Assignment task:
1. In the professional field of counseling and psychotherapy one of the ethical codes or guidelines is for therapists to refrain from dual relationships with their clients (one example is your client is also a close friend, or you are engaged in a sexual relationship with your client). The idea here is that great psychological damage can be sustained by a client if proper boundaries are not respected. In some states a sexual relationship engaged in with a client is viewed as an abuse of power and treated as a criminal offense. What ethical theory or theories do you think influenced the formation of this guideline in this profession and why? Be specific about the theory or theories and why?
2. The 97 year old father of a close friend of yours has an abdominal aneurysm. He could live with this condition without the aneurysm ever bursting and just die from old age. but the truth is if it does burst, it will kill him instantly. He has had a quadruple heart by-pass surgery a good number of years ago but now he is chronically short of breath with the least amount of exertion. He has bad knees and he can only see out of one of his eyes and poorly at that. He is however amazingly cognitively sharp and present. There is no dementia present at all. There is a less-invasive-than-the-usual medical procedure available now to more safely remove abdominal aneurysms. His heart doctor is aware of this new less invasive surgery. Knowing that his patients regard him as an authority he wants to be careful about recommending this procedure, especially to his 97 year old patient.
From a strictly ethical point of view, do you think the doctor (as the perceived authority here) should go ahead and recommend this new less invasive surgery to his 97 year old patient with the abdominal aneurysm. It might give the man a few more years of life although it won't correct his failing heart. Or do you think the doctor should refrain from recommending this less invasive surgery which like all surgeries carry risks such as his patient possibly dying on the table. Although the question has definite medical factors to consider it's also an ethical question. So what ethical theories that we studied this semester do you think the doctor should draw upon in order to make the right decision concerning whether to recommend this surgery or not to his patient? What are the ethical questions the doctor must concern himself with in terms of the care he recommends to his patient?