Sociology – Introduction Law and Ethics
Introduction
In Complementary Medicine Consciousness, Ethics, Morals, and the Law are all aspects of Duty of Care and Professionalism in both unregulated and regulated Disciplines. For this discussion I will be exploring these terms in relation to Individual Support Work, Naturopathy, and living in Society in the 21st Century.
Learning about the Ethical Theorists over the weeks has helped to provide a framework of reference for conscious living in the community and for working in health care. The schools of Ethical Theory include Meta, Normative, and Practical Ethics, and in no particular order: Deontological theory, Utilitarianism, Consequentialism, Virtue Ethics, Bioethics, Feminist ethics, Discourse ethics, Social Contract Based Ethics, and Duty Based Ethics.
From the many schools, one thing that I can take away from the first three lessons is that Society has inherited an eclectic and diverse mix of Ethical and Philosophical views of the world (Kerridge, Lowe, & Stewart 2020). The Theorists include: Aristotle, Plato, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, Simone Debeauvior, Andre Gide, Jurgen Habermas, Thomas Beauchamp, James Childress, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Hippocrates (Ozolins & Grainger, 2016).
Discussion
All three lessons of this subject helped me to think about how human conscious and unconscious thinking and actions apply in, and influence various situations. Lesson three consolidated previous discussions about Ethical and Moral Theories by teaching us about Consciousness. The following statement really helped me to consolidate my learning to see how there is a lot of diversity humanity in thinking and experience, and this shows up in everyday interactions in community and healthcare settings. I began to see the reasoning behind the development of Laws and Codes of Conduct overtime to protect Consumers and Practitioners, and to provide Scope, and Duty of Care guidelines to apply to regulated and non-regulated professions. Following is the statement:
‘Consciousness is not a voice that persuades us toward a particular course of action or releases us from past transgressions…it is Integral to who we are as a human being, engaging with our whole person, it is something we do, and not something we process’ (Endeavour College of Natural Health, 2021).
From Lesson two I began to see that Ethics and Morals belong to Individuals first and aren’t something that should be defined by Government’s, Politics, Institutions, or Business, rather they take Ethics into consideration when making decisions and this doesn’t guarantee that decisions that are made are always ‘Ethical’. The example of ‘Healthcare Ethics’, can be applied here. It came about with input from theorists like Jeremy Bentham and others who advocated in a ‘utilitarian’ way for public welfare and liberation from poor living conditions and sickness amongst members of the community suffering due to factors outside of their control. Over time, Governments invested into the welfare of the people through changing societal views of ‘Ethical’ and legal practices and new laws created ‘precedence’s’ as to how healthcare and social resources should be distributed to the public. The changes occurred through actions of Common Law, and through the development of Acts, and Legislations which were written and amended overtime in State and Federal Law Courts ( Kerridge, Lowe, & Stewart 2020).
From our first lesson the definition of ‘Ethics’, and ‘Morality’, were discussed; Ethics being the study of varying Ethical theories, and the application of these in a situation or circumstance to problem solve, and Morals, being the study of ‘individual or public norms about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and the effort at regulating behaviours according to a moral understanding of a situation or circumstance. We can say that both Ethics and Morals are taken into consideration when making Laws, as in the example above (Kerridge, Lowe, & Stewart 2020).
It’s interesting to also learn the categories of Ethics. We learned about Meta, Normative, and Practical ethics, in the context of how each synergistically affect circumstances such as in personal and therapeutic relationships and boundaries. In a condensed description, they’re concerned with: justice, virtue, right and wrong (meta), rules principles, guidelines (normative), behaviour and decision making. Our readings teach us that there are: ‘5 main elements in systems of ethics which are: ‘the construction and maintenance of a peaceful society, where everyone can benefit and flourish’, ‘a prescription of behaviour’, ‘universality’ and ‘the belief that Ethics are more significant than, politics, self-interest, or the law’ (Ozolins & Grainger 2016). Following is Beauchamp and Childress’s concept of Bioethics as one more example of a ‘system’ of ethics applied to Healthcare.
‘Bioethics’ is the term defined by Beauchamp and Childress to apply a ‘Four Principles Approach’ to Ethics in Healthcare. They are: ‘Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, and Justice’. Alone these are just terms, or words as starting points for how these terms can be applied. In thinking about the terms, it is probable that Bioethics could and does get complicated in a real life workplace because the words above are just guidelines, and in a diverse society of people, there are many viewpoints of what is Ethical in society. The logistics of acting Ethically and Morally at all times in the context of the above four principles is complicated. If one thinks Deontologically or along the lines of Immanuel Kant about Euthanasia for example, then this would possibly be considered wrong, as it is ‘wrong’ to kill, however if one thinks from a utilitarian perspective of Bentham, that the consequences of euthanasia are positive because a client is not in pain anymore, than euthanasia is acceptable (Ozolins & Grainger 2016 ). This example is given by Endeavour college in the lecture notes to help gain perspective about the complexities of Bioethics in a healthcare setting, and also in society, as we see that in our families and communities people have differing views. The takeaway is that we can’t assume to know what is right or wrong for another person, just as we can’t assume that our empathy will inform us exactly of how much a person is suffering. We can only offer high quality support and care by listening with good communication and interpersonal skills, and respecting a person’s rights and the law by providing services that work within these boundaries. From this starting point we can create good outcomes.
Summary
In summary of my learning over 3 weeks, I’ve found the teachings to be helpful in consolidating the current knowledge taught in my Certificate 3 in Individual Support and Advanced Diploma of Naturopathy, and also in my own personal life, because I can see how these teachings have come from the very foundations of ethical theory and history, human rights, and the current laws. In the future I can apply these by being more aware of diversity in thinking, community, and practice, and most importantly in not making assumptions as so often people, myself included, go by experience, feeling, or inner morals, but these things alone don’t create the foundation for good or professional practice, which is more complex in encompassing ethical and moral practices within the scope of the circumstances and the law.