Quiz Six Flashcards
duty of beneficence
an obligation to use his or her medical experience to do him good and avoid doing him harm
the autonomy principle
autonomous persons should be allowed to exercise their capacity for self-determination
paternalism
the overriding of a person’s actions or decision-making for their own good
weak paternalism
paternalism directed at persons who cannot act autonomously or whose autonomy is greatly diminished
strong paternalism
the overriding of a person’s actions or choices even though they are substantially autonomous
main moral conflict
between patient autonomy and physician beneficence (so what constitutes morally acceptable care)
medical futility
the alleged pointlessness or ineffectiveness of administering particular treatments
with medical futility physicians point to what principle
physicians are not obligated to provide treatments that are inconsistent with reasonable standards of medical practice
act-utilitarianism
the rightness of the actions depends on the relative good produced by individual actions
rule-utilitarianism
rightness depends on the good maximized by rules governing categories of actions
John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism
belief that the principle of utility implies a strong respect for individual self-determination and asserts that no on may interfere with a person’s liberty except to prevent harm to others “A person cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right.”
Kantian ethics and paternalism
rejects paternalism, the means-end form of the categorical imperative insists on respect for the rights and autonomy of persons-respect that must not be weakened by calculations of utility and paternalistic urges to act for the patient’s own good
Natural law ethics and paternalism
more paternalistic than Kantian ethics, a physician guided by the doctrine of double effect would deny a terminally ill patient’s request to be given a lethal injection (but extraordinary life sustaining treatments can be refused)
