Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Ethical Analysis: John Q
The film John Q (2002) depicts the struggle of a father whose 9-year-old child needs a heart transplant the family cannot afford, and who lacks the insurance coverage to ensure his child can have this lifesaving surgery. John Q. Archibald holds an entire hospital staff hostage (including its administrator, physicians, patients, as well as the ER staff) to demand Michael is put back on the transplant list and continues to receive the care he needs to survive. This paper will analyze the extreme choice Archibald makes to preserve his childs life from the paradigm of virtue ethics.
Ethical Analysis
Virtue ethics is one of the three major ethical paradigms in philosophy. In contrast to utilitarianism or consequentialism (which emphasizes that ethical decisions should be analyzed from the perspective out outcomes) or deontology (which emphasizes following ethical norms or rules) virtue ethics stresses the need to honor moral virtues in ethical decision-making (Hursthouse & Pettigrove, 2022). Virtue ethics stresses the need to uphold the correct virtues when undertaking specific moral actions.
The film highlights the ethical quagmire that is for-profit American medicine. On one hand, as a parent, Archibald is upholding the moral action of preserving his sons life at all costs. He is standing against a system which is putting profits ahead of helping people. On the other hand, the virtue of preserving life and showing benevolence to patients is not upheld by putting hospital staff and other patients at risk. Although Archibald is depicting as releasing some hostages who are very sick, this does not discount the significant trauma to which he subjects the entire ER, not just the persons responsible for his situation. The fact he prevents other individuals from receiving care, as well as does psychological damage to them, cannot be overlooked.
On the part of the physicians themselves, medical ethics specifically holds that they must honor ethical virtues of fairness, honesty, judgement, kindness, leadership, and teamwork (Kotzee, Ignatowicz, & Thomas, 2017). In this scenario, the physicians must not just consider the fate of Archibalds son Mickey, but of all patients. Even if the system of medical insurance and funding patient surgeries is not what they necessarily believe in, they cannot treat each patient with the same love and care as they might if that patient was their own child. They are honest with Archibald regarding his sons prognosis.
On the other hand, not all the actors Archibald holds hostage are seemingly so blameless. For example, administrator Rebecca Payne puts profits over people in her statement that if Archibald cannot put down a $75,0000 payment towards his sons surgery, she is willing to allow the child to die. From Paynes utilitarian perspective, the hospital must stay in business and help the maximum number of people possible, versus focusing on the life of one child (Dimmock & Fisher, 2017)....…if they did not like the financial and ethical decisions of their insurance companies and the hospital administrators.
On the other hand, the administrators would likely not have taken such a cold, ethical calculus in determining whether to perform a surgery or not or set a deadline for a down payment for a life-saving surgery, if one of their own family members lives was at stake. The film suggests this perspective finally gains some validity in the eyes of the administration, as Payne agrees to add the childs name to the transplant list, despite Archibalds inability to come up with the $75,000 immediately. The film ultimately suggests that there is room for compassion and virtue in offering mercy to others, even if it does not validate Archibalds violence. Utilitarian calculus is not a way to govern society anymore than pure emotionalism (LeBar, 2020).
Concluding Reflections
Ultimately, the sympathies of anyone who has had to deal with the American healthcare system will lie with the father in the scenario. But ethically speaking, virtue ethics suggests that there is still a moral obligation to minimize harms by upholding as many virtuous ideals as possible, and the harms of Archibalds actions should not be discounted, even if his virtues are greater than those of the administrators focused upon profits. Viewed from a Rawlsian perspective, seeking some sort of compromise is necessary, given that promoting health of children is a universal good, and health is not…
References
Cassavetes, N. (Director). (2002). John Q [Film]. Evolution Entertainment.
Children’s health insurance program (CHIP). (2022). Healthcare.gov. https://www.healthcare.gov/medicaid-chip/childrens-health-insurance-program/
Dimmock, M., & Fisher, A. (2017). Ethics for A-Level. Open Book Publishers.
Hursthouse, R. & Pettigrove, G. (2022). Virtue ethics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
Kotzee, B., Ignatowicz, A., & Thomas, H. (2017). Virtue in medical practice: An exploratory study. HEC forum: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Hospitals’ Ethical and Legal Issues, 29(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-016-9308-x
LeBar, M. (2020). Justice as a virtue. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/justice-virtue/
Ethical Dilemma In the first scenario, the vice president of a beer company has been asked to organize a lobbying effort to reduce the drinking age to 18. From a strictly legal perspective, there is nothing wrong with this request. The company has the legal right to lobby government for legislative changes that it wants to see. Indeed, the Citizens United ruling expands the privilege of free speech in elections to
In such a case, moral code is not the only decision making tool (Harding, 2010). Many things come into play when one is confronted with an ethical dilemma. In this situation, the new officer would not want to go against his older and experienced officers. It would also not to be right to order for food freely when the restaurant is opened purposefully for business. The available choices build
Ethical dilemmas surrounding DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders Ethical dilemmas surrounding Do Not Resuscitate orders In carrying out their duties, health care givers face many ethical issues that sometimes affect their personal lives. These require that they make ethical decisions, which may affect them and their patients, as well. An example of a situation that puts the health care givers into an ethical dilemma is the application of the Do Not Resuscitate,
Ethical Dilemma I once worked as an office assistant at bank. Amongst other things, the office handled investments for clients. This business is fraught with ethical issues. In one situation, there was an employee - a stock broker -- who was pedaling to his clients a company in which he had an interest. This is considered to be unethical, because people who advise on investments are supposed to have a duty
4, para.2). Therefore, the presence of an underlying mental illness that did not render a defendant unable to appreciate that he was committing a crime or compel him to commit it, may still be sufficient to mitigate the crime. Furthermore, a lack of mental ability that does not rise to the level of mental retardation may be introduced to mitigate the crime. Therefore, the forensic psychologist needs to be able
This is an extraordinary ethical dilemma, historically speaking and thus reflected through the novel, because, from a utilitarian point-of-view, the action of allying with the Soviets during the Second World War is just: choosing the lesser of the evils to defeat the greatest evil manifesting itself at that time, the evil one is fighting. On the other hand, given the later implications, the evil force that the Soviet Union came