Nel Noddings Ethical Dilemmas

If a surgeon’s terminally ill mother is certain to die on her birthday,and just as he leaves the hospital to see her, a patient comes in needing immediate surgery that will take several hours. Should the surgeon stay and miss the last few moments he could have with his mother, or should he go see his mother knowing he is probably the only surgeon skillful enough to handle such an operation? When facing such a moral situation Nel Noddings would advise the surgeon to go be with his mother, for she states that although one must try to expand their circle of people he or she cares for, a person must especially care for those that are closer such as family and friends. According to Nel Noddings, the center of moral ethics should be the feeling

Nel Noddings does state that people must try to expand their circle of care, for “the caring relation…[is] superior to other forms of relatedness. I feel the moral ‘I must’ when I recognize my response will either enhance or diminish my ethical ideal” (Noddings). In other words, caring is the superior form of relatedness; it brings a sense of obligation to people, because it makes them want to better themselves morally. This is the reason people must expand their circle of caring to as many new people they can. However, Noddings stresses the importance of who people are actually obligated to care for. Who people are obliged to care for, highly depends on the “reciprocity in caring” (Noddings). Family and close friends are people a person has already formed a strong reciprocal relationship of care with, thus making them the people one must care for. As mother and child, the surgeon and his mom have already built a strong reciprocal relationship of care over many years. Since there is already a strong, caring relationship with his mother, the surgeon is “obliged to summon the ‘I must’” (Noddings) by going to see her on her birthday in order to return the care his mother gave to him all his life. Also, to clarify, Noddings does not

Kant’s moral ethics revolves around the principle of universifiabillity. Nel Noddings would say this is Kant’s mistake, for she states, “The principle of universifiability seems to depend… on a concept of ‘sameness…’ moral puzzlement cannot be satisfied by the application of principles developed in situations of sameness” (Noddings). In this statement, Noddings argues that Kant bases moral decision on whether or not the decision can be applied to all people facing the same situation, but Kant disregards all crucial details leading up to a moral predicament. Kant’s mistake is that one universal law cannot apply to all problems. A moral issue that contains similarity or “sameness” (Noddings) when compared to previous issue like it does not mean it will have the same solution. Solution varies depending on the crucial details that Kant ignores. In this situation with the surgeon, Kant's argument against Noddings in this specific incident is reasonable, however Kant’s overall ethics are not reliable. One change in detail can alter the reality of what seems to be a more likely solution to the situation; if the patient had only a five percent chance of living, this detail, ignored by Kant, drastically changes what a surgeon in real life might