Ethics Position in a Case Study
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Caring for terminally ill patients often poses difficult decisions that caregivers make regarding sensitive issues. Ethics focuses on the moral principles that govern how people make decisions based on what is right and wrong. We see a man whose aged wife has been terminally ill for a long time in this context. Due to financial constraints, he cannot afford her medication; therefore, he chooses to end her suffering by shooting her. This man raises several questions, as discussed below.
Was the Man’s Action of Killing his Wife Ethical?
Only a judge and jury can decide on the legality of this case. Based on individual moral beliefs, the decision as to whether the man’s action of killing his wife was ethical may vary. However, if an act’s assertion depends on society’s norms, each member must obey, and a divergent act away from these beliefs is unethical. According to Taghavi et al. 2016, it is not easy to resolve moral issues with general rules. Still, each case is addressed precisely to have the least possible distance between religious beliefs and human values.
Ethical Framework Consideration in analyzing the case
Absolute ethics affirms that there are general moral moralities upon which peoples’ activities are tried. The only challenge with this claim is the differences in which values are right and which are inappropriate. On the other hand, relative ethics refutes the existence of outright moral beliefs. Behavioral ethics analyzes why people make ethical or unethical decisions. Research on behavioral ethics indicates that people cannot be entirely rational; instead, most choices are made by feeling and not a careful analysis of a situation (Bowman, 2018). Applied ethics deals with difficult and controversial moral issues people face in their daily lives.
Based on the definitions of the diverse ethical frameworks, I choose to look at this case through absolute ethics, where the action is considered right or wrong without considering the context of the situation. My stand is that murder is wrong, and despite that, the husband feels the desire to relieve his wife of pain and suffering; he committed a crime he should be held accountable for.
Society’s Position on the Man’s Action
A set of laws governs society. In this case, we label the situation as a premeditated murder. The man decided to shoot his wife while she was sleeping. He goes ahead to call his daughters, and later the police, where he confesses to having been discerned for several days how to end his wife’s misery by shooting her in the head.
The situation with a Loved One
Being in a position where I was to be seeing a family member in agony and incapable of helping in their suffering, I would focus all my efforts to make them comfortable. When I have exhausted all my options, and nothing is helping with the misery, I would allow myself to accept the will of God, no matter how difficult it is.
Premeditated murder
Premeditated murder can never be justified by all means. If acceptable, then it is either reoffered as a homicide, manslaughter, or self-defense.
References
Bowman, J. S. (2018). Thinking about thinking: Beyond decision-making rationalism and the emergence of behavioral ethics. Public Integrity, 20(sup1), S89-S105.
Taghavi, A., Hashemi-Bahremani, M., Hosseini, L., & Bazmi, S. (2016). End of life issues in cancer cases: ethical aspects. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 17(S3), 239-243.