Running Header: A Treatise Concerning Ethical Decision-Making.
A Treatise Concerning Ethical Decision-Making .
Abstract.
An understanding of ethical decision-making requires an examination of morality. Although ethical decisions have been pondered for centuries, a separate discipline for ethical decision-making, bioethics has only been recognized since 1970. These decisions include, informed consent, abortion, research on human subjects, right to health care, and many more areas. In the .
1980's a ten-step model of ethical decision-making was created and is still the basic standard used today. This model incorporates collecting data, utilizing ethical resources, proposing and testing resolutions, and, ultimately, making the decision. This process is very valuable in nursing judgments and is fundamental to bioethical nursing. Because decisions will always be made whether ethics, virtues or cultures are considered, the consistent use of this model will result in better outcomes for all involved. .
To fully understand the process of making an ethical decision, there must be an understanding of human morality. Ethics and morality began with the caveman. For instance, cavemen would often hit other cavemen in the head with their clubs; eventually, the injured caveman asked the aggressor, "Why did you do that?- and thus morality had its foundation and would become a pre-occupation of mankind for millennia. Ronald Dunlop pointed out that "both Piaget and Kohlberg considered the ability to see things from another person's perspective, or role-taking, a pivotal concept in their theories of moral development- (Dunlop, 3) This concept establishes the importance of other people's perspectives in making good ethical decisions and is a distinguishing characteristic of moral maturity. Ethical decisions have been made for centuries; however, according to Husted & Husted (2001), it was not recognized as a separate discipline in the medical field until recently: "Bioethics "ethics as it relates to the health care profession "came into existence as an independent discipline about 1970- (p.