Critical Thinking Scenario Essay

The skills that you cultivate as a critical thinker are intended to help you think your way through all of life’s situations. One of the most challenging and complex of life’s areas is moral issues and decisions. Every day of your life you make moral choices, decisions that reflect your own core moral compass. Often we are not aware of the deeper moral values that drive our choices, and we may even be ignorant to the fact that the choices we are making have a moral factor. Critical thinking plays a major role in assisting us in developing values, using moral reasoning, and to make ethical conclusions. The steps involved. Critical thinking is defined as having the means to articulate what you study, being open to all possibilities and able to draw your own conclusions based on what you have learned. There are six steps to the critical thinking process. The first is knowledge; you are able to identify with what you hear and read, the topic, issues, and main points. Step t wo is comprehension, being able to relate to the information and put it into your own words. Step three is application, taking what you have learned and apply it to an actual situation. Step four is analysis, which means breaking the information down to see how they are connected to other ideas. The final step is evaluation, this occurs when you understand with supporting details and you are able to form a conclusion. According to â€Å"Ethical Reasoning: A Key Capability† (2013), ethical reasoning is the â€Å"ability to reflect on moral issues in the abstract and in historical narratives within particular traditions. Ethical reasoning is the ability to identify, assess, and develop ethical arguments from a variety of ethical positions† (What Counts As Ethical Reasoning?). The principles and rules of critical thinking are applicable to ethical reasoning because they both allow individuals to distinguish more than one side of a dilemma. If everyone followed the rules and guidelines of logic, there would still be a need for ethical decision making because compliance depends on an individual’s desire to avoid punishment. When an organization or so ciety  relies on that method of doing the right thing to avoid severe consequences, the focus of its effort to promote ethical conduct undermines the effort by promoting misperception. The participants in the Blood Money scenario consists of the Media, The U.S. Government, China, Transplant Traffickers, Doctors, Victims, Prisoners and Army agencies. The medical profession is responsible for actively promoting ethical standards in medicine to ensure the best practices. The government and military have a responsibility to set forth laws that protect all individuals, prisoners and all. Healthcare workers, should also specify the dangers of organ trafficking and the health risks involved. The ones that are conducting the sales should understand that that could be them in the position of the prisoners and their organs are taken without their permission. The victims responsibility is to make sure their physician is highly regarded and against those practices. The stakeholders have also failed morally, as they would have prevented this from happening by not involving their interests into that area of spotlight. The moral dilemma is that is it right to take an organ from a prisoner who has done wrong and that be the ultimate punishment? Or, is it wrong to make money off the actions and build a thriving underground business? The conflict is that there are so many waiting for organ transplant that it does not seem harmful for those that will be killed or dead that no longer would have a use for the organs. The best outcome would be to set laws that protect the military from negotiating standards with hospitals to award them with immediate access to organs. Initiate programs within the country that people sign whether or not if they would like to donate their organs to someone in the event they die. After reading the transcripts and watching the video I was able to get supporting details from all characters that were involved. The relevance of the criteria was that the government knows about what is happening but they tend to turn the other cheek with no regard for human life. Sacrificing human beings is considered a taboo in many countries, but many would not want to believe that’s what it is. The possible courses of action would be to contact the government officials and deal with the consequences head-on. Ethically we all have to identify with the three main principles of life; justice, sufficiency, and solidarity. I was able to see the viewpoints of each side and that helped me reach my conclusion without being bias. The critical thinking process is important  because, it allows a neutral standpoint and able to reach a conclusion and determine based solely on the facts. References Ethical Reasoning: A Key Capability. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.wesleyan.edu/ethics/reason.html Pearson Learning Solutions (2014). Award-Winning Investigation: Blood Money [Video file]. Retrieved from Pearson website: https://media.pearsoncmg.com/pls/us/phoenix/1269738887/ANN_11-20-06_BloodMoney.html Ruggiero, V.R. (2015). Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.