Ethics of Athletes in Using PED

Question: Analyse the ethical issue using act utilitarianism, identifying all relevant consequences. Compare negative versus positive consequences and assess whether net utility will rise or fall as a result of the ethical act being examined? Answer: The use of Performance enhancing drugs: Drugs are a medicine which creates a physiological effect when it is consumed or introduced in the body. Drugs which help in enhancing performance had been a common trend among athletes. The revolution started with eminent Olympiad Thomas Hicks when he earned victory in marathon after he was injected with Strychnine amidst the race. Since then many athletes were found to use drugs that has enhanced their performance. Now a day, it is not a surprise to find famous sports personalities using drugs. Using drugs is an unethical practice. It helps in enhancing the potential but then it becomes unfair to athletes who dont use drugs. Though drug enables an athlete to perform well yet it becomes a threat in the long term. Knowing that drugs has many side effects that might even kill the athlete then why should athletes use drugs that enhances performance? Moreover, theer is a limit for using drug, if that extends then it becomes a threat to the life f an athlete. The ethical use of Drugs its importance and need analysis. Many advocate of drug use states that the damaging effects in health have been emphasized. They opine that drugs are a part of sports evolution just like new technologies and improvised techniques of training. In this context the opponents explains that is a means of having unfair advantage over other athletes (Uvacsek et al., 2011). The Utilitarianism theory explains the ethical and unethical practices (Bykvist, 2009). It includes all the bad and good which have been produced by an act. If an act produces the same level of happiness as produced by any other act by the same individual then it is ethical. Analyzing the use of Drug in context to Utilitarian theory: Drugs has both positive and negative effects, positive effects are short-lived whereas negative effects is harmful in long term. Out of control use of drugs may conclude to immediate death. The affected person will be the athlete and his team, his country and his family. It would also be unfair for other athletes who are not using drugs (Warner et al., 2002). The ethical action will be no use of drugs. According to hedonism pleasure is the only thing that has something good in itself. The hedonists consider instrumental pleasures which are short lived. So does athletes. They prefer short term pleasures acquired from drug consumption and likewise overlook the negative aspects of drug use. There is negative aspect to drugs like, use of drugs for men my result in impotency, baldness, infertility and shrunken testicles (Robinson and Epshteyn, 2009). For women use of drugs concludes in deeper voice, increased body hair and infrequent menstruation. Apart from these symptoms like psychiatric disorder, inhibited development, heart and circulatory problems, liver abnormalities and hypertension had been had been found (Khing, n.d.). Facts relevant to the analysis While using PED US Athlete was banned for life after being discovered. He used doping for second time when he used recombinant Erythropoietin a kind of PED (Taipeitimes.com, 2015). Earlier around June 1999, he was caught using anabolic steroid. The steroid boosts an athletes performance by increasing the oxygen rich volume of red blood cells. This was because euse of PED was an unfair practice for an athlete. Negative Vs positive consequences (Sportsanddrugs.procon.org, 2015) The PED is originally made with the intention of enhancing health. When used appropriately in consultation with experts it works effectively. Steroids can help to reduce bulge from inflammation in time of certain allergies or sickness. There are effects like mood swings and aggressive behavior, severe depression. In case of teenagers, their growth is stopped due to use of PED. Assumptions : It can be assumed that the athletes get a pressure in order to perform well on behalf of the country, team as a representative. If it is so, then other countries also feel the same level of pressure but they have a strong morale. The pressure can be individual by choice. The allure of darkness attracts, to use unfair means in order to achieve the glory allures every athletes. Some people expect to maintain their standard whereas some chooses to make fame. It can also be assumed that the decision of using PED can be the countrys decision. Because there are many athletes who generally cannot afford to get PED, then a question arises how they are getting PED? The rise and fall of utility Depending on the choice of the Athlete, the Utilitarian theory states that if PED is used and it results in enhanced performance then it is ethical. It is not that other participants also dont have the choice. Negative utility Positive Utility lived The use of PED slowly causes negative reaction Positive effects short-lived Doesnt provides guarantee Enhances physical power Ethics turns negative Matter of choice for the athletes Cost effective Supports hedonism Low satisfactory satisfactory Increases suffering Short term achievements Pain and suffering Pleasure and happiness The objective of negative utility is decrease the suffering but it doesnt provides happiness. Here there is no moral for happiness (Socrethics.com, 2015). Pain is considered as the sole happiness. Negative utility tries to find out solutions on a permanent basis, painlessly. Here positive utilitarianism tries to maximize contentment. Positive utility supports the promotion of happiness, which means that they try to avoid suffering. Conclusion: It is necessary for an athlete to understand that negative ethics can be overruled, not by avoiding it but by facing it. There are many athletes who had successfully come out form the use of PED where some failed. Those who failed have never tried to come out of it and the world doesnt recognize them as a hero. The question is not about every athlete should go through PED test, the question is about how to guide the moral ethics of athletes and every people who wants to enhance their performance through shortcut. Athletes are considered as heroes by their followers, the set the example of a perfect idol then it is their responsibility to guide their followers in the right path. References Bykvist, K. (2009).Utilitarianism. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Khing, T. (n.d.).Performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Robinson, T. and Epshteyn, M. (2009).Performance-enhancing drugs. Edina, Minn.: ABDO Pub. Co. Socrethics.com, (2015).Negative Utilitarianism and Justice. [online] Available at: https://www.socrethics.com/Folder2/Justice.htm#C3 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2015]. Sportsanddrugs.procon.org, (2015).Top 10 Pros and Cons - Drug Use in Sports - ProCon.org. [online] Available at: https://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002352 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2015]. Taipeitimes.com, (2015).US' Jerome Young banned for life for doping violation - Taipei Times. [online] Available at: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2004/11/12/2003210824 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2015]. Uvacsek, M., Nepusz, T., Naughton, D., Mazanov, J., Rnky, M. and Petrczi, A. (2011). Self-admitted behavior and perceived use of performance-enhancing vs psychoactive drugs among competitive athletes.Scandinavian Journal of Medicine Science in Sports, 21(2), pp.224-234. Warner, D., Schnepf, G., Barrett, M., Dian, D. and Swigonski, N. (2002). Prevalence, attitudes, and behaviors related to the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in student athletes1 1The body of this work was done while D.C.W. and M.S.B. were students at Depauw University and Indiana University School of Medicine, respectively.Journal of Adolescent Health, 30(3), pp.150-153.

