Ethical and Spiritual Decision Making in Health Care Essay Paper

Based on the required topic study materials, write a reflection about worldview and respond to following:
1. In 250-300 words, explain the Christian perspective of the nature of spirituality and ethics in contrast to the perspective of postmodern relativism within health care.
2. In 250-300 words, explain what scientism is and describe two of the main arguments against it.
3. In 750-1,000 words, answer each of the worldview questions according to your own personal perspective and worldview:
a. What is ultimate reality?
b. What is the nature of the universe?
c. What is a human being?
d. What is knowledge?
e. What is your basis of ethics?
f. What is the purpose of your existence?
Remember to support your reflection with the topic study materials.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
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Ethical and spiritual decision making in health care

Part 1: Explain the Christian perspective of the nature of spirituality and ethics in contrast to the perspective of postmodern relativism within health care

Christianity offers a religious perspective on the nature of ethics and spirituality. It contends that spirituality is the religious and theological prism that explains the notion of God in terms of who, what and how. God is perceived as the eternal and all-powerful being above everything and everyone. With the understanding of God as a concept, Christians have developed belief systems that are presented in the Bible. These belief systems explain the purpose of human life, and the truth as well as meaning of life. With this awareness, humans can pursue and achieve a transcendent state for all life experiences. This means that even as humans make choices about life, spirituality ensures that they remaining grounded in following God’s guidance. In addition, it makes Christian more accepting of life since there is the acceptance that God guides all fate and anything that happens must have been permitted by God, whether good or bad. As such, spirituality takes on theological and symbolic functions (Igboin, 2015). Besides that, Christians view ethics as making decision based on God’s instructions as presented in the Bible. They rely on spirituality to conform to God’s expectation without room for ambiguity. The Christian perspective of spirituality and ethics have implications for health care through guiding with decision-making by setting boundaries for accepting choices/options when making decisions. They are particularly focused on lessening human suffering, augmenting wellbeing, and restoring life (Igboin, 2015).

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Postmodern relativism presents a more liberal understanding of spirituality, arguing that there is no absolute truth. It is ambiguous when arguing that God may or may not exist with either one of the options being a possibility. Similarly, with regards to ethics, postmodern relativism contents that contrasting ethical arguments could be valid or invalid with no absolute truth. The implication is that no single argument should be discarded simply because it is contradictory. The postmodern relativism perspective is particularly useful to health care since it support multicultural care delivery through accepting diversity. With this awareness, medical personnel would acknowledge that they do not have a monopoly on the truth about spirituality and ethics, and that obscure cultures should not be ignored (Zavada, 2019).

Part 2: Explain what scientism is and describe two of the main arguments against it

Scientism contends that hard sciences are the only true source of absolute truths and genuine knowledge thus positioning them to offer superior scientific knowledge. It identifies hard sciences as the subjects relying on experimentation and laws of nature to include physics, biology and physics. The hard sciences rely on factual, replicable and testable data thus making their results reliable. Unlike hard sciences, soft sciences are considered as pseudosciences that present guesses and conjecture that are subject to change that may not be replicable thus making them inferior to hard science. The distinction between hard and soft sciences is based on the perceived value of the information they provide. Hard sciences offer more valuable information since they rely on objective skepticism, experimentation and falsification to offer explanatory principles. On the other hand, soft sciences rely on subjectivism thereby presenting opportunities for influences from human nature such that it is not uncommon to have contrasting ideas for the same principle (Moreland, 2018). In this respect, scientism identifies hard sciences as having greater intellectual authority over real knowledge when compared to soft sciences.

There are two main arguments offered against scientism. Firstly, hard sciences do not offer absolute truths and facts since they are restructured by current understanding of the environment and measuring instruments. Things that were previously thought of as absolute truths in hard sciences are not subject to change as new information is presented. This means that information presented by both soft and hard sciences are subject to change over time. Secondly, hard sciences have adopted a tyrannical approach that is over reliant on rationalism while disregarding personal opinion. These tyrannical approaches end up stifling willful thought that is important for discovering new information, and yet this is important for advancing science. Soft sciences have adopted a more accepting approach that allows for willful thought (Briggs, 2019).

