Moral Analysis Essay Instructions: Select a film that is centered upon a medical moral problem. This essay will consist of analyzing the ethical dimensions of the film that you select to discuss. In your paper, be sure to include a well-reasoned analysis of the story and its characters. Your film analysis should cover at least one of the following moral theories listed below. Virtue Ethics Utilitarian Ethics Pragmatist Ethics Social Contract Theory The Ethics of Care Kantian Deontological Ethics Sentimentalism Subjectivism/Nonobjectivism Cultural Ethical Relativism Theological Voluntarism Moral Pluralism Please select one of the following films to view and analyze. John Q (2002) – Story centers on a man whose nine-year-old son is in desperate need of a life-saving transplant. When he discovers that his medical insurance will not cover the costs of the surgery and alternative government aid is unavailable, John Q. Archibald takes a hospital emergency room hostage in a final attempt to save his child. My Sisters Keeper (2009) – Told from multiple perspectives, My Sister’s Keeper follows the story of 13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald as she sues her parents, Brian, and Sara, for medical emancipation. Anna was conceived as an allogeneic donor for her sister, Kate, who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Extraordinary Measures (2010) – John Crowley is a man on the corporate fast-track, with a beautiful wife and three children. Just as his career is taking off, he learns that his two youngest kids have a fatal disease. John leaves his job and devotes himself to saving their lives. He joins forces with Dr. Robert Stonehill, a brilliant but eccentric scientist. Together they battle the medical and corporate establishment, racing against time for a cure. Awakenings (1990) – The story of a doctor’s extraordinary work in the Sixties with a group of catatonic patients he finds languishing in a Bronx hospital. Speculating that their rigidity may be akin to an extreme form of Parkinsonism, he seeks permission from his skeptical superiors to treat them with L-dopa, a drug that was used to treat Parkinson’s disease at the time. Extreme Measures (1996) – A young doctor confronts with a famous colleague when he learns about the true methods of his work. Thriller about Guy Luthan (Hugh Grant), a British doctor working at a hospital in New York who starts making unwanted inquiries when the body of a man who died in his emergency room disappears. Gattaca (1997) – Vincent Freeman has always fantasized about traveling into outer space but is grounded by his status as a genetically inferior “invalid.” He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow, a laboratory-engineered “valid.” He assumes Jerome’s DNA identity and joins the Gattaca space program, where he falls in love with Irene. An investigation into the death of a Gattaca officer complicates Vincent’s plans. Paper Format Title Page – In APA format, include your papers title, name, and institution (i.e., Galen College), in that order. Introduction – Provide a brief plot summary to give the reader an overview of the film. Ethical Analysis – Apply one ethical theory to the medical moral problem presented in the film. Discuss how this ethical theory could provide solutions or recommendations for remedying the ethical problem. Be sure to address the following questions: What medical moral problem is present in the story? What moral values are reinforced in the film? Are there instances of moral values in conflict with one another? What moral guidance does the ethical theory that you selected to discuss provide the characters in the film? Conclusion – Summarize what youve discussed in the essay and reflect on what you learned. Lastly, discuss how what you have learned could apply to your professional and personal life.
