HEALTH CARE ETHICS Immanuel Kant
- an 18th-century philosopher, and ethicist, believed
PRELIMS COVERAGE
CHAPTER 1
Donahue, 1996- “We are in the throes of a giant
ethical leap that is essentially embracing all of
humankind.”
Hope (2004)- “We need to develop our hearts as well
as our minds.”
Ethics
- is a branch of philosophy used to study ideal human
behavior and ways of being.
-a systematic approach to understanding, analyzing,
and distinguishing matters of right and wrong, good
and bad, and admirable and dishonorable as they
relate to the well-being of and the relationships
among sentient beings.
Eudaimonia- synonymous with a high level of
happiness or well-being.
Aristotle- believed ideal behaviors are practices
leading to the end goal of eudaimonia, which is
synonymous with a high level of happiness or well-
being.
ideal behavior is acting in accordance with one’s
duty.
-well-being meant having the freedom to exercise
autonomy (self-determination), not being used to an
end, being treated with dignity, and having the
capability to think rationally.
Morals- are specific beliefs, behaviors, and ways of
being derived from doing ethics. One’s morals are
judged to be good or bad through systematic, ethical
analysis.
Immorality- a person’s behavior is in opposition to
accepted societal, religious, cultural, or professional
ethical standards and principles; examples of
immorality include dishonesty, fraud, murder, and
sexually abusive acts.
Amoral- term used to refer to actions normally
judged as immoral, but the actions are done with a
lack of concern for good character, one’s duty, or the
consequences. For example, murder is immoral, but if
a person commits murder with absolutely no sense of
remorse or maybe even with a sense of pleasure, the
person is acting in an amoral way.
Nonmoral- moral standards essentially do not apply ■ People use moral reasoning to make moral

to the acts; for example, choosing between cereal or

judgments or to discover right actions.
toast and jam for breakfast is a nonmoral decision.
TYPES OF ETHICAL INQUIRY
Unethical- is used to describe ethics in its negative
1. NORMATIVE ETHICS
form, for instance, when a person’s character or
-is an attempt to decide or prescribe values,
behavior is contrary to admirable traits or the code of
behaviors, and ways of being that are right
conduct endorsed by one’s society, community, or
or wrong, good or bad, admirable or
profession.
dishonorable.
Billington (2003):
2. METAETHICS

■Probably the most important feature about ethics -which means about ethics, is not an inquiry

and morals is that no one can avoid making ethical about what ought to be done or which

decisions because social connections with others behaviors should be prescribed. Instead,

necessitates that people must consider moral and metaethics is concerned with understanding

ethical actions. the language of morality through an analysis

of the meaning of ethically related concepts

■ Other people are always involved with one’s
and theories, such as the meaning of good,
ethical decisions. Private morality does not exist.
happiness, and virtuous character.
■ Ethical decisions matter because one person’s
3. DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS
decisions often affect someone else’s life, self-
-often referred to as a scientific rather than a
esteem, or happiness.
philosophical ethical inquiry. It is an

■ It is difficult to reach definite conclusions or approach used when researchers or ethicists

resolutions in ethical debates. want to describe what people think about

morality or when they want to

■ In the area of morals and ethics, people cannot
describe how people actually behave, that is,
exercise ethical judgments without being given a
their morals.
choice; in other words, a necessity for making a

sound ethical judgment is being able to choose an COMMON MORALITY

option from among a number of choices.

-consists of normative beliefs and behaviors that - Pence (2000) “the ethical theory that moral

members of a society generally agree about and are evaluation is rooted in and cannot be

familiar to most members of the society. separated from the experience, beliefs, and

behaviors of a particular culture, and hence,

Gert, Culver, and Clouser (2006)
that what is wrong in one culture may not be
-contended that many people mistakenly believe there
so in another”
is little agreement about moral matters, whereas in
Ethical Objectivism
reality, controversial issues are actually the focus of

only a small part of ethical decision making. -is the belief that universal, or objective, moral

principles exist. Many philosophers and healthcare

The Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive
ethicists hold this view, at least to some degree,
Statements (American Nurses Association, 2015)
because they strictly or loosely adhere to a specific
-is a specific morality for professional nurses in the
approach in determining what is good.
United States. A normative belief posited in the code
(Brannigan & Boss, 2001)- “Moral judgment is a
is that nurses ought to be compassionate; that is,
whole into which we must fit principles, character
nurses should work to relieve suffering.
and intentions, cultural values, circumstances, and
Ethical Relativism ((Brannigan & Boss, 2001).
consequences”.
-is the belief that it is acceptable for ethics and

morality to differ among persons or societies.

VALUE
2 TYPES OF ETHICAL RELATIVISM

1. Ethical Subjectivism -is something of worth or highly regarded. Values

-believe “individuals create their own refer to one’s evaluative judgments about what one

morality and there are no objective moral believes is good or makes something desirable.

truths—only individual opinions”

REASONING

2. Cultural Relativism
-is the use of abstract thought processes to think

creatively, answer questions, solve problems, and

formulate strategies for one’s actions and desired

ways of being.

MORAL REASONING

-pertains to reasoning focused on moral or ethical

issues. Moral reasoning for nurses usually occurs in

the context of day-to-day relationships between

nurses and the recipients of their care and between

nurses and their coworkers and others within

organizations.