Increasingly, technological change is raising serious ethical and moral issues


Increasingly, technological change is raising serious ethical and moral issues: gene mapping of humans, genetic cloning, stem cell research, and so on. Life support technology also raises serious ethical issues in medical decisions. Research one of the topics and discuss the general outcomes versus overall ethical considerations. Support your ideas with rationales from the literature.

 

For your initial post, review the videos The Plague That Made People Dance Themselves to Death, How to Understand Power, and A Black Man Undercover in the Alt-Right. Then answer the following questions:

Have social media platforms helped us become more social? Or have they isolated us more? What does social psychology suggest?
Are echo chambers changing the way we see the world? How can we avoid being a victim of what some refer to as the social media bubble?
How can social media developers encourage users to engage in a constructive, respectful dialogue with others—both within and outside of their communities? Make sure to provide concrete examples.
Should social media users be restricted to people older than 18? At what age might a person become able to begin using social media in healthy, adaptive, and socially responsible ways? Explain your response.
How does the concept of group behavior apply to any of the following programmatic course themes:
Self-care
Social justice
Emotional intelligence
Career connections
Ethics
 

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Ethical Analysis: Life Support Technology and Medical Decisions

Life support technology, which includes mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH), dialysis, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), raises profound ethical and moral issues at the intersection of medical capability and personal autonomy.

General Outcomes vs. Ethical Considerations

General Outcomes (Medical Capability)Overall Ethical Considerations
Outcomes: Prolonging biological life, allowing time for diagnosis, potential recovery from acute illness, and delaying death.Autonomy: Does the intervention align with the patient's previously expressed wishes (living will, DNR status) or current capacity for self-determination?

Rationale from the Literature:

The core conflict in life support decisions lies between the medical imperative to preserve life (beneficence) and the patient's right to refuse unwanted medical intervention (autonomy). Ethical consensus, established by documents like the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, strongly supports patient autonomy as the paramount principle. When a patient lacks capacity, the decision often defaults to the substituted judgment of a surrogate, guided by the principle of best interest (Beauchamp & Childress, 2019). The concept of medical futility arises when treatment is judged to be useless because it cannot achieve the patient's goals (i.e., restoring cognitive function or conscious existence), leading to the ethical conclusion that continuation is not required and may even violate the principle of non-maleficence (prolonging suffering).