health educators in a community clinic
health educators in a community clinic
John
and Mary are health educators in a community clinic. John’s specialty
is working with clients on smoking cessation. Occasionally he and Mary
collaborate on difficult cases to formulate strategies to assist clients
who are having a particularly difficult time with smoking cessation. A
former smoker himself, and having watched his mother die of
smoking-related lung cancer, he is passionate about the health effects
of this addictive habit as well as helping his clients to quit. His
success rate for client quitting is 95%.
John has asked Mary to
collaborate on a plan for a client who, despite all interventions, has
failed to quit smoking. John tells Mary that he intends to use a scare
tactic to motivate the client to change his behavior. John states that
he is going to tell the patient that new research has just been
published showing that all workplaces will test for nicotine in their
employees and anyone testing positive will be excluded from the
workplace, leaving the client unemployable if he does not quit. Mary
points out that while there are employers who are considering this
policy, no such research actually exists. John states that Mary is
correct but points out that the client will not question the validity
because John is known to be the resident expert in this topic. He
further points out that if using this method helps him to quit and avoid
the health consequences of smoking, then it cannot possibly cause any
harm to use this tactic. Mary becomes conflicted with feelings; she
wants the patient to quit on one level, but feels this may be wrong on
another. She tells John his behavior is unethical.
Which ethical
theory is John basing his decision making on and which theory is Mary
using to support her stance? Explain your reasoning in both cases.