Course Activity

Making Ethical Decisions

This Course Activity will help you meet these educational goals:
 You will apply ethical theories to make decisions in real-world situations.
 21st Century Skills—You will use critical thinking and problem-solving skills and
communicate effectively.

Introduction
In this activity, you will apply your knowledge of ethics to write a proposal for the ethical
distribution of limited health resources, and attempt to solve an ethical thought experiment.
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Directions and Analysis

Task 1: Write a Proposal for a Specific Resource Allocation
Imagine the following scenario:
You are the director of a large and crowded hospital. Two patients have arrived in the ER and
both require a bed in the ICU to survive. However, you only have one bed available. One of
your patients will die. The one who gets the bed will live. One patient is an 8-year-old boy
with a reputation for lying and being mean to animals. He likes to torture them for fun. He
constantly gets into fights at school and bullies other children. The other is a 99-year-old
woman who has dedicated her life to working with charity and helping the less fortunate. She
is the warm and comforting person that people go to when they have problems or need
shelter and a meal. You have to decide which of the patients gets the bed.

This situation illustrates the problem of resource allocation in hospitals. The resource, in this
case, is medical care, which is limited in many hospitals. Read these guidelines regarding
health care resource allocation and in light of this information, write a letter to the Board of
the hospital with your recommendation. Be sure to include not just a discussion on resource
allocation, but also the ethical implications of your recommendation.

Type your response here:

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Task 2: Solve an Ethical Dilemma
Suppose you are driving a subway train. The train rounds a bend, and you see four workers
who are repairing the track about 50 yards away. You must stop the train if you are to avoid
running the four men down. You step on the brakes, but they don't work. Now, you suddenly
see a bit of track leading off to the left. You can turn the train onto it and save the four men.
However, there is one person working on that track. You will kill him if you turn the train onto
that track.

What should you do? Write a few paragraphs describing the most ethical response to this
situation, in your opinion. You may approach the problem from many different ethical angles
or use one ethical theory that you believe would result in the “right” solution. Once you have
come up with a solution, discuss a few alternatives that make this decision harder or easier to
make.

Type your response here:

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Evaluation
Your teacher will use this rubric to evaluate the completeness of your work as well as the
clarity of thinking that you exhibit.

Total Points: 100

Task 1: Write a Proposal for a Specific Resource Allocation Task points: [50]

 discussing health resource allocation considerations [20]

 discussing ethical theories in making decisions [20]

 substantiating the decision for either patient through ethical [10]

discussion

Task 2: Solve an Ethical Dilemma Task points: [50]

 providing a clear and concise description of the solution to [10]

the dilemma
[20]
 discussing the solution in regard to ethical theory

 discussing components that would make the dilemma [20]

easier/harder to solve