This essay will outline and discuss the moral theories of three philosophers to explain how each theory can be applied to health care. There are three main ethical theories developed in the western world that examine the value of conduct on how a good life could be managed, these are, Aristotelianism, Deontology and utilitarianism.
Aristotle’s theory is focused on deciding what the good (moral) life is and how the development of a good life can be established. He used a scientific approach to do this by observing the world and a person’s behaviour. He said ‘what makes you good is that you have a virtue-happiness is a key virtue’. Aristotle said there are eleven virtues some of which are, courage, patience and modesty. Every virtue is thought of as a mean between each one which is another one of Aristotle’s ethics called ‘The Golden Mean’ (Naidoo and Wills, 2008). The way to establish the moderate/middle way, is to reflect and use our reason. However, reflection isn’t quite enough, acting on what a person knows is right is a good way to develop a good habit. Courage is a great example of one of Aristotle’s important virtues, if a person doesn’t have courage they would be classed as a coward, also if a person were …show more content…
Immanuel Kant’s theory is a good theory to use when helping to provide an ethical and rational decision by the HCP. When making decisions about end of life care certain factors need to be taken into consideration for example, assisted suicide, euthanasia, dysthanasia, and palliative care. Due to the advanced biotechnology such as the cutting-edge health care service and the treatments that can be used to prolong life, the way that health care professionals make decisions has slightly changed. They have the responsibility to decide where, how and when a patient should die (Lima, Rego and Siqueira-Batista,
Aristotle’s theory is focused on deciding what the good (moral) life is and how the development of a good life can be established. He used a scientific approach to do this by observing the world and a person’s behaviour. He said ‘what makes you good is that you have a virtue-happiness is a key virtue’. Aristotle said there are eleven virtues some of which are, courage, patience and modesty. Every virtue is thought of as a mean between each one which is another one of Aristotle’s ethics called ‘The Golden Mean’ (Naidoo and Wills, 2008). The way to establish the moderate/middle way, is to reflect and use our reason. However, reflection isn’t quite enough, acting on what a person knows is right is a good way to develop a good habit. Courage is a great example of one of Aristotle’s important virtues, if a person doesn’t have courage they would be classed as a coward, also if a person were …show more content…
Immanuel Kant’s theory is a good theory to use when helping to provide an ethical and rational decision by the HCP. When making decisions about end of life care certain factors need to be taken into consideration for example, assisted suicide, euthanasia, dysthanasia, and palliative care. Due to the advanced biotechnology such as the cutting-edge health care service and the treatments that can be used to prolong life, the way that health care professionals make decisions has slightly changed. They have the responsibility to decide where, how and when a patient should die (Lima, Rego and Siqueira-Batista,