All Legal Issues Are Ethical
• Ethical issues are not governed by a set of rules and are therefore not punishable by law. Legal issues have a set of rules on which they are based and which are punishable by law if these rules are not respected. Kidder calls this a “right-versus-right” dilemma. When evaluating alternatives, both options for action have both positive and negative elements. Law versus law is an ethical dilemma, while good versus evil is identified as a moral temptation (Kidder, 1996). Some privacy issues are addressed in legislation (see toolkit article: TDM Statutory Review). For example: You will now read two case studies of innovative start-ups. Download the case studies and then we`ll reflect on the issues they raise. Reasonable efforts should have been made to find a legal power of consent. If there is not enough time, an “informed consent exception” may allow for the subject`s admission with the prior approval of an ethics committee. [7] Researchers must obtain the deferred informed consent of the subject (when returning to their capacity) or their legally authorized representative for subsequent participation as soon as possible. [4,7] Exceptions to the patient`s right to privacy include reporting communicable diseases when the public`s rights to safety outweigh the individual (i.e., greater good for the many), as well as reporting violent crimes such as child or elder abuse. Originally, privacy and confidentiality rights were considered ethical principles, but since 1996, the confidentiality of personal health information is now imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA (see Module 7) (US HHS, 2018).
In this discussion, students will reflect critically on the differences and similarities between legal and ethical norms. Use these questions to stimulate in-depth discussion and reflection on these concepts. Another similarity is that legal and ethical standards are there to help society as a whole. Legal standards are there to allow authorities to punish offenders so that people have some kind of security. Ethical standards exist for the same reason. Both are there to help people feel safe and prevent people from being hurt by others. Remember the ethical concept of distributive justice discussed in the previous section, which deals with the extent to which health services are equitably distributed in society. The Affordable Care Act was developed largely in response to this ethical concept, namely the situation where millions of people do not have insurance and up to $100 billion in care is transferred to patients who are able to pay or who have an existing insurance plan. This change increased the average annual health insurance premium for each insured family by about $1,000 (Lachman, 2012), raising other ethical questions of justice and fairness. Legal standards are useful because they help people know what they can`t do. With legal standards, authorities are allowed to enforce the rules when people do something illegal.
For example, if someone steals, the legal standard “you can`t steal” is used to discipline that person, perhaps by putting them in jail. Situations that lead to ethical conflicts illustrate the difficulty of making the right decision. Andrew Jameton has identified three types of ethical conflicts that nurses can experience in clinical settings that can cause stress: In the first column of the table below, you will find a number of quotes from several sources. Some raise legal issues, that is, they violate the law. Others raise ethical issues – that is, they ignore common concepts of good and evil. Ethical standards refer to a set of values that the founders of the institution developed to guide the behavior of the organization. Decision-making can be supported by reference to the code provided here. The organizational culture relies heavily on these standards. They set the expectations of owners and senior managers regarding the behavior of employees and suppliers, at least in the context of the relationship between the two parties. These principles are widely disseminated and strictly applied within the framework of a corporate governance framework. Leaders can help foster a positive work environment by setting an example for lower-level employees. Most ethical companies aim to develop the moral courage, beliefs, and moral efficiency of their employees.
Violations of ethical standards may result in fines, exclusions or other sanctions for the responsible lawyer. Since paralegals are not called to the bar, the lawyer or company they worked for is usually held accountable for their actions. The Carnegie Foundation describes the educational components required to work as a professional as three essential areas: (1) intellectual training to learn the academic knowledge base and the ability to think in a way that is important to the profession; (2) competency-based practice training; and (3) training on the ethical standards, social roles and responsibilities of the profession, through which the beginner is introduced to the importance of integrated practice of all dimensions of the profession, based on the fundamental objectives of the profession (Hughes, 2008). Possible ethical dilemmas for case managers can be one of the following: Legal standards are standards set out in state laws. All laws and statutes to which lawyers refer are legal norms. If you`re driving through a big city downtown, you`ll notice parking signs everywhere telling you you can`t park there for a long time, and they`ll cite a city charter or codex. This shows a legal standard. Ethical standards, on the other hand, do not necessarily have a legal basis. They are based on the human principles of good and evil. For example, if you are trying to park your car in a parking lot and there is only one parking space left, the only legal standard you must follow is not to exceed the speed limit or collide with another car.