The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to really reflect on what you have learned in this course. You have grown in your understanding and ability to act as a moral agent in analyzing and deciding on a course of action in an ethically challenging situation. You have also had the opportunity to practice making decisions as a team, working with individuals who bring a variety of perspectives to the table.

Be sure to carefully review the grading rubric as you are writing. A clearer, thorough analysis will result in a higher grade. Correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and APA style will be considered in your grade.

Instructions:

Respond to the following prompts. Use APA style (1 margins, 12-point Times New Roman Font, double spaced throughout, page numbers on the top right of each page). This should generate a paper that is 5-8 pages in length.  You will have a couple of references. Include citations in your text in APA style and a references page in APA style.

Part I  – Ethical Case Analysis

* Success tip: Most students lose points on this section because they dont follow the directions to analyze the case using 3 ethical theories or principles, or they analyze the case from the perspective of making a personal decision rather than from the perspective of a public health professional making a policy recommendation.

Paragraph 1:

Select one of the cases we discussed this semester.  Select a case that you found particularly challenging to your own personal beliefs or that generated some robust discussion in your team.  Briefly summarize the salient points of the case. Be sure to cite the textbook and include it on your reference list.

Case 4: Decoding Public Health Ethics and Inequity in India: A Conditional Cash Incentive Scheme–Janani Suraksha Yojana

Paragraph 2 (note: if you need to break this section into more than one paragraph, thats okay):

Identify and clearly describe the conflicting priorities in this case. Analyze the case using at least three ethical theories or principles. For example, From a deontologic perspective, the public health professionals in this case have a duty to. or Applying the priniciple of autonomy, the correct course of action would be..  Discuss possible positive and negative implications of acting on each of these theories or principles.

Paragraph 3:

Identify the course of action you would choose and why. Describe your own core beliefs that inform this decision. Describe how you developed these beliefs.

Think about a teammate who took a position different from yours. Describe their position and what you understand about why they took this position. (I encourage you to meet with one another and talk about this to gain clarity).

I believe the program should continue.

My teammate believes that ending the program is the best. She says Many people take their cultural beliefs seriously and will like others to respect it. Giving incentives to these women to go against what they are used to or believe in, I think is not the right thing to do. In my opinion, they must be allowed to make their own decisions. Education must be provided to these women, and be given respect for autonomy to choose between the status quo and delivery in a hospital setting under the care of a healthcare professional. I am on the side of eliminating the program because I do not think it will do harm to the women. I believe that teaching them about positive health outcomes with medical care during and after pregnancy will aid in the decisions they make.

What did your team conclude about this case, and why?

Part II My Growth

Paragraph 1:

This paragraph addresses your understanding of yourself as a moral agent. Start by describing what your understanding was at the beginning of the semester. Did you start out seeing yourself as someone who can make ethical decisions and act on them? How much power and responsibility did you believe you had at the beginning of the semester.

Describe your current understanding of yourself as a moral agent. How has your understanding of yourself changed over the course of the semester?

Finally, how do you still need to grow? Write a goal for your own growth and briefly describe actions you will take to continuing growing as a moral agent and ethical professional.

Paragraph 2:

This paragraph addresses your ability to work on a team of health professionals to make ethical choices. Start by describing your ability to solve problems with a team at the beginning of the semester.

Describe how you have grown in your ability to work on a team. What has changed? Describe how you contributed to your team this semester.

Finally, identify points where you still need to grow in your ability to work effectively on a team of diverse professionals making difficult decisions. What could you have done better this semester as a team member? Write a goal for your continued growth as a team member and briefly describe actions you will take to continue developing teamwork skills.

Conclusion:

Write a concluding paragraph tying the paper together by summarizing your major points of growth this semester.