Macbeth Essays (820 words) - Characters In Macbeth,

Macbeth I am going to prove that in the play Macbeth, a symbol of blood is portrayed often (and with different meanings), and that it is a symbol that is developed until it is the dominating theme of the play towards the end of it. To begin with, I found the word "blood", or different forms of it forty-two times (ironically, the word fear is used forty-two times), with several other passages dealing with the symbol. Perhaps the best way to show how the symbol of blood changes throughout the play, is to follow the character changes in Macbeth. First he is a brave honoured soldier, but as the play progresses, he becomes a treacherous person who has become identified with death and bloodshed and shows his guilt in different forms. The first reference of blood is one of honour, and occurs when Duncan sees the injured sergeant and says "What bloody man is that?". This is symbolic of the brave fighter who been injured in a valiant battle for his country. In the next passage, in which the sergeant says "Which smok'd with bloody execution", he is referring to Macbeth's braveness in which his sword is covered in the hot blood of the enemy. After these few references to honour, the symbol of blood now changes to show a theme of treachery and treason. Lady Macbeth starts this off when she asks the spirits to "make thick my blood,". What she is saying by this, is that she wants to make herself insensitive and remorseless for the deeds which she is about to commit. Lady Macbeth knows that the evidence of blood is a treacherous symbol, and knows it will deflect the guilt from her and Macbeth to the servants when she says "smear the sleepy grooms with blood.", and "If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt." When Banquo states "and question this most bloody piece of work," and Ross says "is't known who did this more than bloody deed?", they are both inquiring as to who performed the treacherous acts upon Duncan. When Macbeth is speaking about Malcolm and Donalbain, he refers to them as "bloody cousins" A final way, and perhaps the most vivid use of the symbol blood, is of the theme of guilt. First Macbeth hints at his guilt when he says "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?", meaning that he wondered if he would ever be able to forget the dastardly deed that he had committed. Then the ghost of Banquo, all gory, and bloody comes to haunt Macbeth at the banquet. The sight of apparitions represents his guilt for the murder of Banquo which he planned. Macbeth shows a bit of his guilt when he says "It is the bloody business which informs thus," he could not get the courage to say murder after he had killed Duncan, so he says this instead. Lady Macbeth shows the most vivid example of guilt using the symbol of blood in the scene in which she walks in her sleep. She says "Out damned spot! Out I say! One: two: why then 'tis time to do't: hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call out power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?". This speech represents the fact that she cannot wipe the blood stains of Duncan off of her hands. It is ironic, that she says this, because right after the murder, when Macbeth was feeling guilty, she said "A little water clears us of this deed." When the doctor of the castle finds out about this sleepwalking, he tells Macbeth "As she is troubled with thick-coming fantasies,". What this means, is that Lady Macbeth is having fantasies or dreams that deal with blood. Macbeth knows in his mind that she is having troubles with her guilt, but does not say anything about it. Just before the ending of the play, Macbeth has Macduff at his mercy, and lets him go, because of his guilt. He shows that he is guilty, when he says "But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd with blood of thine already.". Of which, Macduff replies, "I have no words, my voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain than terms can give thee out." After the death of Macbeth at the

