The material made me think about the many aspects of human vulnerability people tend to overlook. Everyone knows about biological vulnerability, but there are also social and cultural spectra of this problem. It is necessary for people to focus on all the categories of vulnerability and provide reasonable solutions for all of them. For instance, the seniors and other unprotected groups of people need to receive governmental support which would decrease their social vulnerability and simplify their lives significantly. People have to learn about other cultures, value and respect them as well as be tolerant and adjusting, and this is a good way to deal with cultural vulnerability. As for biological vulnerability, I believe that people have to continue working in the medical sphere and look for effective ways of fighting diseases as well as improving people’s health and immune systems. I think that modern progress is the best answer to biological vulnerability because the person’s health depends on many factors.
The same applies to battling against natural disasters: people have to calculate possible occurrences and prevent others from getting hurt. The cases I’ve read made me think about the integrity and vulnerability of a person. For instance, in case 1, the best solution appears if the mentally ill sister donates bone marrow transplant, but then, this choice is difficult since she would not be making a conscious decision. Therefore, the case raises questions regarding personal vulnerability and integrity and makes people think about their priorities and things that are more important. The second case raises similar questions and shows that, although we are morally developed, we have more issues to deal with and controversial questions to answer.
I found the statement that human dignity has no external equivalent to be a very strong one; after all, it is truly an end in itself, and it is the biggest human right that creates all other rights. I agree that every individual has dignity, and no one has the right to violate it despite the circumstances, person’s position, or any other reason. Dignity is something that all people have in common, so it is truly painful to see that some people have no respect for it and violate it alongside other human rights. That is the reason the world has an unresolved issue with criminals and terrorists who commit crimes against humanity and violate international norms and beliefs regarding human treatment. The defence of human dignity and rights should be a major direction in the policy of all of the world governments, especially those that call themselves democratic and speak about the dignity of the individual.
I was upset by the way the human dignity was violated in the first case. The fact that a person is a criminal or is considered dangerous does not give the law enforcement a right to humiliate a person or make one feel worse or inferior. The example showed that even those people who have to defend the dignity of others and live in democratic societies have prejudices and can be unjust and offend others. It is a fact that human dignity is always at risk, and we can never forget about it. Therefore, respect for an individual dignity has to be a major thing that people learn from a young age and follow throughout their adult lives.
Health is extremely important because it influences all other aspects of the person’s life. While reading the class material, I reacted to the definition of health. Interestingly, I do not consider it too broad because health is a very broad term, and it can mean different things to different people. After all, people often value health only after they get sick, so it is much easier to define its absence than actual health.
Health is definitely not just an absence of diseases because a person also has to feel healthy and have no mental or physical challenges as well as be in the right psychological state. That is the problem with defining health because people tend to judge it from physical side only. Therefore, they think that whenever a person has no physical pains and diseases, he or she is healthy while it is not always so. A person may suffer mentally and do oneself serious harm, although other people may not notice it. The material also made me think about harm since it can be external and internal, and an individual may harm oneself. I believe that people try to prevent others from harming one another, and this explains the way people treat suicide attempts.
The cases in the material made me think about the rights of others to intrude into the person’s health. To my mind, an individual has to receive help from others, even if he or she does not want it, in case if a person is mentally sick because it is the only way for him/her to feel better. The second case is more controversial. Although I believe that the man could feel happier after the surgery, I doubt whether it was the right thing to do.
Privacy is the personal right, and it should not be violated. Nevertheless, there are cases when it is necessary to violate the privacy and confidentiality of an individual; these cases are justified by public needs, security and well-being of other people. For instance, in case 2, the psychiatrist did the right thing because he at least tried to save the woman’s life. The doctor has to keep the patient’s information confidential, but not when it creates threats for other people or society in general. Therefore, I strongly support the belief that privacy and confidentiality end where the question of safety of other people arises, and when hiding or protecting particular information can lead to lethal consequences.
Thus, after I’ve read the second case, I realized that we need clearer rules and laws that would guide doctors and other people who work with confidential information. For instance, I believe that a priest has a right to report to police about a person who confessed to killing someone or is about to commit a crime. Revealing this information can save people’s lives. The first case is more controversial because the man himself does not want to bring this information up, and there is a threat it may be a lie. Nevertheless, this information has to be taken into consideration, so I suggest talking with the highest authority operating in the prison about the issue. I would not use any names, but bring the topic up and point to the problem, so the authorities knew and reacted. It is also possible that an investigation may take place, so the problem can be solved without harming the prisoner or the workers in the prison.