1. Moral Reasoning & Ethical Theories

2. What is Ethics?
The field of ethics, also called moral philosophy, involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.
Personal Life - Concerns actions that are purely private and affect no other person or persons
Morality - Concerns interpersonal actions-situations where one’s personal actions affect other people
Public Policy - On the one hand, concerns actions which affect other people negatively, but which society tolerates, though it attempts to discourage such actions (as by education). On the other hand, concerns actions which affect other people positively and which society attempts to encourage (as through incentives)
Legality and Illegality - Concerns positive actions which are, by law, compulsory; and negative actions which are by law forbidden. Penalties (such as fines and incarceration) are imposed for omitting compulsory actions or performing forbidden actions
Smoking is a personal issues; smoking in your child’s room is a moral issue; taxing tobacco products heavily is a public policy issue; prohibiting the sale of tobacco is a legal issue.

3. Greek Virtue Ethics
Ethics comes from the Greek Ethos, meaning “character” and Ethike aretai, meaning “skills of character”
They asked “what is a Good Physician?”
A Physician keeps people alive…ergo…The Hippocratic Oath which adopted a sanctity of life worldview
The teaching of the major ancient Greek philosophers - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle- advocated virtue ethics, the ethical theory that emphasizes acquiring good traits of character
Not all classic physicians followed the hippocratic school of thought, others followed a more naturalistic approach which did not assume that life was god-given, they simply focused on weighing suffering against life potential.

4. Morals, Ethics & Law “What’s the Difference?”
Morals : Personal Sense of Right and Wrong
Ethics: Professional/Social Sense of Right and Wrong
Law: When wrong actions are punished by society
The teaching of the major ancient Greek philosophers - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle- advocated virtue ethics, the ethical theory that emphasizes acquiring good traits of character
Not all classic physicians followed the hippocratic school of thought, others followed a more naturalistic approach which did not assume that life was god-given, they simply focused on weighing suffering against life potential.

5. Christian Virtue Ethics
The virtue of Christian Compassion in Medicine emphasized “suffering with the patient”
At this point in time there were two schools of Medicine, naturalistic and religious
By the 4th century Christian philosophy began to influence the theory of health care.
The paradigmatic virtue of compassion (charity) that many today associate with a good physician comes in part from Christianity’s emphasis on helping others.
Naturalistic physicians emphasized technical competence in curing disease while religious physicians emphasized compassion in being with patients. Because the limits of medicine were usually reached fairly quickly in Medieval Europe, compassion became the paramount virtue.

6. Natural Law Theory “What is…ought to be.”
Thomas Aquinas in the 11th century said that a rational god made the world work rationally and gave humans the ability to discover his rationale
From Natural Law Theory we get the famous “Doctrine of Double Effect”

7. Doctrine of Double Effect
If an action has two effects, one good and the other evil, the action is morally permissible
If there was a good intention
If the good happened at exactly the same time as the evil
If only the Good was actually intended
If there was an important enough reason for performing the action and risking the evil outcome

8. Social Contract Theory
Assumes that people are fundamentally self-interested and that moral rules have evolved for humans to get along with one another.
If we didn’t have social contractarianism we would pick each other apart like animals.

9. Kantian Ethics
A right act always treats other humans as end-in-themselves, never as a mere means

10. Utilitarianism
Right acts produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people
Four Tenets
Consequentialism
The Maximization Principle
A Theory of Value
A scope-of-morality premise
Consequentialism - consequences count, not motives or intentions
The Maximization Principles - The number of people affected by consequences matters, the more people, the more important the effect
A Theroy of Value - Good consequences are defined by pleasure (hedonic utilitarianism) or what people prefer (preference utilitarianism).
A scope-of-morality premise - Each being’s happiness is to count as one and no more

11. Case-Based Reasoning Also known as Casuistry
Analyzes cases by comparing them to other cases rather than using philosophical principles
Also looks at each case as a unique situation and not a precedent

12. Pragmatism
Whatever methods has the best outcome is the best way to go

13. Principles of Biomedical Ethics
Autonomy
Beneficience
Nonmaleficense
Justice

14. Reductio ad absurdum
This latin phrase literally translates as “Reduce to the absurd”
It is a tool of logic used to simplify ethical problems
Ex: If you give one person free healthcare do you have to give everyone free healthcare?