How to Write a United States History DBQ Sample Essay

How to Write a United States History DBQ Sample EssayWriting a United States History DBQ sample essay is often more difficult than it looks. Your goal should be to ensure that you get the most from the exercise by completing it as accurately as possible.For example, high school students are often instructed to include topics that relate to geography, religion, or the Civil War, but little information about how the Founding Fathers came up with the founding documents of the United States of America. While the essay should be lively and interesting, avoid going into too much detail in the beginning.In many English classes, students learn to write from various texts and genres, but they never learn to write intelligently from different styles. Before you begin writing your sample essay, take a moment to consider the style of the text that you will be writing for your United States History DBQ assignment.What style do you like best? Are you more comfortable with historical fiction, poetr y, or contemporary journalism? This will help you narrow down the type of essay that you will write as you research for your DBQ sample essay.After you have decided on a particular style, look at all of the resources available in your English course. Look at dictionaries, encyclopedias, and newspapers to learn about how the texts in your course are formatted and used.In addition to learning about the format and conventions of the texts you are writing, you also need to be familiar with how a text is organized and how the structure of the English course relates to that structure. It is important to know how sentences are interspersed with paragraphs to ensure that your essay flows smoothly.You will also need to look at how the grammar of your English course is developed. You will also need to learn how to summarize and explain what is covered in the text.

