Ethical and Spiritual decision making in healthcare
The Christian perspective of the nature of spirituality and ethics in contrast to the perspective of postmodern relativism within health care
Modern healthcare is based on the holistic approach that tends to incorporate the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of a human being. The healthcare providers consider all these elements important to the recovery of an individual. This perception has led to the consideration of holistic care as the standard of care. Thus, healthcare is connected to spirituality. It is through spirituality that facility founders are inspired to offer healthcare services. As such, spirituality matters are not confined to religion. Instead, they cut across the boundaries that are related to religion and medicine to become integral aspects of healthcare and incorporate ethics as well (Gula, 2000). Our assignment writing services will allow you to attend to more important tasks as our experts handle your task.
Spirituality, from a Christian-based perspective, is the relationship that human beings have with a superior being from whom all love flows. The value that Christians place on the supreme being dictates their lives by ensuring that they live in a manner that is consistent with the demands of ultimate love. Spirituality does not necessarily give a name to the supreme being. However, Christian spirituality refers to God as the ultimate love. This reference determines peoples’ perceptions of different aspects of life (Gula, 2000).
As far as healthcare is concerned, Christian-based institutions expect their employees to demonstrate specific values that shape and inform their practice. These include compassion, love, kindness, honesty, and other similar values. Christians believe that healing from disease is a process that is facilitated by faith. Through such faith, Christians in different settings can maneuver different situations and adhere to standards that clearly dictate morality (Gula, 2000). Postmodern relativism is based on the belief that nothing definite exists due to the relativity of everything. Its effect in healthcare is demonstrated through a belief in science and other scientific approaches. Healing occurs through a combination of scientific procedures and interventions alongside spirituality and faith.
Scientism
Scientism is the tendency to assign greater importance to natural science than other branches of culture and learning. “Scientism is an exaggerated kind of deference towards science, an excessive readiness to accept as authoritative any claim made by the sciences, and to dismiss every kind of criticism of science or its practitioners as anti-scientific prejudice” (Gasparatou, 2017, p.3). This implies that the different schools of thought tend to idealize science and admire it excessively. The thought and belief that science can provide answers to all issues and challenges is perceived as naïve.
There are various objections to scientism. First, scientism is incoherent and self-refuting. This school of thought highlights that there is a rational tendency to accept scientism once it is explained and justified. However, this justification is only based on scientific research. The second aspect of this argument is that it is impossible to only justify scientism using scientific research and nothing else. Thus, scientism is incapable of meeting its standards.
The second objection revolves around scientism’s dilemma. The critical conditions for science to exist tend to be incompatible with scientism. One who is a proponent of scientism can only accept or reject non-scientific sources such as senses and memory. In a case where all these are rejected, the inquiry process becomes useless. In case of acceptance, the proponents are compelled to accept the non-scientific sources as justified (Hietanen, Turunen, & Hirvonen, 2020).
What is Ultimate Reality?
Ultimate reality is the search for the highest authority, the overarching principle of the world and life. It is the primary source of what is right and wrong, good, and bad. In Christianity, this ultimate reality would refer to God. In other religions, the same God goes by other names. Abrahamic faiths perceive their ultimate reality as the creator of the world. God is perceived as intentional and purpose-driven. The ultimate reality is the sole and deserving judge who rewards those who do good and punishes the wrongdoers. It is from Him that all good things come and are regarded as blessings. He also allows the bad to strengthen the faith of His creation and bring glory to his name. This ultimate reality is revered and worshipped wholeheartedly (Meister, 2014). As human beings, believers and spiritual people yearn to emulate their ultimate reality by living life morally.
What is the nature of the universe?
The universe is a concept that involves numerous living and non-living things. Within the universe, multiple beings interact. These beings interact inseparably within time and space. Since the start, the universe has always had a psychic and spiritual dimension. The universe expresses itself differently at various levels. Communion, differentiation, and subjectivity are all modes of expression. The communion is held in the intimacy of interrelatedness; the differentiation is seen in the diversity of the multiple beings, while subjectivity is viewed in the self-organization and interiority. According to cosmogenesis, the universe can be perceived as creative, evolutionary, and emergent. This reality has developed over time and continues to develop through various sequences of irreversible transformations (Earth Ethics Institute, n.d).