Part 3.

(a) What is ultimate reality?

Ultimate reality is the belief that every individual is the product of interactions with the environment. I am the product of nurture, and my environment determines how I develop into a person. My family, neighborhood, community, city, state, government and other environmental factors have all influenced my development through determining my values, mannerism and thought processes. For instance, I would be more accepting of polygamy if I were a Muslim and less accepting if I were a Christian since the two religious principles differ on their perceptions of number of partners in a valid marriage. As such, ultimate reality looks at how experience affects reasons as well as decision-making and life perceptions.

(b) What is the nature of the universe?

The nature of the universe is that it is always experiencing change with the most basic change being time. The universe relies on energy to drive the change with the extent and direction of change relying on the prioritization processes determined by competition, extinction, evolution, and energy conversion. Competition involves struggle to acquire the scarce energy resources. Extinction involves removal of components that are unable to compete either through direct competition or disaster events. Evolution involves adapting to environmental changes that allows for better fit. Energy conversion involves changes between the different forms of energy that begins with solar energy being captured by plants.

(c) What is a human being?

A human being can be defined from two perspectives. The first definition is from the religious perspective that identifies God as the creator of human beings. The Christian story of creation advances that humans were created by God in his image with the intention of them to procreate and do his will that includes taking care of other creations and following the Ten Commandments. The second definition is from the biological perspective that identifies humans as products of evolution who have selectively adapted to develop higher thought processes that allows them to adapt the environment to their needs. The higher thought process has allowed humans to develop complex languages and vocabulary, technology and clothes that allows them to use the environment beyond their physical capabilities.

(d) What is knowledge?

Knowledge refers to the unique sets of facts, information and skills that an individual cognitively acquires through experience and education. Experience involves practice to familiarize with knowledge while education involves attending formal and informal processes to acquire theoretical knowledge. Knowledge allows individuals to have capacity thought processes. For instance, an individual knowledgeable in engineering is able to successfully manage a construction project while an individual knowledgeable in medicine is able to diagnose and treat ailments.

(e) What is your basis of ethics?

My perception of ethics is based on two concepts. The first concept is personal opinion, beliefs and awareness to determine moral right and wrong. This is based on what the environment has taught me. For instance, I personally believe that every person should do honest work to earn a living, and that stealing is wrong. Regardless of my environment and laws, I would find it difficult to steal. The second concept is public principles and beliefs. Although I may have personal beliefs, they may not necessarily match the public beliefs that are determined through public discussions and consensus. For instance, there are ethical principles on how to handle private information within the professional environment, and regardless of my personal beliefs, I am expected to follow the principles. The two concepts interact to determine how I handle ethical situations.

(f) What is the purpose of your existence?

I have two purposes for existing. My first purpose is to procreate and bring up future generations. This includes getting married, having children, working to earn money, and meeting the needs of my family. Also, it includes taking care of my environment so that my future generations do not suffer for my mistakes. My second purpose is to fulfil God’s will through observing religious principles such as observing the Ten Commandments, and acting in good conscious. I believe that I was created by God to serve, and I only have value for as long as I serve.  As such, my purpose is to procreate, present a better world for future generations, and fulfil God’s will.

References

Briggs, W. (2019). In opposition to scientism. Retrieved from https://wmbriggs.com/post/26885/

Igboin, B. (2015). Spirituality and medical practice: a Christian perspective. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 12(4). DOI: 10.20529/IJME.2015.054. Retrieved from http://ijme.in/articles/spirituality-and-medical-practice-a-christian-perspective/?galley=html   . Ethical and Spiritual Decision Making in Health Care Essay Paper