Husserls continually present Natural Standpoint †Essay

Husserls continually present Natural Standpoint – Essay Free Online Research Papers Husserl’s â€Å"continually present† natural standpoint In the natural attitude we find ourselves situated within the dual temporal horizons of the past and the future. Within these horizons the world of our experience is one, which is an every waking now obviously so, has its temporal horizon, infinite in both directions (I  §27,102). The past and the future recede infinitely behind and before usnever coming to an end, but rather vanishing, as it were, at the limits of our field of vision, what we experience to varying degrees is a misty horizon. In the natural attitude we understand time as always moving and ‘being there’, from one such fading horizon to the other, and we recognize human experience as always already occurring in time, enframed by horizons which are forever beyond our grasp but always visible in the smallest range of our conscious sight. Along and between these horizons the present is that moment of our experience that stands out, intuitively and immediately, as the focal point of our conscious life. The present presents itself to consciousness and demands its attention. The present assumes the foreground in the unfolding of our experience, but always against the background of the worlds ordered being in succession of time (I  §27,102). The present cannot extricate itself from this continuum. It is caught up in the chain of the sequence of time, which is an unbreakable linkagea web of interconnections and interrelationsthat extends without limit behind and before us: receding in both directions into the invisible regions beyond the horizons of our intentional gaze. We can, through an effort of abstract thought, feel our way along this continuum, navigating through its connections and relations; but it will always be the case that in the actuality of our experience whatever is presented to us will be presented in a present enframed by a horizonal past and future. The singularity of multiple mental processes while simultaneously gathering them together in a pattern of unity. Inner time consciousness pulls together separate mental processes, welding them together in a chain. Turning his attention now to the world that is situated within the infinite temporal horizons of past and future, Husserl takes up the task of describing the nature of our conscious experience. He takes the natural attitude in order to arrive at a certain universal insight into the essence of any consciousness whatever (I  §33,113). Before undertaking a stud of consciousness in brackets, according to the epoches guidelines, which exclude the presuppositions of the natural attitude, he wants to study consciousness as it occurs within the natural attitudein order to make certain that something will be left of consciousness once the â€Å"braketing† is activated, and also in order to get a preliminary idea of what constitutes the essential nature of that phenomenological. The natural standpoint is, essentially, the vision of the world structured by all sorts of filters - psychological, biological, cultural, These filters equip us for success in almost every sphere of life excep t one, namely, unfiltered truth-seeking. Husserl was radical in claiming that, with due diligence and method, we can remove all these filters temporarily. This eidetic analysis leads Husserl to describe consciousness as a stream (I  §34,116). Consciousness presents itself to us in the natural attitude not as an immobile, unchanging thing, but rather in a constant change, a linear force surging forward. Between the receding horizons of the past and the future, which allow us to experience the world of the natural attitude. Husserl says that this stream of consciousness is composed of particular mental processes. These mental processes are the various cogitationes of consciousness: the intending, perceivings, understandings and other activities of the cogito. When we reflect on the stream of consciousness as it occurs in the natural attitude we find it to be composedbuilt up and constitutedby these elemental acts of the Ego (I  §33,113). Though the cogitatum (the physical object that is perceived, for example) may be absolutely stable and constant, the cogitatio that intends it is always in flux, and is in turn itself caught up in the larger flux of flowing consciousness (I  §41,130-131). Their own essence is such that they draw together and combine to changing or unified glimpse of the misty horizon, which is the stream of consciousness, while nevertheless preserving, in the process, a certain autonomy and individual freedom. Husserl wants to understand how this dual nature comes about. So the question that Husserl poses is this: If particular mental processes constitute the stream of consciousness (in both its unity and its potential for flashes of individuation), what is it that constitutes the essence of the constituting mental processes? This question leads Husserl to take the third step, moving beyond the natural attitude, and an eidetic analysis of consciousness.. In this deeper region of consciousness it will be possible to discover what constitutes the events and essences that make their way up into the natural world. The brackets of the epoche are meant to exclude the general positing which belongs to the essence of the natural attitude (I  §32,61), and thus allow us to lay claim to a truly scientific foundation for knowledge. Here the new science of phenomenology can go to work and uncover the fundamental structures and operations of consciousness. Husserl looks here for that which constitutes the dualistic essence of mental processes and the general temporal context of the natural world, and finds the source of both to be internal time consciousness or phenomenological time. To understand phenomenological time we must first differentiate it from objective or cosmic time (I  §81,192). Phenomenological time differs from objective time first of all in terms of the region of its activity. Phenomenological time is purely internal: it does not operate outside of bracketed consciousness. In the natural attitude we are accustomed to thinking of time as an objective phenomenonas an external event that can be precisely defined, tracked, and measured by the tools and traditions of the natural world. In this attitude time comes to be associatedeven identifiedwith the ticking of the second hand, the movement of the shadows, or the visible change of the seasons: in short, with concrete, physical events in a concrete, physical milieu. But according to Husserl phenomenological time has no such external manifestations. It is not measured nor to be measured by any position of the sun, by any clock, by any physical means (I  §81,192). Phenomenological time has rather t o do with the immanent, inner experience of time at the most profound level of consciousness. According to Husserl, this inner experience has no necessary presence or reflection in the natural world, as transcendent objective time does. The immanent place that phenomenological time has within bracketed consciousness is, for Husserl, the deepest, most fundamental level of reality. Phenomenological time is therefore what is ultimately and truly absolute (I  §81,193). This signals the end of Husserls descent: we have reached the foundation (I  §85, 203). Inner time consciousness is what constitutes the temporal context and the cogitationes which in turn constitute our experience of the natural world. From the essence of this deepest level of consciousness, the mental processes which constitute the stream of consciousness derive their own essence. At this point we are finally in a position to examine the essence of inner time consciousness itself. According to Husserl, phenomenological time is essentially a form that imposes itself upon mental processes (I  §81,194). This form, in turn, is generated- constitutedby an activity of protention and retention that issues from the very core of consciousness. By means of this activity consciousness enlarges itself beyond the present. It actively holds on to traces of its past, while simultaneously reaching forward into its future. It draws its past into its present, and extends its present into its future. Protention and retention are precise counterpart[s]; in a sense they amount to a single activity that can be focused in two different directions (I  §77,175).2 Consciousness constitutes the linked, unified structurethe formof temporality as it directs this activity upon the past and the future. Thus, Without committing ourselves to Husserls phenomenology, we can say that his explanation of our ordinary ignorance is attractive. The natural standpoint is a rendering of Socratic fo rgetfulness that has considerably more articulate detail. But I have many questions about it. Is the natural standpoint just a congeries of attitudes, unified only in name, that must be disentangled before they help us understand anything? Can there be many natural standpoints? By what force does the natural standpoint return, or impose itself, after we leave our desks? Research Papers on Husserl’s â€Å"continually present† Natural Standpoint - EssayComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThree Concepts of PsychodynamicIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesGenetic EngineeringEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThe Spring and AutumnThe Project Managment Office SystemResearch Process Part One

