Business Ethics Issue in a Veterinary Practice
The textbook for this course is: Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Integrity and Social Responsibility by Laura P. Hartman, Joseph Des Jardins and Chris MacDonald, 5th Edition, (2021) Mc Graw Hill
ISBN 978-1-260-26049-6 (bound edition)
MHID 1-260-26049-6 (bound edition)
ISBN 978-1-260-51293-9 (loose leaf edition)
MHID 1-260-51293-2 (loose leaf edition)
Instructions
Graded Project
Instructions
Example Selection
You should select a business ethics issue that either has occurred or might occur in a veterinary practice and write an analysis of the issue and potential decisions/solutions, using the concepts introduced in your textbook. You might pick one of the following:
A situation currently in the news
An ethics dilemma witnessed in a veterinary practice either as an employee or a client
A high quality hypothetical business ethics issue in a veterinary practice (either one you’ve seen in books or film, or one you create)
Be sure to choose an example for analysis that seems interesting, difficult, or complicated.
Project Process
Step 1: Select an example for your analysis as outlined above.
Step 2: Perform your analysis. Apply the recommended high quality, ethical decisionmaking process described in your course book. You’ll want to consider the facts of the situation, the ethical lenses, legal, regulatory, and any other more specific lenses that might be applicable. Describe how the key concepts apply, and explain why the decision is difficult or complicated. Recommend the course of action you believe is ‘best’ taking all the relevant considerations into account.
Your textbook should be your primary reference. Your paper may also include independent and reliable sources (many of which you might access from your textbook’s chapter notes). You should feel free to consult sources on the Internet. However, always make sure your work is original and well-documented. Notes from a website should include the source of the site. This is done to establish that the site is authoritative and not merely idle opinion.
Use APA style for citations and the Works Cited page. For information on APA style format see the Library.
Step 3: Write a first draft of your essay. Your paper should be written using a word-processing program, such as Microsoft Word or a Word-compatible program. Your analysis should be five to eight written pages. The essay should include a brief introduction, several paragraphs examining the key issues, your recommended course of action, and a conclusion that acknowledges arguments for and against your recommended decision. (Recommendation: Finish your first draft several days before you plan to finalize your paper. It’s best to set it aside for a couple of days before moving on to the completion.)
Step 4: Complete your final draft. Carefully review your written essay, correct any errors, and submit your final draft to your instructor. (Recommendation: Read your essay out loud to yourself. Doing this will help make you aware of gaps, redundancies, and areas where the writing should be improved.) Include a title page and a bibliography of sources. The last page after the main body of the essay should provide a list of your reference sources.
BU490 Business Ethics
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BU490 Business Ethics
Veterinarians are professionally required to provide good care to the animals brought to their practice. However, there are times when a conflict of interest emerges between the needs of the animal and those of its owner or caregiver. These situations are ethical problems for veterinarians since they must choose whom to give primary consideration between the animal and the client or animal owner (Hernandez et al., 2018). Veterinarians are the servants of two masters, the animal, and the client, and this can create a problem in ethical decision-making concerning both personal and professional contexts. An example of an ethical issue related to the mentioned issue in a veterinary center is a client bringing her dog for euthanasia. A middle-aged woman brings her critically ill golden retriever for treatment. The animal is suffering from arthritis after suffering from a joint injury: one of the golden retriever’s hind legs was injured in a hit-and-run incident, and the infected wound resulted in significant damage inside the joint. The dog is also aged and overweight, and the weakened hind leg cannot cope with the extra load, resulting in further wear and tear on the joint.
The animal looks tired and emaciated, but the veterinary is confident that it is not too late to start treatment and that the dog can recuperate fully. However, the client believes that her golden retriever will never be the same again and opts for euthanasia. She admits that she can no longer stand to watch the dog suffer. Moreover, she believes that even if the arthritis is treated, the dog will always walk limp and have a poor quality of life. Despite efforts by the veterinarian to convince her that the dog’s condition is fixable, the client insists that she wants the dog’s life terminated. In this scenario, the veterinary is conflicted between respecting the client’s wishes and the professional obligation to give the best care to the golden retriever. The veterinary tries to convince the client not to give up on her dog and instead opt for pharmacological treatment, which will relieve the dog’s pain and guarantee a good quality of life. However, the woman is already decided on euthanasia, and any further attempts to convince her otherwise makes her emotional and belligerent towards the practice. While euthanasia is a painless and effective way of ending an animal’s suffering, it has a right to life, significantly if its health can improve with proper treatment.
While the owner does not need to demand the termination of her pet’s life, she is well within her rights to do so. Furthermore, euthanasia is widely considered an ethical procedure in veterinary practice when there is sufficient reason to believe that the animal is suffering and there is no need to prolong the animal’s poor quality of life. While the veterinarian does not believe that terminating the retriever’s life is the best course of action, he has a duty to the client who owns the pet and is also paying for its treatment. In this scenario, the apparent lack of agreement about the treatment plan is the source of the ethical disagreement between the veterinary and the animal owner. The book “Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Integrity and Social Responsibility by Hartman et al. (2021) highlights the need for ethical decision-making in personal and professional contexts. While numerous ethical arguments exist for both sides (the client and the animal), Hartman et al. (2021) argue that the most reasonable ethical judgment requires a diligent determination of facts.
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