Ethics And Environmentally Responsible Health

Analysis

Discuss About The Ethics Environmentally Responsible Health?

It would be correct to say that one of the key roles of managers is to make effective decision. There are times when managers must make decisions in the tough times. It is expected that managers would come out of their personal biases and take the decision that is best for the team and the organization (Govindan & Rajendran, 2015). The objective of this paper is to discuss the case study of Australian Pharmaceutical Corporation. The paper would use the eight-step decision making process to solve the case study. In this paper, I would argue that the manager should not allow the use of drug in Western Africa.

The case study presents that the drug has not been tested on human beings. Therefore, it cannot be said with 100% guarantee that the drug would be successful for humans. It would be interesting to analyze the decision-making process with respect to the eight-step decision making model. The eight-step decision making process for this case can be discussed as:

Step 1: Define the problem

In this case the problem is to decide if the drug should be allowed to launch in Africa. As mentioned in the case, the drug is successful tested on animals in Australia. However, the drug is not tested for humans and it would take another 10 years to test the drug on humans. At the same time, the drug has the potential to cure the virus that is spreading fast in West Africa. Therefore, the decision has to be made if the drug should be shared with West Africa or not. This drug or vaccine is still at the experimental stage only.

Step 2: Determine the requirements that the solution to the problem must meet

The solution to the problem must meet the requirement of making one of the decisions. The case presents that the manager has to make decision between the two options. The first option is that the drug should not be shared with the people in the West Africa. The second option is that the drug could be shared with the people in the West Africa. It is also required that the decision should be ethical in nature and the decision should be able to help others. However, the problem in this case is that the end state could not be realized at the initial stage.

Step 1: Define the problem

Step 3: Establish goals that solving the problem should accomplish

1. The organization that has developed the drug, it would also include the decision make or the manager in the organization that has to make the decision
2. The organization or the people in West Africa that wants the drug, it would include the health worker in West Africa.
3. The people who would use the drug

The goal or problem solving would be to meet the expectations of these stakeholders. There are other stakeholders also that should be convinced. For example, the government of both the nations is also important stakeholders. It is important that the expectations of these governments should also be met (Kabir & Sadiq, 2014). The goal should be to take this task as a project and the larger goals should be broken down into smaller objectives. Thus, based on the scope, time and cost, appropriate quality preparation should be made so that everything should be balanced and it should not happen that project team is focusing so much on quality initiatives and policy that it impacted the schedule and project went into overrun.

Step 4: Identify alternatives that would solve the problem

At this moment, it appears that there are only two key alternatives to the problem. These two alternatives can be discussed as:

Alternative 1: To give the drug to health workers in West Africa

Alternative 2: Not to give the drug to health workers in West Africa

There could be various reasons and logic to use either of the above alternatives. It is important that the decision maker should analyze various reasons and logic before making any decision (Ford & Richardson, 2013).

Personally, I can say that health care goal could be achieved with a combined and integrated approach of different stakeholders. I can say that the strategy of increased focus on healthcare technology is definitely a way forward for organizations to make themselves more efficient. It is also important that organizations should have a long-term plan and vision in place to implement health care technology system. Therefore, the alternatives should be thought beyond these two alternatives also. In an ideal world, the best alternative would be one that could satisfy the needs and expectations of all the stakeholders (Ho & Kraus, 2014).

Step 5: Develop valuation criteria based on the goals

It is important that the valuation criteria should be developed on the basis of the alternatives. It is also important that the valuation criteria should be quantitative in nature and it should address public health. The three key valuation criteria for this decision can be discussed as:

1. The decision should be beneficial for the people that would ultimately use the drug
2. The cost or the risk involved in the use of the drug should be less than the benefits or the utility that this drug can provide.
3. The West African health worker should be ready to take the risks and the liabilities in case of any unfortunate event.

Apart from this, there would be monetary value criteria also. For example, the organization can take the step that is profitable for them. However, it would make sense to ignore the monetary dimension when there is a question of lives of people (Paul & Muller, 2014).

