BIOETHICS NCM 018
CHAPTER 3: Decision Making in Value
Issues
And Private Law
 Value Confrontations
Values
 Tell us what is right and wrong, good
and evil
 Imply a preference to correct human
behavior
 Attempt to be constructive, not
destructive, over issues involving
personal values
Essential Mental Attributes for Ethical
Reasoning:
 Ethical humility-awareness of the
limits of one's own ethical insights.
 Ethical courage-willingness to assess
fairly ideas, beliefs, and viewpoints
differing from our own.
 Ethical empathy-a willingness to
attempt to understand the opinions of
others and try to see the issue from
their position.
 Ethical fair-mindedness-to hold one's
own beliefs and opinions to the same
standard of proof and evidence that we
require for the opinions of others.
Teleological (Consequence-oriented)
Theories
 Consequence-oriented Theories
 Judge rightness or wrongness of
decisions based on outcomes or
predicted outcomes
 The right thing to do is the good thing
to do
 Utilitarianism- Jeremy Bentham
(1748–1832) and John Stuart Mill
(1806–1873)
 The good resides in promotion of
happiness or greatest net increase of
pleasure over pain.
 Happiness as higher-order pleasures:
intellectual, aesthetic, and social
enjoyments.
 Act Utilitarianism
 Decision based on possible
alternatives for action.
 Weighing each to amount of pleasure
or utility it provides.
 Selecting course of action that
maximizes pleasure.
 Equal Consideration of Interest
 Individual not allowed to increase his
share of happiness at expense of
another
 One ought to act to produce greatest
balance of happiness over
unhappiness, everyone considered.
 Criticisms of Utilitarianism
 Calculation of all possible
consequences of our actions, or
inactions, appears impossible.
 May be used to sanction
unfairness and violation of rights.
 Not sensitive to agent-relativity of
duty.
 Criticisms of Utilitarianism
(continued)
 Does not seem to give enough respect
to persons
 Justifiable to prevent others from
doing what we believe to be harmful
acts to themselves
 Does not provide basis for our own
moral attitudes and presuppositions.
 Rule Utilitarianism
 Action deemed to be right if it
conforms to a rule validated by
the principle of utility.
 Principle of utility: rule brings
about positive results when
generalized to variety of
situations.
Deontological (Duty-Oriented) Theories
 Duty-oriented Theories
 Basic rightness or wrongness of act
depends on its intrinsic nature rather
than on situation or consequences.
 Act in itself right or wrong; it could
not be both.
 Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
 Morality derived from rationality, not
from experience
 Obligation grounded in pure reason
 Categorical imperative: do not admit
exceptions
 Imperative
 Command derived from a principle
 Maxim understood as universal law
 a. Universal application
b. Unconditionality
c. Demanding an action
 Criticisms of Kant
 Too rigid for real life
 Morality cannot be derived from pure
reason
 Disregard of consequences of our actions
can lead to disastrous results
 Even though nonhuman animals feel pain
and pleasure, they do not have independent
moral standing since they are not rational
beings
 Possible to be faced with a conflict
between two duties equally supported by
an imperative
 Contract Theory of John Rawls
 Individual in social situation requiring
value choice without knowing role he
was playing in situation.
 Individual would choose alternative
that best supported or favored most
disadvantaged person.
 Secure basic liberties for all.
 Virtue Ethics
 Focus on characteristics, traits, or virtues a
good person should have
 Personal character and moral habit
development rather than a particular action
 Aristotle’s Traits of a Virtuous Character
 Virtuous acts must be chosen for their own
sakes
 Choice must proceed from firm and
unchangeable character
 Virtue is a disposition to choose the mean
 Ethics of Care
 Psychologist Carol Gilligan
 Males embrace ethic of rights and justice,
using quasi-legal terminology
 Females affirm ethic of care on
responsiveness toward needs of others and
prevention of harm
Divine Command Ethics
 Divine being set down finite series of
rules that adherents claim can provide
guidance to most, if not all, moral
decisions
 Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments
 Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and Eight-
Fold Path
 Criticisms of Divine Mandate Theory
 Assume belief in divine beings or
exemplary individuals
 Cannot cover all possible cases of moral
decision
 Have a “no exceptions” clause
 Euthyphro Problem
Private Law
 Recognition and enforcement of rights
and duties of private citizens and
organizations
 Tort action
 Existence of legal duty from defendant to
plaintiff
 Breach of that duty
 Damages which are a proximate result
 Tort Categories
 Negligent torts
 Intentional torts
 Liability assessed irrespective of fault
 Negligence
 Unintentional commission or omission of
act a person would or would not do under
same or similar circumstances
 Common forms of negligence
 Malfeasance: execution of unlawful or
improper act
 Misfeasance: improper performance of act
that leads to injury
 Nonfeasance: failure to perform an act,
when there is a duty to act
 Criminal negligence: reckless disregard for
safety of another
 D’s of negligence case
 Duty
 Dereliction of Duty
 Direct Cause
 Damage
 Intentional torts in health care practice
 Assault and battery
 Defamation of character (libel and slander)
 False imprisonment
 Invasion of privacy

 Conclusion
 Value systems or worldviews shaped by
events of our lives and traditions of our
people
 Ethical systems
 Duty orientation
 Consequence orientation
 Divine mandate
 Virtue ethics
 Public law deals with relationships
between private parties and government
 Private law deals with relationship between
citizen and citizen