Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare. Essay Example.

Dealing with health issues in a public context often invokes conflicting perspectives from both the audience and the healthcare professionals, and this can sometimes hinder the efficiency of the advocacy plan. To understand and identify the ethical issues that face health practitioners it is essential to define the problems regarding public health ethics and how to recognize the ethical challenges. The common understanding of ethical dilemmas is that they are practices or policies that contradict with the existing professional principles or the values that a particular group of people holds deeply.

The first ethical issue in this context would be respecting the individuals sense of privacy and their freedom to make free choices without manipulation. In a democratic society, health professionals must observe ethical principles, among which are the right to autonomy and protection of privacy. Despite the fact that this campaign aims to reduce the rate of tobacco smoking, it is clear that people are allowed to make their choices regarding whether they are willing to quit the habit or not. Therefore, in convincing the young people to stop smoking, sometimes persuasion is necessary, and this goes against the aspect of autonomy. Additionally, persuasion might involve manipulation, and this threatens peoples autonomy. The best way to counter this ethical problem is by understanding to what extent the persuasion is admissible and what parts of the message entail manipulation. Once identified, it is best to establish the limits and stick to them.

The other ethical issue is the responsibility of healthcare professionals to promote health efficiently and effectively. This entails understanding the available resources and how to maximize their effectiveness. One of the approaches commonly encountered in this circumstance is the end justifying the means, and this is to mean that the nurses and physicians can justify their acts of using persuasive systems that might disturb, offend or even stigmatize the chosen population. In convincing people to quit the habit of tobacco smoking often entails illustration of the adverse effects of smoking and this may involve displaying disturbing images which may disturb the audience. The solution to this problem is communicating in advance to the audience concerning the utilization of provocative messages and strong negative emotion appeals.

Lastly, the problem relates to equity and knowledge gaps within the chosen population. The selected groups in this campaign are young adults indulging in tobacco smoking. The concern in this context is to understand how the provided intervention might inadvertently widen the health and social gaps in the community by favoring those who are better off financially. The ethical dilemma hence is the propriety of financial incentives in dissuading the population from using tobacco. The goal of this campaign is to enhance the capacity to act upon offered solutions and have access to available resources that will help the young adults to quit smoking. It is easy to forget that not everyone has the necessary resources to access help and thus the less fortunate group might easily feel disadvantaged. Therefore, the best way to curb this problem is identifying the social disparities and ensuring that everyone has access to relevant information and resources.

Ethics and Lobbying Laws

A constitutional provision is the only thin line separating lobbying and bribery of state officials. As such, it is critical to ensure that the contractor is a registered lobbyist and not a state official. Otherwise, they will have no moral authority and may even face prosecution. It is also imperative to be aware whether the lobbying issue constitutes a regulation rather than legislation since ignorance of rules opens the lobbyist to culpability and liability.

The Law on property rights in USA and Australia have stood as hurdles to the war against tobacco. These laws protect industries from governmental interference that would "unjustly" reduce their profits. Because of this law, the organizations continue to produce and sell tobacco. Therefore, the lobbying strategy should target consumer attitudes instead of corporate practices and production.

The law on commercial speech grants the government the right to refrain from tobacco control. However, with appropriate lobbying, this law proves to be a grey area where the government officials can compel the tobacco-producing corporations to publish images that raise awareness of the negative effects of tobacco.

Ethical Challenges Unique to the Addressed Population

Different people start smoking for various reasons, and these might include peer influence, depression, and social contexts. The addressed population which entails both youth and adults may have different perspectives towards smoking and its effects on their general health. Therefore, the first unique challenge to this population is to understand communication approaches that do not create a barrier between the two age differences. The information and its detail of presentation must be cohesive and consolidated to accommodate every group equally. The other challenge is avoiding harm. It is an obligation of the healthcare practitioners that as they improve the health of the people, they should not cause any damage. The communication activity might harm specific people directly or indirectly, and the problem arises when it is time to identify the groups that might be affected by the provocation messages and the graphic advertisements.

Conclusion

Tobacco smoking continues to damage the health of many individuals because of lack of awareness. The goal of this campaign is to promote awareness of the impact of tobacco on the health, and it aims to accomplish this by inducing fear among the consumers. Approaches to promoting the campaign include using provocative messages, creating fear through appeal and using emotional and graphic advertisement on media. Though the chosen methods will prove to be efficient, it is highly likely that they might invoke the wrong feeling and perspective from the addressed population. However, the projected challenges have been identified, and their solutions have been proposed, and thus this advocacy campaign is the best idea for creating awareness of tobacco smoking.