Assessment Task 3 – Argumentative Essay

Purpose

In this essay, you are required to present a “balanced view” of the topic. This means that you must include alternative ethical perspectives that may not match your ethical stance but still require your consideration. You are required to develop a structured, logical, evidence-informed ethical position. This is not an opinion piece. However, as part of this assignment and based on evidence, you will include your ethical stance related to the ethical dilemma. Consideration of stakeholder perspectives is also important to allow you to demonstrate how different ethical concepts, theories, and principles may be applied depending on who is involved in the scenario. It is important to consider the Standards of Practice/Codes of Ethics related to YOUR profession.

Argumentative Essay

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Should Health Care providers be ethically permitted to refuse to treat patients based on their value systems?
   Or
    
2. Is the recruitment of HealthCare Professionals from developing nations to address staffing shortages in wealthier countries ethically justifiable?

Structure

Introduction: Start with a clear introduction that tells the reader what to expect. A good introduction is a road map to the rest of the essay and advises the reader/marker what you will be presenting in your paper. A good introduction contains:

• A brief background on the ethical importance of the topic.
   
• The specific ethical concepts, principles, theories, and related standards of practice that will be discussed, relevant to the topic.
   
• Present the ethical dilemmas as you will argue them throughout the essay. (Note: You should not determine your ethical stance in the introduction because you do not want to begin with pre-conceived assumptions)
   

Body

This is where you explore in detail how the relevant bioethical principles relate to the topic of your essay. This may ultimately support your central argument, or it may be presenting alternate/opposing views. You are NOT required to present ALL ethical ideas (concepts, principles, or theories), only the ones relevant to your topic.

For example

• Autonomy: Is the person’s autonomy being respected or not? Can it be respected? Are there challenges in supporting this ethical principle?
   
• Beneficence: Is the intention to achieve the best possible outcome for the person? Are there any challenges in supporting this ethical principle?
   
• Non-Maleficence: Is unnecessary harm to the person being avoided? Is it necessary to 'harm' the person? Are there challenges in supporting this ethical principle?
   
• Justice: Are patients receiving equitable care regarding their needs and the available resources? Are there valid reasons for treating certain persons unequally?
   
• In the body of the essay, you also need to include a discussion of other ethical concepts relevant to the chosen topic, such as the Common good and human Dignity.
   

At some point, you will have to justify what takes ethical precedence and why you may have to compromise on any of the four bioethical principles. This is where the ethical theories become useful. Select the relevant ethical theories to support your argument.

• Utilitarian thinking: Are you aiming for the best possible outcome for the greatest good/benefits for the greatest number? Can you demonstrate ethically that it is, indeed, a “good” outcome?
   
• Deontological thinking: Is there a duty or rule that necessitates or forbids a particular type of action? Can you explain why this duty exists?
   
• Virtue-Ethics thinking: Does the proposed action conform to what we might expect of the moral character virtues of health-care professionals?
   
• Ethics-of-Care thinking: Is the person being consulted with a benevolent attitude, and is there sufficient dialogue with the person to work out what is morally best in his or her specific situation? Is there a potential for conflict with any general rules of moral conduct?
   

You should also include Codes of ethics, Professional Standards of Practice, and relevant declarations and charters. Ideally, these should be integrated with other ethical principles, theories, and concepts throughout the discussion.

Before the conclusion, you should clearly state your ethical stance based on the ethics you presented. Summarise how your ideas collectively support YOUR ethical stance (you can write about your ethical stance in the first person).

• State YOUR ethical stance. Frame this “…as demonstrated in the ethical arguments presented, it is/is not ”.

Conclusion

Your conclusion should round off your discussion on the topic. You should:

• Offer some brief concluding remarks on the topic.
   
• No new information should be presented in the conclusion

It can be thought of as a reverse of the introduction – In this paper, the ethical question of has been discussed about…