Utilitarianism
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Option One
When a patient in a healthcare institution wants to end their life, it would be best to consult with the doctor, and the doctor will give the patient the best solution. As a nurse, what I can do in this case is to ask the doctor to provide more doses of painkillers to aid the patients to feel more comfortable. In this scenario, I cannot grant the patients their wish to end their lives because it will violate the law and code of nursing ethics.
Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that stand for pleasure or happiness and oppose actions that cause harm or unhappiness (Mitra, 2019). For utilitarian's, the patients suffering due to disease should be given an injection to end their lives because the disease is causing unhappiness. Additionally, they would say that ending the life of a patient suffering would make another patient receive medical care.
The concept of ethical egoism notes that every individual should pursue his or her self-interest exclusively (Gates, 2013). In this case, patients are acting in their interest by requesting the nurse to end their lives, but they do not consider the nurse's penalties. The theories of ethical egoism and utilitarianism are within consequentialism that emphasize the results of conduct as the basic motivation of an act and the critique of whether or not the action is ethical. The main difference between the two is where the actions are directed.
References
Gates, D. (2013). Self-Interest, ethical egoism, and the restored gospel. Brigham Young University Studies, 52(22-13), 52(22-35).
Mitra, R. (2019). Utilitarianism: An ethical decision-making approach. Ethics, 1-14. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.30208.99843