but resources are not…” (Scheunemann & White, 2011, p. 1630). The historic Hippocratic Oath described the four main principles of medical practice and established a moral conduct for clinicians. Beneficence demands that health care providers develop and maintain skills and knowledge, consider individual circumstances of all patients, and strive for the patient’s benefit.

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This topic was chosen because medical ethics is a complex topic. It gets complicated when other peoples’ wellbeing are on the line, based off your own decisions. Medical ethics involves much consideration because many choices in the medical field cannot be taken back, so the physician only has one shot to get it

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The principles of medical ethics are as follows: autonomy, beneficence, confidentiality, non-maleficence, equality, and fairness (Missinglink, n.d.). Autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence are the focus of this case study investigation. Autonomy is the right of competent adults to make informed decisions about their medical treatments. Patients have the right to choose or refuse medical treatments and must provide consent for the treatments performed. Physicians are to respect the patient’s desires and respect their decisions (MissingLink, n.d.).

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The practice of health care includes many scenarios that have to do with making adequate decisions when it comes to a patient’s life, and the way they are treated. Having an ethical code in all health care organizations is very important, because it helps health care workers with reaching a suited and ethical decision when it comes to the patient. In health care, patient will always be put first, and their autonomy will always be respected. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where a patient might be in harm, or might be making their condition worse because of the decisions they made. Health care workers will always be there to

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Cultural relativism has a variety of definitions, but the main idea is that a universal code of ethics does not exist--it varies culture to culture. Rachel’s examines cultural relativism in “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism” and argues that there are commonalities of ethics throughout every culture. Rachels sections off his argument to better explain what they believe. In this piece, they argue that cultural relativism is not a proper theory. They argue that it has many major flaws, but they acknowledge that parts of theory have some truth to it.

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