Research assignment: (Moral Dilemma Case analysis) - In each case scenario, you have to
make a choice from a number of possible actions with compelling ethical reasons. Answer the questions
comprehensively.
Topic 1
What Is Medical Ethics, and Why Is It Important?
What are the basic values, or principles, to decide ethical issues: Explain each
How Medical Values Developed? Discuss comprehensively.
Clinical case:
Doctors Are Unsure About What To Do With "Do Not Resuscitate" Tattoos
Do you have tattoos? Barbed wire on the bicep, little butterfly on the ankle, maybe "No ragrets" on the
back of your head? Whatever it is, we're betting that none of your ink has thrown the entire medical
world into question. That's what happens when doctors discover tattoos reading "Do Not Resuscitate"
on a patient. This gives medical personnel the unenviable task of determining whether the tattoo is
meant as a legally binding life and death order or simply as a bad joke. Don't laugh -- and not just
because it's not funny -- joke DNR tattoos are an actual thing. One guy got the tattoo because he lost a
bet, but fortunately, his paperwork confirmed that he did, in fact, want to live when he was hospitalized
in 2012.
In 2017, a 70-year-old man was admitted to a hospital unconscious, in septic shock, and lacking any
identification. The only thing he had was that pesky DNR tattoo. His doctors had to call in an ethics
consultant, who determined that the tattoo could indeed be interpreted as the patient's genuine wish.
But the issue remains controversial in the exciting world of medical ethics.
A patient's family could theoretically sue a physician who let their loved one die based on some bad ink,
but then, a patient could theoretically wake up and sue once they found out their DNR was violated.
Something to keep in mind before you take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical student
loans: You could theoretically be ruined by a dumb joke tattoo.
What are the competing “rights” in this scenario? What is the issue?
What rationalizations might someone make in this situation?
What outside influences might be in play?
What would be you course of action?
Topic 2
LEGAL ETHICS
Why is Ethics Important in Law?
What is Ethical Legal Standards?
What are the basic values, or principles, to decide ethical issues: Explain each
How Legal Ethics Developed? Discuss comprehensively.
Case Analysis: Attorney-Client Privilege Is Great ... Until An Innocent Man Spends Life In Prison
Because Of It
In 1982, Andrew Wilson shot and killed a security guard while robbing a Chicago McDonald's, because
people who have a good sense of risk versus reward don't hold up drive-thrus in the first place.
Fortunately for him, eyewitnesses identified the killer as a man named Alton Logan, who was sentenced
to life in prison. It's not like things totally worked out for Wilson, as he was being held for killing two
police officers in an apparently unrelated incident at the time. But he just didn't need that on top of
everything else.
Now, Wilson had admitted as much to his two lawyers, secure in the knowledge that attorney-client
privilege prevented them from telling anyone. The attorneys attended Logan's sentencing, reasoning
that if the falsely accused man were sentenced to death for the crime, they'd be free to violate privilege
in order to save a man's life. But no such luck. For the first time in history, it was a bad thing that an
innocent man was not sentenced to die.
Wilson died in prison in 2007. His lawyers had at least convinced him to let them disclose what they
knew after his death, and armed with decades-old affidavits, the pair had Logan freed in 2008. By that
point, he had already served almost half his life in prison, so something tells us he didn't send them a
thank-you note.
What are the competing “rights” in this scenario? What is the issue?
What rationalizations might someone make in this situation?
What outside influences might be in play?
What would be you course of action If you are one of the lawyers who knew that the person held liable
for murder is innocent.
Topic3
Social media ethics
How can we use social media safely and responsively?
Why is social media etiquette important?
What social media should not do?
Case scenario:
You are the network administrator for a rather large company. You have a young family and you need
your job to support them. As part of your responsibility as a network administrator is to monitor the
emails for the organization. Usually this just means occasionally checking emails that have been
accidentally blocked by the spam filters.
One day you get a helpdesk request from a staff member asking for an email to get released. Normally
it’s standard procedure except this time the request has come from the wife of a very good friend of
yours. You recognize the name on the helpdesk request so you quickly attend to the problem. As part
of the procedure you need to manually open up the email to ensure that it isn’t spam, so you do and
you discover that it certainly isn’t spam. You find that it’s actually an email to your friend’s wife from
her lover. You scan the rest of the contents of the email and there is no doubt that she has been
having an affair for some time now.
You release the email, but you can’t decide what to do. You’re initial reaction is to call your friend up
and tell him about the email, however you quickly realize that company policy is very strict about
revealing the contents of information coming from the company server .
In any case you know that revealing this information presents great risk, because even if you don’t do
it directly, there is a good chance that the dots will be joined somewhere along the line and you will
be found out. However you feel that by not telling you friend that you are aiding his wife get away
with adultery and this troubles you greatly.
What would you do?
What are the competing “rights” in this scenario? What is the issue?
What rationalizations might someone make in this situation?
What outside influences might be in play? ( moral authorities)
Topic 4
Journalism ethics and standards
What is journalism ethics?
What are the principles of ethical journalism?
What are the core values of Journalism?
Case analysis:
On January 26, 2020, Kobe Bryant died at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash in the Los Angeles area.
While the majority of social media praised Bryant after his death, within a few hours after the story
broke, Felicia Sonmez, a reporter for The Washington Post, tweeted a link to an article from 2003
about the allegations of sexual assault against Bryant.
The question: Is there a limit to truth-telling? How long (if at all) should a journalist wait after a person’s
death before resurfacing sensitive information about their past?
What are the competing “rights” in this scenario?
What rationalizations might someone make in this situation?
What outside influences might be in play? ( moral authorities)
Topic 5
Social Ethics( discuss comprehensively)
What is the meaning of social work ethics?
Why is social work ethics important?
What are social responsibilities?
Case scenario:
You are providing relationship counseling for a couple who are working on trust and communication
issues and are considering marriage. For several weeks they have been engaging in communication
and mindfulness skills and seem to be making progress. One day, one of the partners calls you a few
hours before the scheduled session and before starting counseling with you, he reports that he is
having a secret affair: he had an impulsive one-time affair several weeks ago when he and his partner
had more doubts about the relationship. He tells you he has no plan to disclose this to his partner
“because things are going so well, and what my partner doesn’t know won’t hurt her…. I just had to
get it off my chest.”
What are the competing “rights” in this scenario? What is the issue?
What rationalizations might someone make in this situation?
What outside influences might be in play?
What would be you course of action?
