I hope everyone had as excellent a holiday as I did! Although the two weeks did fly by. Time is such a strange concept. Technically time has the same amount of
seconds regardless of how you are spending it, yet when I am on holiday the
seconds seem much quicker than when I am at work. This week I have been thinking about my
ethical views. It has recently been
pointed out to me that I typically have strong alternative views on controversial
topics and I have pondering why that is.
I tend to believe my views are alternative because I take a
particularly logical view on most things.
I am not concerned with the emotionality of a decision, more with the
decision’s fairness. Although I
completely understand that luck is a huge part of an individual’s experience of
life, I also believe that you create your own opportunities. In my experience, your choices dictate your
future. I suppose this is why I took the
view that you should not be eligible to receive organ donations unless you had
previously signed up to be a donor.
Overall, I sign up to the “do no harm” philosophy of
life. You can do whatever you like, as
long it harms no one. But, as a caveat
to that, I believe in taking responsibility for your actions and your
choices. Lady luck may rain all over
your life, but if your actions are authentic then you can still live your best
life. If you choose to become a
registered donor and then later need an organ, there is a certain fairness and
authenticity to that need. You were
willing to donate your organs to help someone else, so you now that you need a
donation, you should be higher on the list than someone who had made the
decision not to help others.
Some could say this is the morality of a young person and I
agree there are countless factors I have excluded from my consideration. However, when I consider my argument, the
fairness over rules all else. But then,
that is just how my brain works. Thank
god we are all different, aye!
2 comments:
Interesting Blog Jess. I definitely agree that your views are one on a younger person. Fairness is a huge factor when you're younger:) I often watch my kids squabbling over who gets the larger slice of cake and what's fair. It's often a toss between the youngest, who always wants his way, and the eldest, who usually gets her way.It's my middle child that I find the fairest, most empathetic and caring. Maybe, being in the middle lets her view the different opinions of her siblings and weigh up the costs of making decisions based on fairness or ethicality.
As someone older and working in the medical profession, I've had to deal with a lot of decisions with regard to fairness and ethics during my life. I was also raised in a country where I was hated purely for the colour of my skin. I take on the view that every patient deserves not only a good change at recuperation, but the best care as well, not because I've taken the oath, but because I genuinely care about their well-being. It takes watching a person die in front of you despite your best efforts, to truly understand that sometimes, there's just nothing we can do. The fact that we've tried however, goes a long way in helping me get over the death. I feel that if a patient dies and I haven't tried my best, then I'm accountable. LIke you say, it's good that we're all different, we can't all be health professionals and we can't all be politicians. It takes all types to keep the world moving:)
Hi Jess,
What a thought provoking blog post. I guess people largely make moral decisions based on their life experience. As a white, middle-class, and relatively educated person in New Zealand it is easy for me to make moral judgements without having to put myself in the shoes of others. Mel makes an excellent point about prejudice for no reason. I have never had to go through life with an awareness of the colour of my skin, even though something that simple isn't a choice, and discriminations due to skin colour is completely unfair, and unjust. In the setting of organ donation is it fair to base treatment on the colour of someone's skin? The obvious answer is no. Why then, base treatment on other grounds? Young people are not necessarily equipped with the knowledge and wisdom to make what may be considered an easy choice by others, and what is fair in their eyes, is not fair in another's. I guess fairness is objective? Fairness to me could be whatever I decide suits me at the time.
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