Character Formation Chapter 6
Character Formation Chapter 6
Moral judgments must be backed by the best arguments or reasons out there,
not only good reasons or better judgments. Our decisions must be guided as much as
possible by reason. The morally right thing to do is always the thing best supported by
the arguments. Morality requires impartiality with regard to those moral agents affected
by a violation of a moral rule. Morality requires the impartial consideration of each
individual's interests. For example, being partial toward friends is not morally allowed.
Impartiality (fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be
based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, self-interest, prejudice, or
preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons. Other elements
of impartiality are accuracy, fairness, balance, context, and no conflicts or
prejudgments. The respect for truth at all costs is necessary (Khatami, 2009; Rachels,
2018).
The minimum conception of morality is: Morality is the effort to guide one’s
conduct by reason – that is, to do what there are the best reasons for doing – while
giving equal weight to the interest of each individual affected by one’s decision
(Rachels, 2018).
Learning outcome:
At the end of the topic, the students will be able to:
Learning content
Situation – "Please Don't Tell!"
During his stay in the hospital, the patient admitted to his primary physician that
he was HIV positive, having contracted the virus that causes AIDS. This was confirmed
by a blood test administered while he was hospitalized. When he was discharged from
the hospital, the physician recommended that a professional nurse visit him regularly at
home in order to change the bandages on his still substantial wounds and to insure that
an infection did not develop.
The patient had no objection to his sister providing this care, but he insisted that
she not be told that he had tested HIV positive. Though he had always had a good
relationship with his sister, she did not know that he was an active homosexual. His
even greater fear was that his father would hear of his homosexual orientation and
lifestyle. Homosexuality is generally looked upon with extreme disfavor among
Hispanics.
The patient's physician is bound by his code of ethics that places a very high
priority on keeping confidentiality. That is, information about someone's medical
condition that he or she does not want known cannot be divulged by the physician.
Some would argue that the responsibility of confidentiality is even greater with HIV/AIDS
since disclosure of someone's homosexuality normally carries devastating personal
consequences for the individual who is forced "out of the closet."
On the other hand, the patient's sister is putting herself at risk by providing
nursing care for him. Doesn't she have a right to know the risks to which she is
subjecting herself, especially since she willingly volunteered to take care of her brother?
If you were the physician, what would you do in this case? Would you breach the
norm of confidentiality to protect the patient's sister, or would you keep confidentiality in
order to protect the patient from harm that would come to him from his other family
members, especially his father?
Perhaps as good a question as "what would you do" in this situation is the
question, "how would you decide what to do" in this situation? The process of making a
moral decision can be as important as the decision itself, and many ethical decisions
that people encounter are so complex that it is easy to exhaust oneself talking around
the problem without actually making any progress toward resolving it. The response to
many moral dilemmas is "where do I start?' and the person who is faced with these
decisions often needs direction that will enable him or her to move constructively toward
resolution and "see the forest for the trees."
Given the ethnic and religious diversity of our society, it is important that the
model used for making ethical decisions have "room" in it to accommodate a whole host
of different moral and ethical perspectives. This model is not tied to any one particular
perspective, but can be used comfortably with a variety of cultural, ethnic and religious
backgrounds. This is not a distinctively Christian model, though it is consistent with the
Scripture and any Christian can use Biblical principles in utilizing this model. Take note
though that what makes many moral dilemmas so difficult is that the Scripture does not
speak to the issue as clearly as one would prefer because Scripture has not directly
addressed the issue. More general principles can be brought to bear on the issue at
hand. However, in these instances, there is often disagreement about which Biblical
principles are applicable to the specific issue under discussion. For example, in Case 1
(Please Don't Tell) the physician could invoke the Biblical principle of compassion
toward his patient in refusing to disclose information that would harm him. But at the
same time, he could invoke the same principle of compassion toward the sister in
protecting her from the risk of medical harm. It is not clear that appeal to principles
alone will conclusively resolve this case. Thus, to insist that all ethical dilemmas are
resolved simply by appeal to Biblical principles seems to oversimplify the case.
Certainly many moral questions are resolved conclusively by appeal to Scripture. But
there are other cases in which that does not happen. That is not to say that Scripture is
not sufficient for the believer’s spiritual life, but that the special revelation of Scripture is
often supplemented by the general revelation of God outside Scripture. This model
makes room for both general and special revelation, and gives each a place in helping
to resolve the difficult moral dilemmas facing people today.
7. Make a Decision
Deliberation cannot go on forever. At some point, a decision must be made.
Realize that one common element to ethical dilemmas is that there are no easy and
painless solutions to them. Frequently, the decision that is made is one that involves the
least number of problems or negative consequences, not one that is devoid of them.
