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Deontological theories of ethics
Elucidate the ethical theory of Deontological Ethics
Essay on exploration of deontological ethics
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Recommended: Deontological theories of ethics
Philosophy 324
Case 9
Is a good lawyer just considered good if they keep their confidences with their clients and win their cases? Or is their more to a good lawyer? I think there should be much more. Lawyers should be obligated to doing the morally right action even if it means losing the case. This is what the moral agent concept suggests. Considering this concept, we may no longer believe that a good lawyer is simply an effective legal advocate. Rather, a good attorney should be effective morally, as well as representing his client’s cause. It is because of this that one cannot conclude that a good attorney is one who just wins cases. A lawyer is not just a good legal advocate. An attorney must conduct himself in the behavior of a morally good person and practice desirable character traits.
I believe that the moral agent concept is the ethical way to conduct yourself as a lawyer. I will defend my thesis by offering reasons for my position, including moral theories, objections to my position using moral theories, and responses to the objections which are stated.
My first reason that the moral agent concept is ethical is there is a point when the moral agent will not worry about winning the case because to win the case would involve unethical actions. This reason is backed up by the moral theory deontology. The moral agent treats others as ends in themselves and not as mere means to winning cases. For example, a defendant in a murder trial confesses to his attorney that he is indeed guilty of the crime. The moral agent would not allow for this case to continue. The attorney would report to the authorities that his client is guilty. If the lawyer did not report this to the authorities and continued to represent his client, he would be treating the victim and the victim’s family as mere means to winning the case. Doing this would be unethical.
Someone might argue using deontology that in a circumstance where the lawyer reports his client after he admits to the murder, the lawyer is betraying his client’s trust and treating his client as means. A lawyer cannot swear to his client that everything, including unethical information, will remain confidential if he is going to end up telling on his client. Nobody would hire attorneys if they reported privileged information to the authorities.
Criticisms of lawyers are the topic in Richard A. Wasserstrom's article "Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues." Wasserstrom broke this topic into two main areas of discussion. The first suggests that lawyers operate with essentially no regard for any negative impact of their efforts on the world at large. Analysis of the relationship that exists between the lawyer and their client was the second topic of discussion. "Here the charge is that it is the lawyer-client relationship which is morally objectionable because it is a relationship which the lawyer dominates and in which the lawyer typically, and perhaps inevitably, treats the client in both an impersonal and a paternalistic fashion."
When horrific crimes occur in large cities, many of them can be chalked up to gang violence or to the larger population of that specific city. But when horrific crimes happen in small cities like Lincoln, Nebraska, people begin to ask questions like who did this and why. In 1958, a nineteen year old man named Charles Starkweather put the entire state of Nebraska and possibly the entire nation in a state of terror. With his murder spree taking only three days, Starkweather had collected a body count of ten bodies, including two teenagers and a young child. Understanding Starkweather’s past and state of mind begins to answer the second question of why.
Sally’s prescriptive moral theory combines two separate and unrelated principles to create an all-encompassing moral theory that can be followed by moral agents at all times. The first is rooted in consequentialism and is as follows: 1. Moral agents should cause moral pain or suffering only when the pain or suffering is justified by a moral consideration that is more important than the pain or suffering caused. The second is an autonomous theory, where other’s autonomy must be respected, it is 2. Moral agents should respect the autonomy of moral agents.
This paper will discuss a case study of Pritesh, a 26 years old man who is transferred from the emergency department (ED) to the high dependency unit (HDU) with the developing of a tension pneumothorax. Initially, a general description of the patient’s chief complaint which is tension pneumothorax will be introduced, following by assessments of the patient’s need. The paper will focus on the discussion of nursing care and management for the patient, and a brief summary and evaluation of the care will be given. Lastly, a conclusion of what author has learned from this case study will be present.
Case introduction: A 19 year-old gentlemen, SS, presented to station 20N through the emergency department, following what was described by friends and family as “bizarre behavior.” SS had recently begun college at a local liberal arts school. He had done well during the first semester, but began to struggle academically during the second semester. Family attributed the decline in academic success to an increase in class size, which made SS uncomfortable. Several weeks prior to hospital admission, SS became increasingly isolated, spending the majority of his time in the dorm room and less time in class. Friends and roommates reported that SS was exhibiting bizarre behavior, often confiding in friends that he was being “spied on” by others and that people around him could “read his thoughts.” SS also endorsed a strange delusion in which those around him would blink simultaneously as a form of communication. All of the aforementioned events became overly distressing to SS and his family, so they sought medical help. SS had a limited psychiatric history for which he had seen a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist had put him on an anti-psychotic medication some months prior, but SS self-discontinued the medication after just a several week trial. As a result of the above, and a lack of explanation regarding the past psychiatric referral, the events were described as “first-episode psychosis.” Discussion regarding the diagnostic work-up followed.
