Define any needed key terms associated with the dilemma.

Week 7 Assignment: Course Project Milestone – Final Paper

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• Due Feb 21 by 11:59pm
• Points 100
• Submitting a file upload

Required Resources

• Read/ Textbook: Chapter 12
• Lesson
• Minimum of 5 scholarly sources (This includes the sources from the annotated bibliography. Additional sources may be included as appropriate.)

Instructions
Return to the topic you chose in the week three assignment. Articulate a specific dilemma in a situation faced by a particular person based on that topic. The situation can be real or fictional.

• Summarize the dilemma.
• Define any needed key terms associated with the dilemma.
• Analyze the conflicts or controversies involved in the dilemma.

Revise and rewrite based on any feedback you received in your previous draft (week three). Reference and discuss any professional code of ethics relevant to your topic such as the AMA code for doctors, the ANA code for nurses, etc.  State whether and how your chosen topic involves any conflicts between professional and familial duties or conflicts between loyalty to self and loyalty to a community or nation.

What in your view is the most moral thing for that person to do in that dilemma? Why is that the most moral thing? Use moral values and logical reasoning to justify your answer

Next, apply the following:

• Aristotle’s Golden Mean to the dilemma
• Utilitarianism to the dilemma
• Natural Law ethics to the dilemma

Which of those three theories works best ethically speaking? Why that one?

Why do the other two not work or not work as well?

Is it the same as what you said is the most moral thing earlier? Why or why not?

Use the 5 articles from your annotated bibliography to support your answers. (Additional academic scholarly research from the past 5 years can be included as well.)

Include a reference page at the end of your paper in APA format that includes your bibliography with the annotations removed and any other sources used in your final paper.

Writing Requirements (APA format)

• Length: 4-5 pages (not including title page or references page)
• 1-inch margins
• Double spaced
• 12-point Times New Roman font
• Title page
• References page (minimum of 5 scholarly sources)1

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  The Death Penalty

  Principles of Ethics

  Ethics 445 Professor Kristi Wilson January 20, 2021

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  The Death Penalty

  The topic of the death penalty has been debated over the years in an attempt to justify whether it should be legalized in U.S. states or not. The death penalty is a government-sanctioned taking of a person’s life for committing a capital crime (Desai & Garrett, 2018). The topic has attracted divergent opinions from different groups of people with supporting and others opposing it. It has often been used to punish serious crimes such as murder, arson, treason and drug trafficking among others (Desai & Garrett, 2018).

  Ethical Egoism

  Ethical egoists would support the death penalty by maintaining that the death penalty would protect them from suffering from the actions of capital offenders. Ethical egoists would support the legalization of the death penalty for their own selfish interests rather than communal interests. Ethical Egoism maintains that individuals’ moral obligations are accounted for by their own self-interests (Rachels & Rachels, 2019). Ethical egoists would justify their moral position by stating that individuals do not have to do something because they want to do it, rather because of their best-interests in the long-run. Supporters of the death penalty believe that it deters crime and this would be a strong perspective for the self-interests of ethical egoists. The deterrence effect of the death penalty prevents individuals from the harm of injury or death that arises from the actions of criminals and perpetrators of serious crimes.

  Conflict Between Loyalty to Self and to Community

  The conflict between loyalty to self and to the community would arise if an individual opposes the death penalty because the death penalty was imposed to prevent people from committing capital offenses by inflicting them with the harshest punishment. However, for those who support the death penalty, their self-interests benefit others. The deterrence effect of the death penalty protects the individual lives of the people as well as the welfare of the community. The subjective interests of individuals coincidentally help others as well.

  Best Course of Action

  The best course of action would be to stop the death penalty because individuals have a moral obligation to protect life. No crime can justify taking life from an individual since no one is capable of giving it back to any individual. The death penalty is punishing an individual for a crime with another crime.

  Social Contract Ethicist

  Social contract ethicists would say that the death penalty should be legalized to punish individuals who break the law through capital offenses. Social contract ethicists would support the use of the death penalty in the criminal justice system. Social contract ethicists would justify their moral position by stating that the state has authority over individuals and individuals are part of the decision made by the state (Rachels & Rachels, 2019). The government has the right to exercise power over individuals by making decisions that it deems right; thus, individuals should agree and obey what the state says. Social contract ethicists believe that the social contract theory helps states to avoid states of nature where there would be no courts, no police, no government, no laws and individuals would be looking to satisfy their self-interests. State authority prevents chaos that would arise when everyone tries to look out just for themselves.

  Collision Between Personal and National Obligations

  There is a collision between personal and national obligations because opposes of the death penalty feel that it is the duty of both individuals and the state to protect life and not to destroy it. By imposing the death penalty, the state is destroying the same life it is supposed to protect. The government is punishing individuals who fail to protect life and commit serious –crimes such as murder, by taking the lives of the criminals. Conflict arises when the government requires individuals to protect life and the government itself is causing harm to life.

  Best Course of Action 

  The best course of action is for the government to avoid the death penalty since it destroys life because it has a moral obligation to protect the life of its citizens and not to cause harm. The death penalty causes harm rather than protecting life. Instead, the state can adopt alternative punishments that do not cause harm to life.

  Professional Code of Ethics 

  The American Nurses Association (ANA) released a position statement to address the topic of the death penalty acknowledging that registered nurses (RNs) and other health care professionals have been involved in the execution of the death penalty, where lethal injection is used. ANA maintains that nurses should not participate in the execution of the death penalty to a prisoner, and goes ahead to oppose the death penalty.

  ANA opposes nurses’ participation in the execution of the death penalty either directly or indirectly since the death penalty is viewed as a violation of the ethical traditions and fundamental goals of the nursing profession (Potera, 2017). ANA opposes the use of the death penalty to prosecute criminals and considers the action to be unacceptable, inhuman and cruel. The ANA Code of Ethics requires the nursing profession to take a stance against actions that do not respect the dignity of individuals. ANA opposes the death penalty due to the overwhelming evidence that question the fairness of the death penalty and its effectiveness in deterring serious crimes (Potera, 2017). ANA recommends that the nursing profession should be committed to the delivery of care, preserve the rights and dignity of individuals, preserve the trust of the people, and adhere to the ethical principles of fidelity, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

  References

  Desai, A., & Garrett, B. L. (2018). The state of the death penalty. Notre Dame Law Review, 94, 1255. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/tndl94&div=35&id=&page=

  Potera, C. (2017). ANA expands opposition to capital punishment. The American Journal of Nursing, 117(6), 13. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000520235.99148.4d

  Rachels, S., & Rachels, J. (2019). The elements of moral philosophy (9th ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Education.