Using the model, let's return to the case at hand. This will illustrate how the
model is used and clarify exactly what is meant by each of the elements in the model.
1. Gather the Facts: The relevant facts in this case are as follows:
– The patient is a young man, infected with HIV and an active homosexual.
– He suffered fairly severe abdominal wounds but is recovering well.
– Homosexuality is looked down upon in Hispanic communities.
– The patient has insisted that his physician maintain confidentiality about his HIV
status.
– The patient is afraid of rejection by his father if his homosexuality is discovered, an
understandable fear given the way homosexuality is viewed in the Hispanic
community.
– He was wounded by gunfire in gang violence. It is not clear but is a reasonable
assumption that he is a gang member. As a result, he likely fears rejection and
perhaps retribution from his fellow gang members, especially if they discover that he
is HIV positive.
– He is uninsured and cannot afford home nursing care by a professional.
– Medicaid refuses to pay for professional home nursing care.
– The patient's sister is willing and able to provide the necessary nursing care for her
brother. She is accustomed to providing maternal-like care for her brothers and
sisters.
– The patient has specifically requested that his sister not be told of his HIV status. She
does not know that he is an active homosexual.
– The patient's sister would be changing fairly sizable wound dressings for her brother
and the chances are high that she would come into contact with his HIV infected
blood. The probability of her becoming infected with the virus from this contact is
difficult to predict.
The competing interests in this case are those of the sister who will provide the
care and the patient who will receive it. Both have interests in being protected from
harm. The patient fears being harmed in a psycho-social way if his homosexuality and
HIV status were discovered. Thus he has put the physician in a difficult situation by
demanding that his right to confidentiality be kept. Though she does not know it, his
sister fears medical harm due to the risk of contracting the HIV virus from contact with
her brother's blood. This could be stated as a conflict between confidentiality for the
patient vs. the right to know the patient's condition for his sister due to the risk she
would be taking in giving him nursing care. The conflict could be summarized by the
need for patient confidentiality vs. the duty to warn the sister of risk of harm.
Two moral principles that speak to this case come out of the way in which the
ethical issue is stated. This case revolves around a conflict of rights, a conflict of duties
that the physician has toward his patient and toward the sister. He is called to exercise
compassion toward both, but what compassion (or the duty to "do no harm") demands
depends on which individual in the case is in view. Thus two principles are paramount.
First is the widely recognized principle that patients have a right to have their medical
information kept confidential, particularly the information that could be used to harm
them if it were disclosed. But a second principle that comes into play is the duty of the
physician to warn interested parties other than the patient if they are at risk of imminent
and substantial harm. One of the difficult aspects of any ethical decision is knowing
what weight to give the principles that are relevant to the case. Here, the principle of
confidentiality is considered virtually sacred in the medical profession and most
physicians will argue that it is necessary to keep confidentiality if patients are to trust
their physicians and continue coming for treatment. But confidentiality is often
considered subordinate to the duty to warn someone who will likely be harmed if that
information is not disclosed. For example, if a psychologist believes that his patient will
kill his wife, or beat her severely, he has a moral obligation to inform the wife that she is
in danger from her husband. The duty to warn someone from imminent and severe
harm is usually considered a more heavily weighted principle than confidentiality in
cases like these.
The key question here in weighting the principles of confidentiality and the duty to
warn (both fulfilling the Biblical notion of compassion toward those in need of it) is the
degree of risk that the patient's sister is taking by providing nursing care for her brother.
If the risk is not substantial, then that weights confidentiality a bit more heavily. But if the
risk is significant, then the duty to warn is the more heavily weighted principle. This is
particularly so given the fact that the sister has volunteered to perform a very self-
sacrificing service for her brother. Some would argue that her altruism is an additional
factor that weights the duty to warn principle more heavily. Others would suggest that
his contracting HIV is an example of "reaping what one sows," and that minimizes
consideration of the patient's desire for confidentiality. An additional factor that should
be figured into the deliberation is that the risk to the patient, though it may have a higher
probability of happening, is not as severe as the risk to the sister. After all, if the worst
case scenario happened to the patient, his father would disown him and the gang would
throw him out (though their action could be more severe than that). He would recover
from all of that. But if his sister contracted HIV, she would not recover from that. Though
the probability of the worst case scenario is higher for the patient, the results of the
worst case are clearly higher for the sister.
In this case, there are a number of viable alternatives that involve compromise on
either the patient's part or his sister's. However, there are two alternatives that do not
involve compromise and they each reflect a weighting of the principles.
