Ethics
"When a health care worker makes a mistake, someone can die." Althoughhuman beings are fallible and will always make mistakes no matter howcompetent they are, the consequences of certain errors are more severe thanothers and therefore should be punished accordingly. Health care workershave the lives of human beings in their hands; they should be heldaccountable for their actions even if mistakes were unintentional. Muchhuman error is preventable by adequate training or simple concentration;therefore, it is not unreasonable to hold accountable he
No matter how difficult it isweigh each case, our society cannot and should not enforce ethical laws toorigidly; each case needs to be weighed according to its merits. If a health care worker accidentally spillscranberry juice on a patient, the patient should not be permitted to takeup valuable court time over a stained shirt. The problem is with subjective suffering: if a publicationmisreports a fact, totally by accident, and that misreporting leads to thatperson being fired from a job, then the publication should be forced tohire better fact checkers. The problem with thisposition is the ambiguity that it naturally entails. It would be unfair to tell the victim of, say,the accidental libel or slander, that their grievances are unworthy ofpunishment. In these cases, the publication canbe made legally responsible and suffer whatever consequences that entails. Some cases will be totally clear: a health care worker who waslistening to a Walkman while administering anesthesia who goes on to killthe patient out of negligence should suffer the full extent of the law,whereas a publisher who spells Madonna's name wrong should not be penalizedmuch if at all. Errors that cause minor damage should not be punishable tothe same extent as those that cause major damage. Somehow someone mustweigh the facts and consequences. alth care workersand others who are entrusted with human life. Basically, human errors should be judged in light of theirconsequences. In rare cases, typographicalerrors in magazines lead to disastrous consequences. Victims of a mistake, however small, willwant to seek legal recourse. For example, apublication can unwittingly libel or slander a person and the correctioncomes too late to undo the damage done.
Common topics in this essay:
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health care,
health care worker,
care worker,
health care workers,
libel slander,
care workers,
consequences errors,
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