HLSC220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Virtue Ethics, Social Contract, Natural Philosophy
Document Summary
Increased use of technology / expansion of the internet in health care: pioneering research in genetic and biological sciences increased understanding of the person as a consumer and not just a patient or client. Subfield classifications of ethics: two american philosophers, beauchamp and childress, developed the four principles approach, first published in 1979. It encompasses two duties - to provide appropriate intervention and, second, to ensure that the intervention provided will produce greater benefit than harm. Ethical decision- making requires us to make decisions taking into consideration all the factors in a specific circumstance and to act according to principles and moral standards: the right action is a result of ethical reasoning. In comparison, law dictates what we must or must not do as citizens of a community: the framework of laws makes the world a relatively predictable and consistent place to live and work. Laws address with some immediacy the situations that a society faces.
