Week 6 Assignment: Memo – You Decide

Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

· Textbook: Chapter 8; review previous chapters

· Lesson

· Link (file): Memo Template Preview the document( also attached document)

· You Decide (See page in Week 6) see below

· Minimum of 2 scholarly sources

Instructions This assignment presents a difficult and painful medical dilemma, with you in an imagined professional role. Go through the You Decide scenario and make the decision it calls for. Then, compose an official memorandum that will be kept for the record and could potentially be read not only by your Peer Review Committee but also by those involved in charitable fundraising, which supports hospital development, as well as by others with financial interests in the decision.

In the memo (use the Memo Template), explain your decision and your reasoning for it. Include the following:

· Who benefits from what you decided? Explain why.

· Who gets denied a needed benefit? Explain why.

You will see notice that there is time pressure in the simulated situation, so remember that you would not have the luxury to dawdle in the decision-making process, and as the decision maker, you would not have the luxury of consulting a broad spectrum of advisors. It falls on you to decide!

Include in the memo the utilitarian ethical philosophy of John Stuart Mill (from the lesson last week) and one other ethical philosopher of your choosing that we have studied to date. Use both of those philosophies to bolster your decision.

Writing Requirements (APA format)

· Length: 2-3 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 2 scholarly sources)

Grading This activity will be graded based on Ethical Analysis Grading Rubric.

You Decide

You Decide – Choices and Consequences
Scenario

Role

Players

Deliverable

Scenario
Ok, Lead Surgeon, it is time to do what you do best! There is a lot at stake. The decision must be made almost immediately. Like all actions, you will need to write your decision into medical documentation before you begin. Yes, that means YOU! In the limited time before you would begin surgery, you need to consider the cases; the technical issues involved also, and write a Memorandum for the Record to document what decision you made and what considerations you included in your process. This will be on the record, so it needs to be thorough in case it needs to justify your actions at a later date.

Role
You are the Lead Surgeon in a major hospital, and by virtue of your seniority you are also the key decision maker for transplant cases. Right now you have three people who are waiting and hoping for a suitable heart to become available. Your cell phone rings suddenly, and you are notified that a heart has become available-meaning that you need to make a quick yet sound decision about which patient will receive the heart and then schedule surgery for today.

Players
Photo of Jerry

Jerry

Male, 55 year old family man, mid-level manage

Photo of Lisa

Lisa

Female, 12 year old lifelong health issues

Photo of Ozzy

Ozzy

Male, 38 year old homeless drug abuser

Photo of Dr. Doe

Dr. Doe

Male, 35 year old Lisa’s Dad, the oncologist

Deliverable
Your assignment is to make the decision using utilitarian ethics–as this week’s classwork and discussions have brought you that skill–and then to write it up in the form of a Memorandum for the hospital records. Remember that this record could be reviewed by the Peer Review Committee or the Hospital Trustees at a later date. This is Utilitarian Week in our course. Employ what you have learned from J. S. Mill and Utilitarianism this week AND one other of our course’s ethicists (of your choice) from earlier weeks. The Memorandum should be at least two double-spaced pages with a maximum of three pages, in memorandum form, ready to become an official item of record.

One of the great ongoing situations that calls for ethical decision making is the reality that there is almost always a greater need for something than there is a supply to meet the need.

For our assignment and scenario, the demand is the life-and-death situation of the need for transplantable organs and the rather small and transitory supply. Hard decisions need to be made, and there is little time to think things through. These are emergency situations.

Transplantable organs become available on short notice–usually because a donor has died for reasons unrelated to the organ. They need to be removed and transplanted very quickly because they only remain fresh for a limited period. Then there is the whole complicated issue of tissue type matching. There is also an ongoing concern about how long recipients can wait.