Chapter 5 in our textbook describes five important and quite different approaches to ethical decision making: utilitarian, individualism, moral-rights, justice, and practical approaches. In this assignment you will select one approach and determine the guilt or innocence of the person in the vignette below. The following steps will help you prepare for your written assignment:

1. Carefully consider the different approaches to ethical decision making: utilitarian, individualism, moral-rights, justice, and practical approaches. Then read the vignette below.
2. Select which approach you want to use to make a verdict on whether the doctor is guilty or not guilty of acting unethically.

Your Task

1. In the "Module 4 Discussion" forum in our Class Discussion Assignment area, create a short essay style post in which you state whether you find the person guilty or not guilty. Then think about your decision and describe the ethical approach you used for deriving this verdict. Lastly, provide a clear and concise explanation for why you have made that decision grounding it in the ethical approach you chose. Your response must include proper terminology from the module reading and answer and address these questions (include the questions in your post so it is clear what part of your written response answers which question):

• What is the verdict you made (guilty or not guilty)?
• What ethical approach did you use to determine that verdict?
• Using your selected ethical approach, apply it and explain your logic in deriving your verdict of guilty or not guilty.
• If you were in the veterinarians situation, what would you have done differently? Explain why.

Scenario

Dr. Freeze has been a veterinarian for 20 years. Due to the increased cost associated with providing veterinarian services she has had to charge her clients more and more over the years. She became a veterinarian because she loves caring for and helping animals. Dr. Freezes office is located in an area that caters to both an affluent neighborhood and a less wealthy somewhat poverty-stricken neighborhood. To help defray the costs for those clients that live in the poorer neighbor, Dr. Freeze has taken to charging her wealthy clients up to 20% more for pet services and pushing the more expensive healthcare services onto them so that she can discount services comparably to the less wealthy clients. Dr. Freeze feels that without doing this, the less wealthy clients would not be able to satisfactorily care for their pets.