DNR

DNR

DNR

1. Analyze the ethical principles of human dignity, compassion, non-malfeasance and social justice.

Health ethics evolved into four phases during the last few decades. Traditional ethics, which mainly prevailed until the sixties, involved the relationship between the health care provider and the patient, and was dominated by the Hippocratic culture which had provided it with a core of values for more than 2000 years. Advances in bio-sciences and biotechnology, such as organ transplantation, genetics, and molecular biology, introduced an additional ethical dimension usually referred to as bioethics. (Bolton, 2003, 18)

The democratization and market liberalization which swept the world resulted in an increasing cost of health services. A new ethical dilemma developed because of the growing gap between health needs and available health resources. The concept of health ethics was broadened to what is sometimes refereed to as "health policy ethics". This would cover such issues as health policy priorities, cost effectiveness, coverage, quality, delivery and research. Ethics moved from being a personal matter limited to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the individual to a social matter dealing with the mental and social well being of the people. As we move into the twenty-first century, the promotion and protection of human rights is gaining greater momentum. "The enjoyment of the highest standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition," (Bolton, 2003, 18) stated the WHO constitution in 1946. It is relatively recent that the implications of this statement on ethics and equity in health care have been receiving more support. The dual relationship between human rights and the right to health will impose a fourth dimension on our interpretation of health ethics.

Ethics is grounded on socio-cultural, philosophical or religious convictions of what is good or evil. Ethics is considered as the effort to find justifiable grounds for distinguishing what is right or wrong in human actions and ways of life. Ethics incorporates social dimensions; it is concerned with justice, rights, respect of human dignity, autonomy of the individual and respect of the community. Health policy ethics is concerned with organization financing and delivering health care. In this respect, ethics is a bridge between health policy and values, where values are recognized as guides and justifications people use for choosing goals, priorities and measures. Ethics examines the moral validity of the choice.

In contrary the ethics of compassion is made possible by the fact that our situation as human beings is so tragic that all we can do about it is feeling sorry both for us and for all the others. Compassion is a multiform concept: it is a sentiment that has historical value in many societies, it is a touchstone for helping professions, and it is a virtue and core teaching of most major religious traditions. (Bolton, 2003, 18)

While the thought experiment of the philosopher and the argumentation of the theologian can provide extraordinary insight into compassion, the anthropologist takes a somewhat different route to ...