Healthcare and Life Sciences

Assignment 1: Commercialization of Organ Transplants

Imagine that you are a member of an ethics committee listening to arguments for and against altering the way in which human organs are obtained for patients in need of transplants. A new policy to allow the sale of organs by consenting individuals to patients in need and to medical institutions has been proposed. Critics argue that permitting organs to be bought and sold is unethical. You have been asked to review the arguments for and against the commercialization of organ transplants and to construct a report with your suggested plan of action. Use the Internet or Strayer databases to search for arguments for and against the commercialization of organ transplants, and then apply the principles learned in Weeks 1-3 to formulate your report.
Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

1. Briefly summarize the arguments for and against the commercialization of transplants that you found in your research.
2. Formulate your position on the debate of whether or not the sale of organs should be permitted.
3. Defend your moral judgment with a moral argument. Identify the moral principle that you are appealing to in your moral argument.
4. Determine which normative theory best supports your conclusion.
5. Use at least two (2) quality references. (Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.)

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
 Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
 Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
 Determine the considerations for and process of ethical business decision making to balance corporate and social responsibilities and address moral, economic, and legal concerns.
 Analyze selected business situations using the predominant ethical theories, such as utilitarian, Kantian, and virtue ethics to guide ethical business decision making.
 Use technology and information resources to research issues in business ethics.
 Write clearly and concisely about business ethics using proper writing mechanics.
Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

4 Pages,

Electronic Record

If you remember from week one, we have issues with our records system.  As promised, I attended a seminar on integrating Electronic Records into an existing practice.  What I was hoping for was some clarification regarding electronic records, but now I am concerned about all of the information I was given and about where the facility is in the grand scheme of things as we only use paper records.  What I need from you is a two page informational paper discussing the following:

1. Clarify the difference between an EMR and an EHR.
2. Is our facility (a Primary Care Facility) required to obtain and operate a functional EHR by a certain deadline? If so, what is the deadline?
3. What is “meaningful use” and why is it important to us?
4. They kept talking about interoperability.  Why is that word important to us?
5. What would be our first step as a practice if and when we need to move toward an EHR?
6. Are we at risk for being penalized if we do not establish and Electronic Records System?

Physician-Assisted Suicide

To satisfy this assignment, you may make a causal argument, an evaluation argument, a proposal argument, or a combination of arguments, as long as you enter a “conversation” about an issue in dispute, integrating your thoughts with those of experts you encounter via library research.  You are to advance your point of view in light of scholarly thinking on the matter.  You will need to identify a fruitful, issue-based question and to use your analysis of  at least six scholarly sources to develop your argument.  In order to responsibly enter this larger conversation about the issue you have chosen, you will need to represent the ideas of others clearly and fairly in advancing your own position, as well as analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different ideas (including your own).  Here are two key questions: What do you bring to the table? and What will your argument teach those interested in the issue?  As you can see, this is not simply a review of what others have said.  I ask for a researched argument rather than a research paper.

As you approach this assignment, look at problems existing in your local community (issues related to schooling or immigration perhaps) or the college community (the marginalization of gays and lesbians, for instance).    Limit your focus to what you can adequately handle in 6 pages.  Above all, write about something that matters.

Here are your instructions for the researched argument:

• identify a controversial issue
• create and sustain an argument that combines your thinking with that of scholars
• include both analysis and exposition of information
• establish what is at stake in accepting the views of authors (including yourself)
• provide good reasons and relevant evidence to support your point of view
• identify, analyze, and address potential counterarguments
• Paper must be written in 3rd person only
• Paper must conform to APA or MLA standards.