Module 4: How Should Life and Its Extension Be Ethically Viewed?
Module 4: How Should Life and Its Extension Be Ethically Viewed?
1. Identify and explain the ethical duties that are exemplified by the following
characters in the 1978 movie entitled - COMA.
Veracity. Upon learning the truth about Jefferson Institute being a black-
market and about carbon monoxide being used in O.R. 8 at Boston
Memorial– Dr. Wheeler shared the activities of this criminal organization to
her lover, Dr. Mark Bellows, who saved her. She did not show any hesitancy
to keep this truth from anyone.
c. Nancy Greenly
Non-maleficence. Before the day Nancy was put into a comatose, she
talked to Susan about undergoing Dilation and Curettage for menstrual
irregularity. The decision to approve of dilation of her womb to insert the
curette (meant to cut the fetus into pieces) was a challenging decision made
by Nancy was a practice of non-maleficence to herself for the protection of
her reproductive and holistic health.
It has been seen over the years how humans have been constantly taking
over natural selection by artificial-respiration devices, kidney dialysis, machines
to keep people breathing, conquering infertility by technology, so on and so forth.
The humans have intervened very much so, and as long as these
interventions strictly fulfill the guiding principles on ethical duties given by
autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, organ transplantation may
proceed. Primary areas or principles involved are:
Distributive Justice. Not everyone needing an organ may easily get one.
Organ shortage exists, and if people were to intervene with natural selection – it
is necessary to fairly divide resources. Unfortunately, not enough organs are
availably for everyone in need. The concept of distributive justice explains that
there is no one “right” method to distribute organs, but rather, there are many
ways a person could justify why an individual deserved the organ over the other.
3. Give your own ethical perspective to this line in the movie "we are dealing
in an area of uncertainty, an area where there are no rules, contradictory
laws and no clear social consensus as to what should be done"?
Uncertainty stems from everything people could not control. These may
be the outcomes of our decisions, phenomena, effects of the decisions of the
authority, or even how people around us would act. In between of right and
wrong, there lies a very wide spectrum of uncertainty, but humanity managed
to find its way around it—laws were created, social norms were formed, and a
justice system was established. We humans have discerned that uncertainty
is inevitable and uncontrollable—but we can control how to respond:
Humans created rules. To say that there are no rules is to say, “to each
his own.” – because there are different rules for different individuals, groups,
communities, or even nations. Humans created laws. Contradictory laws do
exist because the justice system does – wherein attorneys use laws against
each other. We have the liberty to establish a social consensus – but we fail
to become consistent due to the lack of unity in humans. However, despite of the
logical and sensical truth of the line delivered in the movie, we move forward
with our response. We must still rely on the laws we are bound to follow and
continue to exercise the right choices—choices that benefit human rights, and
choices that eliminate further uncertainties. We deem what is right based
on what is written in the law, and what can do no harm.
REFERENCES:
A. CODE OF ETHICS OF THE PHILIPPINE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. (n.d.).
https://www.philippinemedicalassociation.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/10/FINAL-PMA-CODEOFETHICS2008.pdf
B. Ethics of DeNoon, D. J. (2010, November 10). Doctors Answer Tough Ethical
Questions. WebMD; WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-
guides/news/20101110/doctors-answer-tough-ethical-questions
C. Organ Transplantation Center for Bioethics. (2004).
https://www.ahc.umn.edu/img/assets/26104/Organ_Transplantation.pdf
D. Evolutionary Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2021). Utm.edu.
https://iep.utm.edu/evol-eth/
E. Jonsen, A. R. (2012). The Ethics of Organ Transplantation: A Brief History. AMA
Journal of Ethics, 14(3), 264–268.
https://doi.org/10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.3.mhst1-1203.