Principle of

Moral
Discernment
NCM 108 Health Care Ethics Team
 Learning Outcomes
Apply management and leadership
principles in creating a favorable
organizational climate for the employees.

Manage resources (human, physical,

financial, time) efficiently and
effectively.

Maintain a positive practice

environment for employees and
clients.
What is MORAL DISCERNMENT?
It involves discerning (discovering,
judging) which goals (ends, intentions)
and means (actions) really are
conducive to human fulfillment and
according to God’s will.

When a person (a moral agent) acts

deliberately, he or she always acts for
some reason or goal (end, intention).
Deliberately chosen actions are means
to some goal. From a Christian
perspective, God wants our complete
or integral fulfilment.
What is MORAL DISCERNMENT?

It is the ability to perceive and

evaluate thequality of actions and
behaviors from the perspective of
good and evil.

This suggests that being morally

discriminating isa away of life that
we must adopt and utilize in all
aspects of our lives as a
commitment to God and to the
dignity of other human beings.
Example: Consider doing one’s own work or cheating (different means)
to get a good mark (goal).
Question: Is there any difference?
Consider two students who both have the goal to get a
good mark in a course. One student chooses the means
of doing his or her own work including doing all the
required readings for the course, studying for the
exams, and doing his or her own research for and
writing of the term paper. The other student chooses
different means, to cheat on the exams and to
plagiarize for the term paper. Is there any difference in
the means they choose?
Example: Consider doing one’s own work or cheating (different
means) to get a good mark (goal).
Question: Is there any difference?
They may both receive the same mark (goal). If we consider relevant
values such as honesty, fairness, knowledge, and personal integrity
there is a significant moral difference in the means. The student
who does his or her own work is honest, fair to others (other
students, future employers, and clients...) and will have learned
more knowledge than if he or she had cheated and plagiarized. The
student who does the latter is dishonest and unfair to others. He or
she may also face serious negative consequences (e.g., get expelled
from university) if he or she is caught. Regarding “knowledge,”
which doctor would you prefer to go to, one who cheated his or her
way through medical school or one who did his or her own work?
Example: Consider doing one’s own work or cheating (different
means) to get a good mark (goal).
Question: Is there any difference?

Some ethicists think that the most significant “consequence” of

one’s actions is that they are self determining. The student who
does his or her own work, even if difficult at times, builds his or
her character and personal moral integrity as an honest, fair,
hard-working, and persevering person. The student who cheats
and plagiarizes forms his or her character as a dishonest, unfair,
and lazy person. Actions are habit forming. A person who cheats
now will tend to justify more easily cheating, being dishonest
and unfair to others in the future unless he or she sincerely
repents of such immoral behaviour.
Four Principles of Moral Discernment
Principle of Principle of
1 Formal 2 Material
Cooperation Cooperation

Principle of Principle of
4 Lesser Evil 3 Double Effect
1. Principle of Formal Cooperation
The vatican held that no
It occurs when Formal Cooperation
Catholic healthcare
someone means that the facility could ever
intentionally person cooperating formally cooperate in
intends, desires, or providing sterilizations–
helps another approves the that is, no facility could
person carry out wrongdoer’s perform sterilizations
a sinful act. on the basis of an
conduct. institutional policy that
welcomed and
sanctioned routine
sterilizations.
2. Principle of Material Cooperation
It occurs when a Material Cooperation
simply means that
person’s actions
although the individual
untintentionally does not share the INDIRECT
help another intention of the
wrongdoer, he/she is INTENTION
person do
involved in the matter
something wrong or the actual doing of
the action.
 3. Principle of Lesser Evil

The principle that when faced with selecting

from two immoral options, the one which is
least immoral should be chosen.
 4. Principle of Double Effect
This principle aims to Four Conditions:
provide specific 1. The act itself must be good or indifferent.
guidelines for 2. The good effect must not be caused by the
determining when it is evil effect.
morally permissible to
3. The good effect and not the evil effect must
perform an action in
be directly intended by the agent.
pursuit of a good and
4. There must be a proportionality between the
in full knowledge that
good and evil result (i.e. the good must
the action will also
outweigh the evil).
bring about bad result.
 4. Principle of Double Effect
Every action of a nurse will result to positive AND negative effect
Example:
> Chemotherapy - kills cancer cells
SE: alopecia, nausea & vomiting, immunosuppression

But once the bad effect outweighs the good effect, it needs to be stopped
Exampple:
> The patient on chemotherapy experienced
severe immunosuppression, worsening symptoms, difficulty breathing and is scheduled for
chemotherapy next day
> The patient should not anymore proceed to the chemotherapy
 References

● https://www.scribd.com/document/556564184/Four-Principles-of
-Moral-Discernment-docx
● https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=
2401&context=lnq#:~:text=Moral%20discernment%20involves%20
discerning%20(discovering,goal%20(end%2C%20intention).
● https://sites.ualberta.ca/~pflaman/STP461/module9.pdf
● https://www.slideshare.net/kristacamillecagalit/ethical-leadershi
p-and-management