Instructions

Ethical Dilemma/Memo

There are three candidates waiting for a kidney transplant:

John, Jr., a 17-year-old boy with a history of medical conditions;
Mary, a 40-year-old woman with a history of opiate addiction; and
George, a 57-year-old former smoker.
John, Jr. is the son of a famous, now retired athlete who has offered to donate five million dollars to the hospital if his son receives the kidney.

Mary is a mother of three children who has been successfully in recovery from her addiction for the past 5 years. She has shown no signs of potential relapse.

The last candidate, George, is a construction worker who has not smoked in over 10 years. He has had lasting complications from the smoking but is in good health and eligible for the transplant.

You are the deciding vote on the ethics committee of your hospital.

Draft a memo that addresses the positive and negative elements of each candidate, and explain how those elements played a role in your decision. Apply the ethical theories you encountered in the textbook. You will need to indicate why you selected the candidate you did and why you did not select the others. Include any specific nonmedical characteristics about each candidate that influenced your decision.

Make sure you are applying ethical theories and reasoning and can ethically and legally justify your answer. You can provide some opinion in your answer; however, the majority of your response must be based upon facts and ethical arguments.

Your memo should consist of at least 500 words.

Microsoft Word contains several memo templates that you can use for this assignment. Also, several templates for memos can be found online using your favorite search engine.