Category: Ethics

Ethical dilemma that impacts healthcare professionals

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

select an ethical dilemma that impacts healthcare professionals. You can choose a dilemma that we have discussed in this course, or, one that interests you. If you are having difficulty selecting a topic, please reach out to me. You will then develop practical solutions and utilize an ethical decision-making framework to address the ethical dilemma you chose. Use the following prompts as a guide:

Description/historical overview of the ethical dilemma
Description of the healthcare issue that requires tough decisions
Overview of how the dilemma may challenge the ethics of healthcare professionals
Explanation of both legal/policy and personal decision issues
Include questions that come up and help examine the issue from different perspectives (patient, family, health care professional, community, attorney, policymaker, etc.
Develop 1-2 practical solution(s) to address the ethical dilemma
Identify and explain the concepts for a framework for ethical decision-making that a healthcare professional could use to address the dilemma.

Ethics Cases

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

Rules governing the investment practices of individual certified public accountants prohibit them from investing in the stock of a company that their firm audits. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became concerned that some accountants were violating this rule. In response to an SEC investigation, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) fired 10 people and spent $25 million educating employees about the investment rules and installing an investment tracking system.

a. Why do you think rules exist that restrict auditors from investing in companies that are audited by their firms?

b. Some accountants argue that they should be allowed to invest in a company’s stock as long as they themselves aren’t involved in working on the company’s audit or consulting. What do you think of this idea?

c. Today, a very high percentage of publicly traded companies are audited by only four very large public accounting firms. These firms also do a high percentage of the consulting work that is done for publicly traded companies. How does this fact complicate the decision regarding whether CPAs should be allowed to invest in companies audited by their firm?

d. Suppose you were a CPA and you had invested in IBM when IBM was not one of your firm’s clients. Two years later, after IBM’s stock price had fallen considerably, your firm won the IBM audit contract. You will be involved in working with the IBM audit. You know that your firm’s rules require that you sell your shares immediately. If you do sell immediately, you will sustain a large loss. Do you think this is fair? What would you do?

e. Why do you think PwC took such extreme steps in response to the SEC investigation?

Ethics Cases

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

Rules governing the investment practices of individual certified public accountants prohibit them from investing in the stock of a company that their firm audits. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became concerned that some accountants were violating this rule. In response to an SEC investigation, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) fired 10 people and spent $25 million educating employees about the investment rules and installing an investment tracking system.

a. Why do you think rules exist that restrict auditors from investing in companies that are audited by their firms?

b. Some accountants argue that they should be allowed to invest in a company’s stock as long as they themselves aren’t involved in working on the company’s audit or consulting. What do you think of this idea?

c. Today, a very high percentage of publicly traded companies are audited by only four very large public accounting firms. These firms also do a high percentage of the consulting work that is done for publicly traded companies. How does this fact complicate the decision regarding whether CPAs should be allowed to invest in companies audited by their firm?

d. Suppose you were a CPA and you had invested in IBM when IBM was not one of your firm’s clients. Two years later, after IBM’s stock price had fallen considerably, your firm won the IBM audit contract. You will be involved in working with the IBM audit. You know that your firm’s rules require that you sell your shares immediately. If you do sell immediately, you will sustain a large loss. Do you think this is fair? What would you do?

e. Why do you think PwC took such extreme steps in response to the SEC investigation?

The film John Q

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

Introduction – Provide a brief synopsis of the film John Q that includes the ethical dilemma present in the film. Introduce the ethical theory you will use to analyze the film. 
Ethical Analysis – Apply one ethical theory to the medical ethical dilemma presented in the film. First, describe this ethical theory in your own words, using the readings and course materials as textual evidence for your explanation of the moral view. Next, discuss how this ethical theory could provide solutions or recommendations for remedying the ethical dilemma featured in the film. In your analysis, be sure to address the following questions:
What moral values are present in the film (as they relate to the ethical theory you have chosen)?
Are there instances of moral values in conflict with one another?
What moral guidance does the ethical theory that you selected provide the characters in the film?
Reflection – Summarize what you have discussed in the essay and reflect on what you have learned. Lastly, discuss how what you have learned could be applied to your professional and personal life.
Note – Your essay must be written using APA format, double-spaced, 4 pages in length (not including title page and reference page), and written in Times New Roman using 12-point font.
Your film analysis should feature the application of one (or more) of the following ethical theories listed below:
Virtue Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics
Moral Sense Theory (Conscience)
Social Contract Theory
The Ethics of Care
Kantian Ethics
Moral Relativism

The moral solutions arrived at through “care”

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Assess the moral solutions arrived at through “care” (care-based ethics) and “rights” ethics to social issues of ethical import such as poverty, drug use, and/or lack of health care,
That is, note any ethical problems that arise related to those particular issues. Then, say how both care-based and rights theory of ethics would solve those problems.
Are those solutions correct? Why or why not?
What is your own approach there?

 

 

The moral solutions arrived at through “care”

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Assess the moral solutions arrived at through “care” (care-based ethics) and “rights” ethics to social issues of ethical import such as poverty, drug use, and/or lack of health care,
That is, note any ethical problems that arise related to those particular issues. Then, say how both care-based and rights theory of ethics would solve those problems.
Are those solutions correct? Why or why not?
What is your own approach there?