Step 2: Determine the requirements that the solution to the problem must meet

Step 6: Select a decision-making tool

There are various decision-making tools that could be used in these cases. It is best to analyze these decisions with respect to the ethical framework. Public health ethics deal with issues of public welfare related to public health. It mainly deals with being issues related to diseases and mainly focuses on health of the public. Thus the main points covered in public health ethics are preventing the diseases and also promoting good health among the population. There are frameworks related to prevention of diseases for public health but promoting good health or monitoring the good health can involve many issues (Bratzke & Muehrer, 2015).

The pertinent question whether these aspects of drug decision should also be covered in public health ethics. Ideally yes. These issues which directly affect the population should have at least some relevance in public health ethics.  These issues directly affect the public health and public health officials should get involved in these aspects. Currently there are not much ethical imperatives to look into such issues as they don’t directly deal with health issues but there should be a framework which brings in these aspects also under the ethical purview of the public health ethics. Incidents which affect the public in a very significant manner should also be brought under public health ethics (Pierce & Jameton, 2003). 

There are various ethical theories like utilitarianism, virtue theory, Kantianism, etc. that could be applied in this case. Ethical theory serves as the foundation for ethical solutions to the difficult situations people encounter in life. In fact, for centuries, philosophers have come up with theoretical ways of telling right from wrong and for giving guidelines about how to live and act ethically (Johnson & Blumstein, 2013).

Step 7: Apply the tool to select the best alternative

The Kantianism theory of ethics emphasizes the principles behind actions rather than an action’s results. Acting rightly thus requires being motivated by proper universal principles that treat everyone with respect. In this case the action could be positive or negative. However, the important thing is the principles. The principles suggest that it may not be a good idea to take the risks worth the lives of thousands of people. Hospitals, health departments and the non profit organizations can play a significant role in handling any events and thereby preventing the disastrous consequences of these events.  These departments cannot prevent nor predict these events but they can be ready for serve the public whenever such event occurs. These institutions should work with other institutions which can predict such events like meteorological department (Ott, 2012).

Step 3: Establish goals that solving the problem should accomplish

The best alternative in this case would be to not to go ahead with the drug sharing mechanism. It is suggested that the organization should say no the west african health worker. At the same time, it is recommended that the organization should work in collaboration with West African helath worker. By working in coordination they can help the people, make them more aware and also help them during the event. When such event occur a lot of people will require medical help and these institutions can help people and also remain prepared to treat large number of individuals. Also prevention of disease during such event is necessary. It is also important that the organization should clearly explain the reasons for saying no. These institutions needs to prepared before any major event takes as post the event it can be difficult to handle the situation on the ground and hence these institutions need to be prepared and also educate the public. This way they can help the people (Olasky, 2006)

Step 8: Check the answer/ solution to ensure that it solves the problem

Vaccination has been important issue for all the nations (developed and developing). There are vaccines available for many diseases which otherwise could wreak havoc on the human population.  Giving vaccine can be both medical beneficial as well as can be an important aspect in public health. Many of the vaccines are given at very young age when children don’t have the understanding of importance of the vaccination and hence it becomes important that parents take responsibility and give the children required medicines (Murana, 2014). There have been various ethical issues arising in this aspect of public health. Many times parents are not giving the children the required vaccination which can make them susceptible to these diseases whose vaccines are already present and the individuals can be prevented from contracting those diseases. The answer in this case is to say ‘No’ to the health care workers in Western Africa. The main benefit of this decision is that organization has avoided the uncertainty associated with the lives of people. It may not be possible to foresee the future. However, based on the value criteria, it appears that this decision is the best decision.

Conclusion

The objective of this paper was to use the eight-step decision making process to solve the case study. With the above discussion it can be said that the West African health workers should not be given the drug. It is correct that the drug has the potential to cure the population. However, the risks associated with the use of drug us unknown. Therefore, it would make sense to make further research before using this drug. The paper highlighted the eight-step decision making approach for this case and also discusses the case with respect to ethics. The Kantianism ethical theory is used to discuss the case and this ethical theory also suggests that the drug should not be shared with the West African health workers as the risks outweigh the benefits.

References

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