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Essay / Exploring Ethical Theories
Consequentialism is an ethical theory based on whether a decision made or an act performed is judged good or bad based on the positive end result. Utilitarianism and hedonism are types of consequentialism. Utilitarianism is best for the common good. For example, what if a particular act is more beneficial to the masses than to a single individual. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay There are two types of utilitarianism, act and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism implies that each individual act must be carefully considered. For example, if a decision must be made, the consequences must be evaluated and the chosen option has maximum benefit. However, rule utilitarianism evaluates the consequences of adopting a certain set of rules, such as "Don't kill" or "Don't lie." The question of whether an act is right or wrong generally rests on these rules (Fletcher et al., 1995. Cited in Hendrick). Hedonism is each person's personal quest to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Bentham and Mill are described as hedonistic utilitarians because they defined utility in terms of pleasure and happiness. Mill and Bentham's ideas were widely respected because they reduced moral judgments and suffering, while increasing happiness. (Judith Hendrick, 2000). If the result of an action is positive in the long term, but if the path taken to arrive at the positive result had to endure some forms of dissatisfaction or emotional turmoil, then this can be seen. as justifiable, because the end result is positive. However, if the result was negative, the act would not be justifiable (Graham Rumbold, 1999). For example, if a person, who is the mother, father or close family member, receives a very invasive treatment, such as chemotherapy, used to treat cancer. During treatment, it would cause dissatisfaction and emotional turmoil, but the end result would or could be general well-being and happiness, because the patient would or could be cured. This would also be for the greater good of the family members of said patient, as well as the patient. There are also other scenarios to help understand consequentialism on a much larger scale. If a deceased person's organs were to be donated, that person might have suffered at some point before their death, but many people would have been given life again through their death because their organs allowed others to survive. This scenario can also go further. Consequentialism would examine who would benefit most from organ donations and what would have the greatest outcome, although consequentialism does not have a guaranteed outcome. The definition of ethics in the Oxford Dictionary is “The study of the nature of duty and obligation.” (Oxford University Press, 2019). Ethics is absolutist, in the sense that something is wrong or right despite the consequences. Immanuel Kant was well known and widely influential for his ethical views regarding the theory of deontology. The morality of an act does not justify actions being committed during the time necessary to achieve the end result of that particular act. According to (Thompson et al., 1994) referring to Kant “It is not the final result of an act that makes it right or wrong, but rather the moral intention of the agent” (Thompson et al. , 1994. Cited in Barter). If an act is to be done, it must be done within the framework of what is ultimately right. For example, an act motivated by emotions and contrary to a code of conductmoral, whether or not this act was performed for the common good, is an error. If an individual committed theft and stole food to feed the poor and hungry, he would be committing a mistake, regardless of the good consequences it would bring. Kant theorized that if a person wants to make a decision, they should be a model that everyone should be able to follow, regardless of circumstances, beliefs, or culture. It should be a model that can be applied universally and not one where exceptions are allowed depending on the situation. There are criticisms of deontology theory. Deontology is too absolutist (David Seedhouse, 1988) states that the right and wrong of this ethical theory is too firm and insensitive to people's moral judgments. Ethics states that it is wrong to lie in any context of a situation. There may be situations that arise in a health care setting that warrant telling a lie. This could be a case where a family was involved in a catastrophic car accident, resulting in the death of some family members. If one of the surviving family members asked how a loved one was doing after the accident and the loved one had died, the truth would cause serious distress to the surviving family member, prolonging the need for emergency care. . It would be in the survivor's best interest not to receive this information until they are in a more stable condition. There are no guidelines on how decisions should be made. A lie is told to protect a person. It also assumes that as a society, people all live by the same code of righteous moral conduct. In reality, people's lives and life experiences give rise to different judgments and, therefore, people make different decisions. An example of this could be the case of two patients needing a liver transplant, one being a chronic alcoholic and the other suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This could influence who would be first to receive the first available organ donation. However, under ethics rules, the first person on the organ transplant list must receive the organ, whereas in the NHS the donated organ is matched to the patient and the patient who would benefit most from the transplant. (British Liver Trust, 2018). Postmodern ethics is a set of rules that take into account the social environment of people, their environment, their psychological state and which demonstrate respect and acceptance of political opinions, religion, sexual orientation, of a person's ethnic origin and culture. Postmodernism also questions facts and theory is open to the idea that things can change. Postmodernism is not absolutist, there is no absolute truth. Although he accepts all beliefs, he also speaks out against the ruling regimes that certain religions may have. Premodernism was based on God and religion and what was morally right or wrong, according to the Bible. The modern one was based on scientific facts that had been researched and is a very biomedical model. The principle is based on ethics which includes: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. In healthcare, autonomy allows a patient to make a decision about their treatment without a healthcare professional influencing their decision-making. Even if the health professional always gives information and advice. According to modern theory, which is a biomedical model, the health professional would be presented with the diseases of a.