Human beings have freedom of choice
The question of freedom of human beings is perhaps one of the most contentious questions that mankind is currently debating on. Various postulations and reasoning have been put forward by different people; ideally what a person puts forward relating to this issue is by all means one’s personal opinion that cannot be generalized to all humans. This holds perhaps because we are constantly presented with different choices at different times and the our ability and mechanisms of making choices are overly different hence there is no way two different people can make the same choice for exactly the same reasons and the experience the same consequences as a result of making the choice.
I am opinionative that human beings do not have freedom of choice. What we certainly have is a perception of freedom, but in essence, our choices are always governed by several other forces that might not be perceivable at the time of making any choice. Taking for example, a super rich man and a poor man going the pharmacy to buy a painkiller drug, it is true that there are several painkiller drugs for these people to choose. The poor man, inherently, will not choose an expensive painkiller drug because of financial constraints. Again, in the event that there are several painkiller drugs that the poor man can afford, his choice will be made based on previous experiences with the drug, hear-say about the drug and most importantly advertisement of the drugs (most buyers do not always verify the information presented in advertisement). I a similar manner, the rich man will have a propensity of choosing a relatively expensive class of painkillers and his final choice, just like the poor man, will be governed by several other factors. For this example, it can be construed that human beings do not really have a freedom of choice but rather a perception of choice.
What it takes to change our behavior or ethics
It is exceedingly hard to change behavior (or ethics) that one has elicited for a long time. However, when some factors are taken into consideration, the behavior change or change of ethics can be effected. For one to change his or her behavior or ethics, one has to be aware of the reasons why such a change is requisite. This can be achieved through a careful observation of the consequences of elicitation of a given behavior, or by being made aware of the effects of the behavior that should be changed. Again, there should be an alternative behavior that should one should uphold upon shading off the undesired behavior; it is pointless to tell some that his or her ethics are not good while offering no alternative set of ethics that one should uphold. And most importantly, past experiences play an pivotal role with regards to change in behavior or ethics- One will has proclivity to change behavior based on past experiences tied to the evocation of a given behavior.
Why human autonomy is so important in health care ethics
Autonomy, specifically patient autonomy, is one of the most overriding values in healthcare. This is because the decisions to be made during various instances of healthcare are normally directly affects a patient’s life. In this regard, it is always paramount that patients are allowed to make their own decision in healthcare. By honouring patients’ autonomy, the patients are given an opportunity to given meaning to their own lives, live their lives, use their rational abilities to make judgments that solely affects, and express their minds regarding what they want. However, this is always challenging in scenarios where it is a common knowledge that different people are better placed to make sound judgments for an individual.