One alternative would be to tell the sister that her brother is HIV positive. This
alternative comes out of taking the duty to warn principle as higher priority. On the other
hand, a second alternative is to refuse to tell her that information, upholding the patient's
request for confidentiality and taking the confidentiality principle as the one that carries
the most weight. However, there are other alternatives. For example, the physician
could warn the patient's sister in general terms about taking appropriate precautions for
caring for these types of wounds. She is to wear gloves and even a mask at all times
when handling the bandages. Should she get any blood on her clothes or body, she is
to wash immediately with a disinfectant soap. In other words, she is to take universal
precautions that any medical professional routinely takes in caring for patients. A further
alternative is to request that the patient inform his sister of his condition. He could then
request that she not tell any other family member or any or his friends. If he refused,
then the next step might be to say to him in effect, "If you don't tell her, I will."
In many cases, the principles resolve the case. Depending on how one assesses
the relative weight of the principles, which may be the case here. In fact, it may be that
the alternative of encouraging universal precautions for the sister but not telling her why,
comes very close to satisfying all the relevant principles. But certainly there are
questions about the adequacy of those precautions. Will she follow them, or treat them
casually? However, assume for the moment that appeal to principles does not resolve
the dilemma.
In the first alternative, that of telling the sister (or insisting that the patient tells his
sister), the likely consequences include the following:
The sister would be properly warned about the risks of taking care of her brother,
minimizing the risk of her contracting HIV, and saving her from the risk of developing a
fatal illness. The brother's HIV status would be out in the open, leaving family and gang
friends to draw their own conclusions about his homosexuality. Should they draw the
right conclusion, which is likely, he suffers significant psycho-social harm from his gang
members, and possibly (though not certainly) from his family.
Trust with the physician and the patient suffers and he may refuse to see that
physician, or any other one again until a dire medical emergency. This would be
unfortunate since due to his HIV status, he will need on going medical care. But if the
physician refuses to disclose the information, the following may be expected as the
likely consequences:
The sister would not know about the risks she is taking, making her vulnerable to
contracting an infection for which there is no cure. The degree of risk that she is taking
is open to debate, but some would argue that if the degree of risk is any more than
minimal, that justifies warning her since the virus produces a fatal disease.
The patient's HIV status is a well-kept secret, as his homosexuality. But it is not
likely that either his HIV status or his homosexuality can be kept a secret forever, since
as HIV develops into full-blown AIDS, both are likely to come out at some point in the
future.
Trust between the physician and patient is maintained. If the alternative of telling
the sister to take general precautions is taken, the following are the likely
consequences: She may exercise appropriate caution in taking care of her brother, but
she may not. She may treat the precautions casually and unknowingly put herself at
risk. If the physician tells her about the precautions in very strong terms to insure her
compliance with them, that may start her asking questions about why the doctor was so
insistent on her following his precautions. In fact, one of the motives of the physician
might be to nudge her toward asking some of those questions, of her brother, to further
minimize the risk of contracting HIV.
In general, the patient's HIV status and homosexual orientation are kept secret,
and confidentiality is honored, but the question of how long it will remain a secret is
unknown and it is likely that it will become known eventually. Trust with the physician
and patient is maintained. However, if the sister is nudged to ask her brother some
pressing questions about why these precautions are so important, he may conclude that
the physician has prompted his sister to ask these questions, leaving him feeling
betrayed.
7. Make a Decision
What would you decide in this case? Which principles are the weightiest? Are
there others that you would include? Which alternatives are the most viable? Are there
others that you would suggest? Which consequences seem to you the most severe?
Are there others that you think will occur? It is important to realize that at some point
you must stop deliberating and make a decision, as uncomfortable as that may be.
Teacher’s notes:
Please bear in mind that there is no wrong answer when it comes to decision making as
long as you have adequate and reasonable principles and duly weighed consequences
to back up your decision that will incur the least negative consequences to both parties.
At this juncture, it is very important to take note of weighing the consequences and
principles at hand. The following is a simplified way to summarize the case.
– The patient is a young man, infected with HIV and an active homosexual.
– He suffered fairly severe abdominal wounds but is recovering well.
– Homosexuality is looked down upon in Hispanic communities.
– The patient has insisted that his physician maintain confidentiality about his HIV
status.
– The patient is afraid of rejection by his father if his homosexuality is discovered, an
understandable fear given the way homosexuality is viewed in the Hispanic
community.
– He was wounded by gunfire in gang violence. It is not clear but is a reasonable
assumption that he is a gang member. As a result, he likely fears rejection and
perhaps retribution from his fellow gang members, especially if they discover that he
is HIV positive.
– He is uninsured and cannot afford home nursing care by a professional.
– Medicaid refuses to pay for professional home nursing care.
– The patient's sister is willing and able to provide the necessary nursing care for her
brother. She is accustomed to providing maternal-like care for her brothers and
sisters.
– The patient has specifically requested that his sister not be told of his HIV status. She
does not know that he is an active homosexual.
