Ethics: Horizontal Violence in the Nursing Profession.

1. Using MS Word, type a one-page response to the scenario with the following content with 11 font size:
A. Across the top, title your paper “CHEN 4520 Ethics HW”. Below the title give your name and the date.
B. Describe in a brief paragraph the decision you would make, i.e. the course of action you would take given the scenario.
B. In a second brief paragraph, offer a rationale for your decision, i.e. a reasoned explanation for your decision.
C. Lastly, comment on whether the AIChE Code of Ethics or the two ethical theories, or both, offered any guidance for your decision, and if so how.
The line spacing, font size, and margins should be similar to this document.

((Heart transplant scenario))
This scenario is taken from McGraw-Hill General and Human Biology Bioethics Case Studies. While this specific scenario is not necessarily one that practicing engineers would encounter, the larger ethical issues are pertinent.
The hospital ethics committee was discussing an important and urgent case. A donor heart had become available, but an extremely rare thing had happened. Two heart-transplant candidates in the hospital were both matches for the donor heart. One patient was known to the committee as Mr. X, the other as Ms. Y.
For someone with heart failure, Mr. X had been on the transplant waiting list a long time. He had been waiting one year and was near death. Ms. Y had just been placed on the list and could be sustained with medication for quite some time, possibly until another heart became available. The answer seemed obvious-give the heart to Mr. X.
A number of the members of the committee did not agree with this answer. They argued that time on the transplant list should be only one factor considered. They saw a problem in Mr. X’s medical record.
Mr. X was 64 years old and had suffered from a heart condition for years. He had had two angioplasties and two bypass operations to correct a blockage of the heart’s blood vessels. The problem seen by some committee members was that Mr. X still smoked, ate fatty foods, and was very overweight. After each procedure, doctors had warned Mr. X that he must change his life-style, and that if he didn’t, his condition would worsen. He never stopped smoking, however, and never changed his diet. He said it was too hard.
Research has proven that smoking and high cholesterol are risk factors for heart problems. Blockage of the coronary arteries is directly attributed to these two factors. Treatments such as angioplasty (opening the blood vessels by passing a tube into the arteries) and bypass surgery (connecting new blood vessels that go around the clogged ones) can correct the problem, but they are not a total cure. To avoid further problems, patients must control their diet, stop smoking, and alleviate stress. This, of course, is not easy. Mr. X appeared not even to try.
The heart was about to be airlifted to the hospital. The committee had to make their decision very soon.
What should the committee do?

(AlchE Code of Ethics)
Taken from HYPERLINK “https://www.aiche.com” www.aiche.com, the AIChE Code of Ethics:

Members of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor and dignity of the engineering profession by:

Being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity their employers, their clients, and the public;

Striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession;

Using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human welfare.

To Achieve these Goals, Members shall:

Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and protect the environment in performance of their professional duties.

Formally advise their employers or clients (and consider further disclosure, if warranted) if they perceive that a consequence of their duties will adversely affect the present or future health or safety of their colleagues or the public.

Accept responsibility for their actions, seek and heed critical review of their work and offer objective criticism of the work of others.

Issue statements or present information only in an objective and truthful manner.

Act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, avoiding conflicts of interest and never breaching confidentiality.

Treat fairly and respectfully all colleagues and co-workers, recognizing their unique contributions and capabilities.

Perform professional services only in areas of their competence.

Build their professional reputations on the merits of their services.

Continue their professional development throughout their careers, and provide opportunities for the professional development of those under their supervision.

Never tolerate harassment.

Conduct themselves in a fair, honorable and respectful manner.

(Basics of utilitarian and deontological ethics)
Below are capsule descriptions of two major ethical theories taken from Encyclopedia Britannica:

UTILITARIANISM: a philosophy in which an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness—not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. Such a theory is in opposition to egoism, the view that a person should pursue his own self-interest, even at the expense of others, and to any ethical theory that regards some acts or types of acts as right or wrong independently of their consequences (see deontological ethics). Utilitarianism also differs from ethical theories that make the rightness or wrongness of an act dependent upon the motive of the agent, for, according to the utilitarian, it is possible for the right thing to be done from a bad motive. (In short, a follower of utilitarianism acts in a way that he/she believes will lead to the greatest overall good.)

DEONTOLOGY (DUTY ETHICS): places special emphasis on the relationship between duty and the morality of human actions. In deontological ethics an action is considered morally good because of some characteristic of the action itself, not because the product of the action is good. Deontological ethics holds that at least some acts are morally obligatory regardless of their consequences for human welfare. Descriptive of such ethics are such expressions as “Duty for duty’s sake,” “Virtue is its own reward,” and “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.” (In short, a follower of deontology will act in a way that follows their understanding of an absolute code of morally right behavior, even if harm comes to themselves or others. Deontologists have moral absolutes.)