Moral Reasoning

&
Ethical Theories
 What is Ethics?
 The field of ethics, also called
moral philosophy, involves
systematizing, defending, and
recommending concepts of
right and wrong behavior.
 Greek Virtue Ethics
 Ethics comes from the Greek Ethos,
meaning “character” and Ethike
aretai, meaning “skills of character”

 They asked “what is a Good

Physician?”

 A Physician keeps people

alive…ergo…The Hippocratic Oath
which adopted a sanctity of life
worldview
 Morals, Ethics & Law
“What’s the Difference?”
 Morals : Personal Sense of Right
and Wrong

 Ethics: Professional/Social Sense

of Right and Wrong

 Law: When wrong actions are

punished by society
 Christian Virtue Ethics
 The virtue of Christian
Compassion in Medicine
emphasized “suffering with the
patient”

 At this point in time there were

two schools of Medicine,
naturalistic and religious
 Natural Law Theory
 “What is…ought to be.”

 Thomas Aquinas in the 11th

century said that a rational god
made the world work rationally
and gave humans the ability to
discover his rationale
 Doctrine of Double
Effect
 If an action has two effects, one
good and the other evil, the action is
morally permissible
 If there was a good intention
 If the good happened at exactly the same
time as the evil
 If only the Good was actually intended
 If there was an important enough reason
for performing the action and risking
the evil outcome
Social Contract Theory

 Assumes that people are

fundamentally self-interested
and that moral rules have
evolved for humans to get
along with one another.
 Kantian Ethics

 A right act always treats other

humans as end-in-themselves,
never as a mere means
 Utilitarianism
 Right acts produce the
greatest amount of good for
the greatest number of people

 Four Tenets
1. Consequentialism
2. The Maximization Principle
3. A Theory of Value
4. A scope-of-morality premise
 Case-Based Reasoning
 Also known as Casuistry

 Analyzes cases by comparing them to

other cases rather than using
philosophical principles

 Also looks at each case as a unique

situation and not a precedent
 Pragmatism

 Whatever methods has the best

outcome is the best way to go
Principles of Biomedical
Ethics

1. Autonomy
2. Beneficience
3. Nonmaleficense
4. Justice
 Reductio ad absurdum
 This latin phrase literally
translates as “Reduce to the
absurd”
 It is a tool of logic used to
simplify ethical problems
 Ex: If you give one person free
healthcare do you have to give
everyone free healthcare?