– The patient's sister would be changing fairly sizable wound dressings for her brother
and the chances are high that she would come into contact with his HIV infected
blood. – The probability of her becoming infected with the virus from this contact is
difficult to
predict.
Alternative 1: The physician could warn the patient's sister in general terms about taking
appropriate precautions for caring for these types of wounds. She is to wear gloves and
even a mask at all times when handling the bandages. Should she get any blood on her
clothes or body, she is to wash immediately with a disinfectant soap. In other words,
she is to take universal precautions that any medical professional routinely takes in
caring for patients.
Alternative 2: To request that the patient inform his sister of his condition. He could then
request that she not tell any other family member or any or his friends. If he refused,
then the next step might be to say to him in effect, "If you don't tell her, I will."
5. Compare Alternatives with Principles
Alternative 1: Alternative 1: The physician could warn the patient's sister in general
terms about taking appropriate precautions for caring for these types of wounds. She is
to wear gloves and even a mask at all times when handling the bandages. Should she
get any blood on her clothes or body, she is to wash immediately with a disinfectant
soap. In other words, she is to take universal precautions that any medical professional
routinely takes in caring for patients.
Alternative 2: To request that the patient inform his sister of his condition. He could then
request that she not tell any other family member or any or his friends. If he refused,
then the next step might be to say to him in effect, "If you don't tell her, I will."
The sister will be well informed regarding the situation and thus will take the
precautionary measures seriously
The trust to the physician will still be preserved because it was the patient who
opened up.
The risk of the family members and the gang knowing it will be great and
therefore will put moral damages to the person.
Choice 1: The patient’s trust to the physician will be preserved but it puts the sister and
all people at home at risk.
Choice 2: the sister will be safe but the patient’s trust to the physician will be breached
and thus risking the patient not to return to the physician again but he needs consistent
medical treatment of his HIV. The risk of his family knowing his condition is very high
and thus inflicting anxiety, moral damages and even physical harm to him by his gang
members is inevitable.
Alternative 1: The sister will be safe if she would take the precautionary measures
seriously but would still be at risk if she would just take it as an ordinary and casual
medical advice and if the doctor would insist her on doing so she would suspect that
something is wrong and therefore would ask further questions to the physician and the
patient who would feel betrayed about it.
Alternative 2: The sister will be well informed about the issue and is therefore safe, the
patient is the one who opened about it and asked that other family members should not
know especially his gang members thus preserving his trust to his physician and his
sister.
7. Make a Decision
(There is no wrong decision as long as you back it up with reason, principles and
valid arguments to defend your choice. The most important thing to understand
is that there should be a time that you need to decide and you need to choose
[hindi maaring lahat ng pagpipilian ay pipiliin at pagsasabaysabayin sapagkat sa
bandang huli ay tayong lahat ang masasaktan].)
Using the 7 steps in moral decision making, come up with an ethical decision
regarding this case in a whole sheet of yellow paper. Take a photo of your wok
and send it to the class in-charge until midnight of November 30, 2020
A judge’s Dilemma
You are the Judge at a trial of an alleged bank robber who is in fact innocent and you
know it for sure. But at the moment, the enemies of the accused have kidnapped your
daughter and are demanding that you convict the robber in return for her freedom. You
have no idea where they are keeping her and the police cannot figure it out as well. You
are nervous wreck and cannot help but think that the kidnappers will or already are
abusing your daughter. Would you convict an innocent man to save your daughter?
Learning Resources
De Guzman, Jens Micah, et al. (2018). Ethics: Principles of ethical behavior in
modern society. Philippines: MUTYA Publishing.
Khatami, M. (2009). Morality, rationality and impartiality. Falsafeh Vol. 37, No. 1,
Spring 2009, pp. 91-110.
http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ElementsOfImpartialitySep2
007.pdf
Kohlberg, Lawrence. (1981). Essays on moral development. San Francisco, CA:
Harper & Row.
Korsgaard, C. M. (n.d.) “Rationality” https://www.people.fas.harvard.edu
Powers, C. W., & Vogel, D. (1980). Ethics in the education of business
managers. Hasting-on-Hudson, NY: Institute of Society, Ethics and the
Life Sciences.
Rachel, James and Stuart Rachels. (2018). Elements of moral philosophy, 9th
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rae, Scott B., and Kenman L. Wong. (1996). “A Model for Moral Decision
Making.” Chap. 16 in Beyond Integrity: A Judeo-Christian Approach to
Business Ethics. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Rest, J. (1994). Background: Theory and research. In: J. Rest & D. Narvaez
(Eds.), Moral development in the professions: Psychology and applied
ethics (pp. 1–26). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Rationality & Rational (Nov. 22, 2003) https://www.enotes.com