ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a background into moral decision-making in general and applies moral decision-making to medical ethics education. It also provides an overview of main ethical frameworks that medical ethicists use to reach their decisions. The chapter goes through the various components that factor into making moral decisions. The Asch experiment demonstrates that the conformity bias is largely unconscious, and that the pressure to conform affects even one’s thoughts and beliefs. It is, therefore, important to be aware and actively reflect on whether one might be influenced by this bias when making moral decisions. “Rule utilitarianism” is more nuanced form of utilitarianism, since it considers the effect of generalizing a particular act and evaluating the consequences when act becomes a common practice. In the field of medical ethics, consequentialist calculations are most often and explicitly applied in cases where there are limited resources and one needs to figure out who to treat and who not to treat in relatively timely manner.
