ETHICAL THEORIES

Health ethics  applied ethics  moral problems  deliberate actions  Moral decisions
 defensible and justifiable

What is the norm of morality by which to settle whether one’s decision are licit or not,
legitimate or nor legitimate, proper or not proper, suitable or not suitable?

Deliberate means intended actions

THEORY 1: DUTY ETHICS

 Attributed to Immanuel Kant (a German thinker)
 Stresses duty as the norm of moral decisions
 What makes an act moral as distinguished from a nonmoral one?
 What is the difference between a person who acts morally and one who does not?
 One acts morally if and only if one does whatever one is obliged to do.
 It is being done out of duty, as distinguished from other acts done for other reasons.
 Duty is that which an individual ought to do despite the inclination to do otherwise
 Doing one's duty then is doing what one is obliged to do.
 An act done in accord with duty vs. an act done from a sense of duty.
 i.e. A health care professional who performs his medical function out of desire to do
so, or out of fear of being accused of negligence (an act in accord with duty - No
moral justification) – non moral significance. No moral justification
 i.e. A health care professional recognizes that there is a special obligation to their
patients because of their relationships with them (an act done from a sense of duty).
 The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by the motive from which it is
being carried out, regardless of the consequences which doing or not doing so will
produce.
 Determination of one’s duty in a particular situation is through universalizability.
 Categorical imperative:
“Act only on that maxim which you can at the same will to become a universal code
of behavior.”
 i.e. maxim: “everybody should steal.”

TWO TYPES OF DUTY

1. Perfect Duty is one which we must always observe, irrespective of time and place.
- nurse and doctors – taking care of patients (do what is required to do)
2. Imperfect Duty is one which we must observe only on some occasions.
- example: love and compassion ( based on your own choice on how to treat others )

MORAL PRINCIPLE OF DUTY ETHICS

1. Treating others as ends
Always act so as to treat humanity, either yourself or others, as an end and never as only a
means.”
2. Autonomous and self-regulating will (capacity of an individual to be independent, self-
reliant or make moral decisions by themselves)
3. Basis of human dignity

THEORY 1: DUTY ETHICS (In Medical Context)

 It is always wrong to lie no matter what the sequences may be
  We must always treat people (including ourselves) are ends and not only as means
 We also have a duty to treat ourselves as ends to preserve our dignity and worth as
human beings (of course, our good health included)
 It would be against Kant’s ethical principle for us to volunteer to undergo a risky
experiment that threatens our lives without first knowing the nature, safety or
legitimacy of the experiment
 Kant’s distinction between perfect and imperfect duty suggests that some rights
should be recognized
Suicide – mortal violation, its go against safety
THEORY 1: DUTY ETHICS (Difficulties)
 1. Kant’s principles have no clear way of resolving cases of conflicting duties.
 A. I promise to keep a secret but someone else asks me about the thing I am supposed
to keep a secret. There are now 2 conflicting duties my duty to keep the secret and my
duty not to lie, or my duty to tell the truth.
 B. A maniac attack with a handgun looking for a relative of his in order to kill him.
His relative happens to be in our house. Should I tell him the truth?
 2. Kant’s ethics presents another difficulty in connection with the notion that we have
a duty to treat others as rational beings or persons.
 Moral problems: In a fetus that is developing in its mother’s womb (be it deformed or
not) considered a person?
 Is an infant born with serious physical deformities a rational being?
 3. Kant’s concept of a rational person is the basis of what he calls an autonomous and
self-regulating will.
 Does a newborn baby or a mentally retarded individual, have a such a will?
 What about an insane person?
 Without such a will, then, the individual cannot legitimately consent to being the
subject of medical research and experimentation.
*The norm of morality is duty.
*The basis of morally right or wrong is the motive.
*The purpose of Ethical Theory is to guide us and make our moral decision justifiable and
defensible.