What is a Human Being?
In the atheist worldview, a human being is the result of purely natural biological and chemical evolutionary processes without God’s actions. According to the Christian worldview, human beings are God’s creation. The Bible states that human beings are created in their own likeness and image. God’s decision to create human beings in his image and likeness is documented in the Bible’s first book. In Genesis, chapter one states that, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (BBC, 2022). This decision is followed by the action of creating the human being. In the second chapter of Genesis, “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (BBC, 2022). This passage confirms the Christians’ belief that human beings are created by God with His hands using dust. It also explains the belief that man will go back to his source, dust.
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is a condition of truth or belief that can be justified. Only the truth can be known. False things are not possible to know. When people are knowledgeable, they tend to use the verb ‘know’. However, not all truths that an individual knows can be justified. The condition truth of knowledge is easier to understand than the belief aspect. Scholars argue that one cannot know what you do not believe. Some truths can be justified through various approaches, while others cannot be justified (Ichikawa & Steup, 2017). The concept of knowledge is significantly complex because it involves numerous arguments that are disputed by scholars from different schools of thought.
What is Your Basis of Ethics?
I subscribe to the common good approach of ethics. This perspective highlights that all actions of the people should result in the good of the society. It entails respect, compassion, and other positive values that promote sensitivity to others and their needs, especially the most vulnerable (Brown University, 2022). This premise requires that an individual lives selflessly and considers the effects of their actions on other individuals. This yields significant satisfaction as more individuals reap good from one’s actions. I uphold this premise in my actions and decisions because it promotes beneficence for most individuals around me. I expanded on it to consider other aspects, such as the environment.
What is the purpose of your existence?
The purpose of my existence is to be the best that I can be. What do I mean by this general statement? I know life throws us a lot of unexpected events. I have learned to take each difficult event in my life in a positive way to improve my outlook on life. I do not let the negativity of these events change the course of my journey and change me into a depressed and bitter person, but uplift me to be a better human being. I share this positivity with my patients when dealing with difficult medical diagnoses. I encourage them to keep fighting for better outcomes.
References
BBC. (2022). Key beliefs in Christianity. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zdhmtv4/revision/2
Brown University. (2022). A Framework for Making Ethical Decisions. Retrieved from https://www.brown.edu/academics/science-and-technology-studies/framework-making-ethical-decisions
Earth Ethics Institute. (n.d). Nature of Universe – Earth Ethics Institute. Retrieved from http://www.earthethicsinstitute.org/GSELS/Berry%20-%20The%20Nature%20of%20the%20Universe.pdf
Gasparatou, R. (2017). Scientism and Scientific Thinking. Science & Education, 26(3), 1-14. doi:10.1007/s11191-017-9931-1
Gula, R. M. (2000). Spirituality and Ethics in Healthcare. Health Progress, 17-19.
Hietanen, J., Turunen, P., & Hirvonen, I. (2020). How Not to Criticise Scientism. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12443
Ichikawa, J. J., & Steup, M. (2017). The Analysis of Knowledge. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/
Meister, C. (2014). Concepts of God/Ultimate Reality. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137314758_3
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
We’ll write everything from scratch
Question 
Worldview analysis and Personal inventory. What is worldview? A worldview is not a physical but a philosophical and intellectual lens through which a person sees and interprets everything one encounters. 1. Ultimate reality is the search for the highest authority—the overarching principle of the world and life.
Ethical and Spiritual decision making in healthcare
It is the primary source of right and wrong, good and bad. 5. Ethics form the basis of what is right and wrong and how humans ought to think and act. 4. Is what one knows strictly the result of what science has discovered, or does knowledge come from both physical and spiritual/divine sources? 3. What is a Human Being? In the atheist worldview, a human being is the result of purely natural biological and chemical evolutionary processes without God’s actions. 6. The question, however, asks about an individual’s primary or highest purpose for living. 2. The nature of the universe is closely tied to the question of ultimate reality. One may see the universe solely as natural matter. Information retrieved from class textbook: Practicing Dignity: An Introduction to Christian Values and Decision Making in Health Care by David W. Bogue and Michael Hogan (2020)