MRI Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

MRI - Essay Example Due to huge abundance of water in the body, hydrogen atoms are focused upon in this process. Upon applying the magnetic field, the hydrogen atoms align in the direction of the magnetic field. Next, when radio waves are added to the magnetic field, it results in the deflection of the magnetic field and resonation of the hydrogen atoms. Resonation frequency of hydrogen atoms is dependent upon the strength of the magnetic field. Upon the switching off of the radio frequency, the atoms get aligned again, generating a signal which is used to create MRI image. After giving subtle time for atoms to relax, multiple signals are produced to detect abnormalities in the tissues. (Berger, 2002) These signals are generated in the form of an image depicting significant information. (Dawson, 2008) (Blink, 2004) It has wide range of applications in evaluating blood flow in the arteries (Clinical Policy, 2001) and diagnosis of soft tissue problems such as brain tumours, multiple sclerosis, torn ligame nts, shoulder injuries and earlier stages of stroke. MRI offers multiple privileges to probe deep into soft tissues which CT scans or X-ray do not provide. Secondly, they don’t use any ionising radiations and are thus claimed safe as radio waves are found all around and do not damage the tissues. (Berger, 2002) Thirdly, MRI offers diagnosis of a specific area in the patient at various planes unlike CT scan that is limited only to one plane. (WebMD, 2009) However, there are several limitations to it such as 1) high cost of an MRI scan; 2) victims of claustrophobia are hesitant to undergo the diagnosis and condition to hold breath for long durations, 90 minutes or so, is quite uncomfortable for aged patients. (Michaelmas, 2004) Nevertheless, MRI is one of the major breakthroughs in medicine, allowing the doctors and researchers to accurately diagnose disease conditions of ailing humans. Magnetic Resonance Venography (MRV) is another technique based on nuclear magnetic resonance that is used particularly for monitoring the blood flow in veins of the body. (Vega, 2008) A detailed account of the different scenarios at which MRA and MRV are being used is discussed in a report by Clinical policy Bulletins. (Clinical Policy, 2001) The only difference between MRI and MRV is that MRV uses special computer software to generate the images. This paper will discuss the various techniques used in MRV namely Phase Contrast 3D PC MRV, Time of Flight 3D TOF MRV and Contrast enhanced (3D MRV CE) and MRI scanners in general. Phase Contrast 3D PC MRV This technique makes use of velocity induced shifts to measure blood flow. The velocity of blood flow is proportional to the phase shift, thus giving true quantification of blood flow and direction of blood flow. (Lirng, 2010) (Srichai MB, 2009) Signal intensity is encoded by velocity on the MR image, where stationary protons appear in gray colour. Blood flow in one direction is brighter as compared to the flow in the opposite direction. (Srichai MB, 2009) A significant factor called VENC factor, which is targeted to visualize arteries or veins in the region of interest. The higher the VENC factor, the arteries become more clear and vivid on the MRI image; lower VENC factor values help in visualizing veins. The direction of flow and flow velocities can be calculated using the MRI images. (Medical Physicist, n.d.) Various implications of 3D-PC have been explored in the past decade. Stoquart-ElSankari et al investigated

