CASE STUDY ON MORAL STATUS
The sets of belief patterns, morals, ethics and behavior patterns expressed by people are different and develop over the years as shaped by personal experiences, relations with other people and worldviews. The aforementioned aspects shape and guide personal decisions about right and wrong in everyday life.
Theories To Determine the Fetus Moral Status and How Each Theory Influences Recommendations for Actions
Maria’s Theory Based on Relationship and Sentient Properties
Maria’s moral decision is to save the life of the unborn child. Based on her actions, she appears to have a sentinel character and is emotionally dramatic. She inspires Maria to have…
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Based on “Case Study: Fetal Abnormality” and other required topic study materials, write a 750-1,000-word reflection that answers the following questions:
What is the Christian view of the nature of human persons, and which theory of moral status is it compatible with? How is this related to the intrinsic human value and dignity? Case study on moral status
Which theory or theories are being used by Jessica, Marco, Maria, and Dr. Wilson to determine the moral status of the fetus? What from the case study specifically leads you to believe that they hold the theory you selected?
How does the theory determine or influence each of their recommendations for action?
What theory do you agree with? Why? How would that theory determine or influence the recommendation for action?
Remember to support your responses with the topic study materials. NOTE: I AGREE WITH AUNT MARIAS DECISION AND IDEA
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center Case study on moral status.
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The sets of belief patterns, morals, ethics and behavior patterns expressed by people are different and develop over the years as shaped by personal experiences, relations with other people and worldviews. The aforementioned aspects shape and guide personal decisions about right and wrong in everyday life.
Theories To Determine the Fetus Moral Status and How Each Theory Influences Recommendations for Actions
Maria’s Theory Based on Relationship and Sentient Properties
Maria’s moral decision is to save the life of the unborn child. Based on her actions, she appears to have a sentinel character and is emotionally dramatic. She inspires Maria to have faith by carrying the pregnancy to term and allowing Gods intention (Grand Canyon University, 2015). According to Beauchamp & Childress (2013), moral theory based on sentience involves a person’s ability to feel another person’s pleasure and pain as differentiated by perception and thughts. Maria also incorporates relationship properties in an attempt to influence Jessica’s moral decision by asking her to think about her motherly role. Case study on moral status.
The theory grounded on relationships emphasizes that the relationship between humans with those he/she values accounts for moral status (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). More particularly, in this case, Jessica has a parent-child relationship with well-established roles and responsibilities to her unborn fetus. Applying the moral theory based on sentience and relationships, the best action is that Maria should carry the pregnancy to term and deliver.
Dr. Wilson’s Moral Theory As Supported by Cognitive Properties
Dr. Wilson is of the decision that Jessica should procure a medical abortion. His suggestion is scientism and ethical principles of western medicine. The theory grounded on cognitive properties holds that, for a competent human adult to have moral status, he/she should have cognition failure to which he/she is not valuable or have moral status (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). He backs his suggestion using scientific facts by explaining how the fetus condition was rare and had an estimated 25% risk of Down’s syndrome (Grand Canyon University, 2015). From an ethical perspective, he has the obligation to educate Jessica and recommend her the best action from a medical perspective. It is for this reason that the most recommended course of action as suggested by Dr. Wilson and backed by a medical and scientific background is to procure an abortion. Case study on moral status
Marco’s Moral Theory Based on Relationships
Marco is pro-choice on unwanted pregnancies. He requests that Jessica is not informed about the fetus devastating condition. However, after Jessica is informed, he is ready to support her on the water decision she makes. He strongly believes that in this case, there is no wrong or right path. However, Macro has racing thoughts about their financial freedom, which reveals his materialistic mindset (Grand Canyon University, 2015). Marco values material possessions more than spiritual values. Applying this theory, Jessica should procure an abortion. However, Marco is ready to support Jessica’s decision because of the relationship he has with her.
Jessica- theory Based on Moral Agency
Jessica is yet to determine her decision in this case. Her relationship with her physician, Maria, and Marco will have a great impact on her decision regarding the fetus moral status. Jessica partially agrees with Marco that the fetus might be a hindrance to their independence and socio-economic progress. Case study on moral status. This materialistic perspective devalues spirituality, religion, and faith. On the other hand, Jessica also aligns herself to faith, God and religion and embraces life as sacred. These two views bring conflict, also known as dualism, within her. Dualism is a state where two entities that conflict each other (good vs. evil) separate. Aspects such as scientific values, truth-false, success-failure influence dualism. Moral agency defines Jessica’s moral status. According to this theory, a human is considered a moral agent if they can judge how right or wrong an action is (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). This evidently illustrates that she is the only decision-maker of her course of action.
The theory I Agree With
The author agrees with Aunt Maria’s decision as influenced by the theory based on sentience and relationships. The latter holds that, the relations that exist between humans also determine moral status. More specifically, a person has moral status if he/she relates with other people who value him/her with well-established roles and responsibilities. A perfect example is a relationship between a parent and a child. Using this theory, it is evident that Jessica has a parent-child relationship with the fetus Case study on moral status. Therefore, as a mother, she has a role to fulfill to the unborn fetus. On the other hand, sentience retains that, a person’s moral status is determined by her conscious such as being able to feel pain and pleasure and differentiate the feelings from thoughts and perceptions (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). It is for this reason that Maria understands Jessica’s pain and inspires her to have faith. Applying both theories, the recommended course of action is for Jessica to keep the pregnancy to term and deliver.
References
Beauchamp, T. & Childress, J. (2013). Principles of biomedical ethics. (7th ed.) New York, NY:
Oxford University Press.
Grand Canyon University (2015). HLT 310V Case Study: Fetal Abnormality. Phoenix, AZ.
Kim, H., Callan, M. J., Gheorghiu, A. I., & Matthews, W. J. (2017). Social comparison, personal relative deprivation, and materialism. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(2), 373-392. Case study on moral status