Aristotle, one of the forefathers of agent morality, understood that universal and formalist rules alone could not sustain virtue. Practical wisdom, “a truth-attaining intellectual quality concerned with doing and with the things that are good for human beings” allows the moral agent to operate virtuously in a context-specific way. “[I]t is not possible,” Aristotle writes, “without practical wisdom to be really good morally.” Obedience to fixed rules cannot govern action “to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, for the right reason, and in the right way.” In order to cultiv...
In this essay the author will be discussing a case study of a patient with a condition of major depression. The author will also discuss what depression is; the assessment that was done on the patient, interventions and medications as well as the effects of the condition on the focused patient in my case study. The author has chosen to use this condition for their case study because they find depression interesting in terms of what and how much impact it had on this patient’s physical, sociological and mental state. Moreover, using this patient’s condition for the case study will enable the author to know the care needs of the patients with this condition in the future. Also studying depression for the case study will also help improve the author’s theoretical and practical knowledge of depression. Names that are used in this case study have been changed in order to meet up with the requirements of Nursing & Midwifery Council code of conduct (NMC, 2008) on privacy and confidentiality. Mrs Smith had been admitted to the community hospital for rehab following a discharge from Hospital; she had recently been diagnosed with a condition of major depression in January 2014. She already was suffering from a condition of anxiety just after she had lost her mother in August 2013.
This case study is based on Piaget’s theory of Cognitive development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence that is based mainly off of age, and was first developed by Jean Piaget. I will be testing this theory out on a six year old boy who I will call “Jordan.” I will be checking to see if Jordan falls in to the Preoperational stage of Cognitive development which ranges from age 2 until approximately age 7 and if he is in transition to Concrete Operational stage which ranges from age 7 until about 11 years. The following questions will be answered: Does he interpret language literally? Does he understand conservation? Does he think of things in terms of his own activities? Does he solve problems by pretending or imitating? Does Jordan have approximately 2000 words in his vocabulary?
An attorney is like any other profession, such as a doctor, mechanic, accountant, or engineer, there are good ones, and there are bad ones. With lawyers, it is extra tough for the average person to tell the difference. Also, in a civil courthouse you do not get to pick your lawyer, you take what they give you. One attorney states that "50 percent of all people engaged in litigation will end up hating, at least, two lawyers," (Case). There are the lawyers who graduated from law school, passed the Bar Exam, and are licensed to practice law in the state, but seem to have no idea how to defend a client in a criminal case at trial due to lack of experience. Some lawyers lose sight of maintaining post-conviction alternative routes for their customers. Another source agrees quotes "The reality is that prosecutorial misconduct is at least as serious a problem at the local level, where prosecutors are less well-trained" (Lindorff). Finding an experienced lawyer who is all for the client is not as easy as it seems, but they do
“That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my mother in paradise. I would meet her saying, “Mother, forgive. Please forgive,” and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame.”
Paralegals have become an essential part of today's legal system, and as the profession becomes one of the leading and fastest growing occupations in the U.S. economy; these individuals perform delegated tasks under the supervision of attorneys. Education has played an important part on this matter; it has facilitated this development by allowing lawyers to use these skills professionals as agents to delegate specific tasks such as legal research, gathering of information and the drafting of specific legal documents under the supervision and final approval of their principals. This has been very significant because now; we can enjoy a speedy process in a cumbersome legal system. From en economic standpoint, it has also been beneficial by decreasing the substantial amount of the legal cost a firm could incur if only lawyers were allowed to perform this kind work.
Despite the longstanding acceptance and promotion for the crime-fraud exception, it appears that the use of the exception to report fraud has been relatively scant and use of ethical rules to sanction lawyers is similarly rare. For those that may favor private regulation or the ability of the market to dictate its own terms it seems that the equilibrium reached was one without lawyers disclosing of their own accord. This could be just viewed as an information failure problem—even if the ability to report fraud up the ladder was technically already available, lack of knowledge may have prevented lawyers from reporting fraud when they otherwise would have done so.
This case study is intended to analyze the movie When a Man Loves a Woman, and to provide worst and best case scenarios for treatment. This film depicts a family that is struggling with a family member’s alcoholic dependency. The mother, Alice Green, is a school counselor who has an addiction to alcohol that is causing her to experience problems in her life as a result of her use. Her husband, Michael Green, is an airline pilot that is very protective Alice and often steps in and takes over for Alice, even in her role as a mother. Alice has two children, Jess and Casey, which also bear witness to their mother’s deterioration from alcohol addiction.
Ethics can be defined as "the conscious reflection on our moral beliefs with the aim of improving, extending or refining those beliefs in some way." (Dodds, Lecture 2) Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism are two theories that attempt to answer the ethical nature of human beings. This paper will attempt to explain how and why Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism differ as well as discuss why I believe Kant's theory provides a more plausible account of ethics.
...at night, I loved my hair, every single strand of it. I loved her ability to be straight or curly, sleek and sexy or fun and bouncy. I found myself brushing my hands through my hair, and she cherished the affection. I bought every hair product Pamela used in my hair, hopeful I could shape my hair myself. And, although it took a few weeks to learn Pamela's styling techniques, my hair and I quickly found a rhythm.