BRAZILIAN CINEMA LAT AM 380 FINAL TAKE-HOME II Essay

BRAZILIAN CINEMA LAT AM 380 FINAL TAKE-HOME II - Essay Example Brazilian cinema prospect captured different livelihoods, beliefs and lifestyles of different groups of people, those that lived in cities or towns and those that lived in marginal areas with unfavorable conditions like the semi-arid areas where the early Portuguese first settled commonly referred to as sà ©rtao in Portuguese. Several influential renowned cinema film directors like Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Glauber Rocha, Andrucha Waddington, Jorge Furtado, Joà £o Tikomiroff, and Carlos Diegues Walter Salles amongst many others took the center stage in making these films with deeply embedded and well played out themes or motifs that clearly communicated message of importance. It is due to collective effort of these film productions developments in the 60s and 70s that led to the rise of a pro-modern movement â€Å"cinema novo†, new cinema (Rodriguez 109). that was very influential in addressing issues to do with social equality and intellectualism in Brazil as opposed to th e traditional cinema technique that were ineffective. The major themes captured by these films as portrayed in the two main settings, rural and urban, are the power in the Brazilian political landscape, religion and Brazilian popular culture. In the Brazilian context, power is closely associated with corruption in governments. The corruption in turn has led to socio-political and economical oppression to its citizens making the poor or the peasants much poorer while making the rich much wealthy creating a very big power gap between the two (Xavier 86). Power when misused is normally associated with the might or tyranny, and greed in any given society which are easily visible in the Brazilian societal and governmental structure where the rich oppress the poor because of the difference classes created and the powers that come attached. Power

