Moral dilemmas are common in the workplace and cut across various professionals worldwide. In the medical profession, particularly, caregivers face ethical dilemmas in their ordinary course of work, which primarily involves administering quality healthcare to patients. In effect, such dilemmas occur when two options are available and neither will resolve the issue at hand ethically. Societal guidelines, as well as personal principles, have a significant effect on the outcome for the chooser. The critical assumptions in ethical dilemmas is that one’s knowledge of codes and laws that stipulate the behavior of a professional take precedent when dealing with such situations. A critical analysis of the ethical dilemma in question demands the establishment of the branch of ethics in which it falls because various moral dilemmas require different approaches. This paper will analyze the ethical situation involving artificial embryo and recommend a concrete action.
Moral Agents
One’s ability to be ethically upright is of the essence in upholding moral correctness. In essence, the moral agency exists where the decision-maker can discern right from wrong and uphold accountability. The doctor responsible for the artificial embryo performance is the scenario’s moral agent and has the mandate of making a decision that neither violates codes of ethics nor cause unjustified harm. Such a decision, much as it is highly promoted, can be quite difficult and will thus require a careful assessment of the parties involved as well as a critical consideration of the consequences of the options available. The conventional approach to moral agency assumes that the persons held accountable are the only agents. In the is respect, individuals with no mental capacity to make sound judgments are disqualified as moral agents. The doctor, therefore, is expected as a moral agent to be accountable for the harm that may occur on the couple. Also, corporations may be moral agents in that they represent the actions of their employees. In extreme situations, usually, organizations limit themselves from liability of harm caused by their employees. Since no limit of liability is disclosed, the argument makes the hospital or the medical institution in which the doctor operates to be a moral agent.
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Ethical Violation
Early stages of pregnancy are vital in the development of a healthy baby, and a single misdoing may cause lifetime harm to the child later in life. The crucial factor behind the development of the artificial embryo is crucially mitigating the complications that may arise in the embryonic stages of life in the uterus. Also, artificial embryos are essential in researches involving early human development stages rather than using real embryos. Principally, the purpose of a synthetic embryo is to enable couples struggling with infertility. However, the married couple has no substantial claim of infertility and are assumed to be fully capable of undergoing the natural conception. Their request, therefore, violates the intended purposes of the new technology.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders differ from one profession, environment or field to another. Essentially, a stakeholder is an individual to whom the actions or decisions made by persons bestowed that responsibility affect. In this scenario, there exist various stakeholders. First, the couple is mutual parties to the agreement established with the doctor and will be affected by his decisions accordingly. On the one hand, the couple will enjoy a simplified conception process should the doctor elect to assist them. This would entail the doctor undertaking various activities to create a synthetic embryo for the couple.
On the other hand, if the doctor’s decision is not to partake the process, the couple would feel under prejudice and denied something to which they are entitled. Further, the doctor is another stakeholder who in this case also happens to be the principal moral agent and the decision-maker. The hospital or the medical institution where the doctor works is also a stakeholder in that his decisions may affect its corporate image depending on the magnitude of the consequences.
Possible Courses of Action
A course of action entails an alternative decision that the decision-maker preplans to establish an option that will cause minimal harm to the parties involved. A typical ethical dilemma has two courses of action whereby only one of the two courses is allowed by the situation. In this case, the doctor has two alternative actions from which to choose. The matter at hand necessitates choosing the course with the most appropriate and morally unproblematic repercussions.
A possible course of action is denying the couple the service of a synthetic embryo. This would entail denial of service on substantial grounds which the doctor will explain to the patients. The doctor may inform the clients that the artificial embryo operation is prescribed for those who have infertility.
Another course of action is to offer his expertise to them for a fee. This course would entail commencing on the procedure at the client’s convenient as well as in consideration of the critical health needs. Since the process involves an operation, the doctor is still under the obligation to state outright the significant impacts of the process and its known shortcomings.
Consequences Associated with the Courses of Action
Understanding the outcomes of a decision are critical in solving the dilemma at hand. The two courses of actions have independent consequences that the decision-maker (doctor) must bear in mind. First, the doctor may elect to deny the couple the services on the grounds that it is not necessary. It is within order to assume that the couple experiences no infertility issues and can have children the normal (non-synthetic) way. The outcomes of this decision are primarily related to the patient-physician relationship in which the couple may feel denied their right to access medical help from the health institution. Every citizen has the right to access quality healthcare, and since the two are willing to meet the required expenses, there exists a cogent argument that the doctor should offer them the service.
Similarly, the decision to allow the couple to access the artificial embryo service has its consequences. Since the use of human embryo models is legally accepted for reproductive purposes, the application of the technology is no doubt lawful. Nonetheless, the doctor risks losing his credibility and violating his professionalism by allowing a practice that is otherwise necessitated for individuals incapable of conceiving in the natural manner (Regalado, 2017). Also, the full form of the human embryo is still unknown since the current successful tests have only been carried out in mice (Regalado, 2017). In effect, the side effects of the technology on the human body remain unknown to the doctor as well as the couple. Thus, the doctor risks conducting an operation that may later harm on the health of his patients or the baby or both. Also, the process involves surgery which may also pose a threat in the patient’s health in both the short and long run.
Analysis Using Five Objectives Ethical Theories
Five theories will play a significant role in analyzing the case.
Kantianism
This deontological moral theory holds that the correctness of one’s course of action depends solely on the fulfillment of one’s duty, not the consequences. Thus, the doctor will be right to agree to carry out the procedure as he will be fulfilling his principal duty of providing quality healthcare to his patients.
Act Utilitarianism
The system holds that the rightness of one’s course of action depends on whether or not it results in the best possible outcome in the present circumstances. Therefore, Act utilitarianism justifies the doctor’s refusal to offer the service since simplicity and time effectiveness do not outweigh the quality of life and the minimal risks involved in the natural conception.
Rule Utilitarianism
This theory states that the wrongness or rightness of an action depends on its ability to satisfy the rule that leads to the greatest good. Thus, the approach takes account of the collective good it brings, not the mere immediate outcome to the involved parties. Accordingly, the doctor’s most appropriate course of action will be offering the services to the couple.
Social Contract/Rawl’s Principles of Justice
Rawls suggested two principles regarding justice: each person is entitled to equality of rights, and economic inequalities should bring the most significant benefit to all. Thus, disallowing the procedure to the couples seem appropriate if the doctor will cite its health implications.
Virtue Theory
The approach emphasizes on virtues of mind when carrying out ethical decisions. The doctor will be justified to deny the service since it was crucially purposed for people struggling with infertility, unlike the couple who want to commercialize it.
Relevant Clauses
Principal among ethical clauses involved in this scenario include:
ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
Code 1.1: Contribute to society and human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing .
Software Engineering Code of Ethics
Code 1.05 Ensure an appropriate methodology for any project on which they work or propose to work.
Recommended Concrete Action
The five ethical theories provide a useful analysis from which the doctor’s most appropriate course of action is determinable. The Kantianism and Rule Utilitarianism theories are the only approaches that justify the doctor’s decision to offer the synthetic embryo service to the couple. Contrariwise, the rest three approaches – Act Utilitarianism, Social Contract, and the Virtue theory – hold that the doctor’s decision of denying the couple the choice is within reason. Thus, systems advocating for the denial of services outweigh those allowing it. The doctor should, therefore, offer sufficient information to the couple on the benefits of natural conceptions while pinpointing the adverse effects of the artificial embryo to them and the child.
Reference
Regalado, A. (2017). Artificial human embryos are coming, and no one knows how to handle them. Technology Review .
