Ethical Medical Practices

1. Brock has two fundamental ethic values, the first one being individual self-determination. This value gives the patient the right to make decisions about their lives. Self-determination is valuable because it permits people to form and live in accordance with their own conception of a good life (pg. 402). When a patient exercises self-determination, the patient is exercising their right to take responsibility for their lives. This gives people a chance to make their own decisions about their lives that would go along with their values. The other ethic value Brock talks about is individual well-being. This value talks about how the patient may think that life is no longer considered a benefit for themselves and that they have now become a burden (pg. 402). When the patient exercises well-being, they believe that their life is no longer of sufficient quality and even with treatment they are no
One reason Callahan would not accept Brock’s views is because of the distinction between killing and letting die dealing with the medical perspective. Callahan states that killing is the direct action of another who becomes the cause of death (pg. 399). Callahan also defines that letting die is the result of impersonal forces where no human agent as acted (pg.400). The medical perspective states that killing patients is incompatible with the role of the physician in society (pg. 401). Brock argues that allowing doctors to perform euthanasia is not incompatible with to the moral view of medicine (pg. 402). In Callahan’s article, he mentions that the doctor’s goal is to cure and comfort a patient and not to harm the patient (pg. 401). A physician’s role is important to make the patient better and in Callahan’s opinion the knowledge that a physician carries is to keep the patient alive and to not let the patient die. Callahan believes that the physician shouldn’t harm a patient while Brock believes that it is important that the patient be involved with their own