Ethical Issues In The ICU Essay Example for Free

Ethical Issues In The ICU Essay Medical practitioners are faced with the challenge of making decisions on whether to withhold or withdraw a patient’s life sustaining therapy in the intensive care unit. Intensive care units are departments which provide high quality and advanced forms of therapies to very ill patients in the intensive care unit at an increased cost. These patients’ expectations are high with regard to modern medicine, and as a result, have led to the rise of complex ethical issues in the ICU. Clinicians managing patients in the intensive care unit face many ethical problems during the patient’s routine care. This is seen in cases of withholding life sustaining therapy, withdrawing life sustaining therapy, informed consent and making decisions that affect the patients. Introduction Ethical related issues in the intensive care unit are a dilemma facing medical practitioners and nurses. This has affected the quality of care given to the patients in the ICU. Nurses responsible for caring for critically ill patients are faced with many ethical problems in the ICU due to the lack of enough full time critical care personnel and lack of enough funds to facilitate and run the intensive care units. A guideline on ethical issues in the intensive care unit demands that nurses offering critical care to patients apply the care with humanity by showing respect for the emotions and choices of the patients and their families. Nurses in this field are required to provide all necessary information to the patients and the family, counsel them and assist in interpreting the results so they can make well informed decisions. Nurses must consult with all physicians involved in the patients’ management. ethical problems facing nurses in he intensive care unit range from aggressive forms of treatment, following the wishes of the patients families to using extreme forms of reducing pain and assisted suicide and euthanasia.. Care of patients in the intensive care units involves aggressive forms of treatments with high risks associated with them and high-tech modern medicine which has higher risks than improving the patients’ prognosis. Critically ill patients and terminally ill patients who should be left to die in the comfort of their homes like in the earlier days are now made to undergo last minute aggressive treatments which may end up being no significant. In such cases when the treatment fails and the patient dies, the patients’ family blames the nurses and doctors for being insensitive to their wishes. Nurses are faced with the burden of not knowing where to draw the line between extending the natural process of dying by applying aggressive forms of medical care and when to apply life support systems. Ethics require that medical practitioners and nurses put the interests of their patients and their families’ first rather than applying futile medical technology to save the life of the patient or prolong their dying process against the family’s wishes. Nurses in the care of critically ill patients are required to set proper goals and interventions for terminal are of patients. End of life decisions should be made after consensus with all involved physicians. Critically ill patients in the intensive care unit get the most complex forms of treatment even in cases where their prognosis is poor. These patients also die under the most undesirable situations such as comatose conditions or under ventilatory support. Research studies have shown that critically ill patients are put through very aggressive forms of treatment which the clinicians would not want to undergo. The same studies have shown that the majority of patients in the intensive care unit are on a life-limiting care. Only very few patients in the intensive care unit receive full life support treatment and CPR. Most nurses and medical care givers are faced with the burden of choosing whether to resuscitate a patient or not when their prognosis is poor. Categories of ethical problems Cost reduction Critical care of patients in the intensive care unit is the most expensive form of treatment. Critical patients who die are said to accumulate more expenses than those who survive. This is because aggressive modern medicine for sustaining life is very expensive. Due to this the standard of care give in intensive care units has deteriorated as it focuses more on cost reduction rather than provision of quality health care. Medical care providers are often faced with the burden of how to establish when to provide full life support to patients and when to withdraw life sustaining support. These decisions are usually based on the patient’s age, type of illness or their prognosis. In effect the medical care providers are influenced to make biased decisions. Defining the standards of care to be given in the intensive care units is based on reducing the incurred costs. (Lo B. (2005). Quality of care Most health care institutions have developed strategies of limiting life support on critically ill patients. Families of critical patients may wish to write do not Resuscitate orders if their patient’s rate of survival is low. In case this is done, this category of patients receives less attention from medical personnel and less care from nurses. Strategies of limiting life support have been based on the patients’ age, prognosis and the family wishes. Patients who are categorized as old and with a poor prognosis tend to get less attention from the medical care providers and the care given to them is of less quality. Rather that receiving actual medical care these patients are given sedatives and narcotic analgesia. Terminally ill patients receive fewer medical interventions before death and are usually given narcotic analgesics to mitigate pain and sedatives to reduce their suffering. Ethical guidelines urge that all patients be given quality care irrespective of their condition but medical care providers often base their interventions on biased decisions. The concept of futility Medical care providers use the concept of futile therapy to withhold or withdraw life sustaining treatment. In the clinical practice very few things are of absolute certainty and so physicians must avoid making decisions based on the futility of the treatment. The outcome of CPR application cannot be based on whether the patients’ family signed the Do not Resuscitate order. Every other patient in the intensive care unit should be given quality care based on facts rather than assumptions. Decisions on withholding or withdrawing life support should be discussed with the patients or with their family members. This expresses respect for their rights and wishes and helps in avoiding conflicts which may lead to legal litigations. The medical personnel are faced with a dilemma in cases where the patient’s prognosis is poor and extending the natural process of dying through aggressive treatment would be futile. In such cases some family members could insist on sustaining the patients’ life. The medical personnel thus have no option in deciding what is best for the patient. Putting such a patient through aggressive treatment enables the family to understand the realities of the concept on withholding or withdrawing the life support. Autonomy This principle demands that no form of treatment should be administered to patients without their own approval or that of their family members, except in cases of emergency where immediate intervention is required. Patients and their families have the right to disapprove any form of treatment and their wishes should be respected. These wishes should be indicated on a written consent in form of advance directive. However, when writing the directive the patient may not have anticipated his present condition or he may decide to change his mind. Medical personnel are thus faced with burden of making the best decision for the patient by putting the patient’s interests first. In the intensive care unit, medical personnel deciding whether to apply CPR on a patient with a good prognosis or to follow his family wishes to withdraw life support. The reliability of family members to represent the best interests of the patients is questionable because some family members may want to withdraw the patient’s life support for their own selfish interests. As a result, doctors and nurses are required to make the best decision for the patient irrespective of the family’s wishes. (Pozgar G. D (2005). Euthanasia and assisted suicide Euthanasia is whereby a medical care provider administers a lethal dose to the patient while in assisted suicide the killing drug is self administered by the patient with the help of a physician. This practice is no widespread, although physicians all over the world are engaging in the practice. They justify their actions as a form of relieving their patients from pain and suffering. In some cases patients do not give consent for euthanasia but still physicians practice it. Most family members choose terminal sedation whereby patients are put in a comatose condition and then food and water is withdrawn. (Morton P. G (2005) Organ donation Patients in the intensive care unit requiring critical care may require an organ transplant to assist in sustaining their life. Patients and family members might have advance directives which disapprove the idea of organ transplants. Medical care givers have a difficult time determining whether a patient should receive an organ donation or not. Performing an organ transplant without the patients or family’s consent could lead to a legal litigation. (Melia K. M (2004). The principle of beneficence In this situation the medical care provider is faced with a moral dilemma in making the best decision fro the patient with regard to his interests rather than those of the family. The role of a physician to apply his best judgement for the patient’s interest is hindered by the patients’ family which rejects the concept of futility. Such family members impose unreasonable demands on the physician to extend the natural process of dying. This only prolongs the patient’s pain and suffering. Medical personnel should therefore be able to make the best decisions for the patients. Ethical issues in the nursing field hinder the ability of physicians to administer quality medical care to critical patients in the intensive care unit.  Physicians are urged to shoe humanity and compassion when applying intensive care to critical patients. Nurses and doctors should set goals and objectives when giving end of life care to patients with both good and poor prognosis. In regard to ethical issues in the intensive care unit, medical care givers should know that their duties are both directed towards the patients and the families. Before carrying out any medical treatment and procedure, nurses and doctors should obtain written consents form patients or their immediate family members to avoid ethical dilemmas which may lead to legal litigations.