Moral Theories in Health Care Essay

Desai pinky HSC601:-Healthcare Policy and Medical Ethics Date: – 10/06/2009 Question 2: What moral theories are the most important in the healthcare reform debate? The four moral theories which have been refereed in the book satisfy one or the other aspect of the ethical analysis and also keep the foundation for further analysis. However no theory satisfies all the relevant criteria. All the four theories have pointed out their ways and means to reach a decision which is correct and ethically considered.

All the theories have reached some of the goals in the common like autonomy, privacy, beneficence yet with different perspectives. The utilitarian mainly focuses on the value of the well being, which is analyzed in the terms of the pleasures, happiness welfare, preference satisfaction whereas the Kantianism believes that the morality is grounded in reason, duty rather than the sympathy, emotions. This indicates that the person have to act not only in an accordance with but for the sake of the obligation. Utilitarianism is divided into two: – the rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism.

The rule utilitarian considers the consequences of adopting certain rules whereas the act utilitarian disregards the level of the rules and sticks only to the principle of the utility. Thus the advantage of the rule utilitarianism is that it considers the parameters like justice, beneficence and laws and legal rights which lacks in the act utilitarianism. Kantianism mainly rotates around the following objectives. According to Kant “maxim” is the moral worth of an individual’s action that depends exclusively on the moral acceptability if the rule on which the person acts.Moral Theories in Health Care Essay