Legal and Ethical Issues in American Criminal Justice - Assignment Example

Legal and Ethical Issues in American Criminal Justice of the of The government has always been in dilemma on how to balance its power of enforcing criminal law against the rights of individuals because the law of criminal procedure faces various interferences, given that the United States is characterized with a high level of constitutional democracy (Samaha, 2012, p. 21). For instance, there has to be a balance between government power and individual rights in criminal justice proposals and the introduction of new laws to minimize the controversies that may arise. Therefore, factors such as individual liberty, property privacy, as well as, life have to be taken into consideration (Samaha, 2012, p. 15). In addition, as far as the laws that are to be passed are concerned, it is expected that they may cause legal and ethical issues because they affect the lives of people in a fundamental way (Pollock, 2010, p. 14). In this essay, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is analyzed, based on how it causes controversy to employees and religious affiliated organizations, in terms of ethical issues, as it has been portrayed in the current American Media. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became constitutional, courtesy of the Supreme Court in 2012 (Sorrell, 2012, p. 1). Some of the elements of the act have been causing ethical issues among citizens, companies and religious institutions. As a result of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, guidelines pertaining to the requirements of the Act were directed to states, employers, insurance providing companies and consumers (Sorrell, 2012, p. 1). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be aiming at achieving various goals. In general, the Act sought to pose control on the costs of healthcare, achieve prevention of adverse health conditions and add on the list of health issues that medical covers provided. Under the Act, insurance companies could not deny providing cover to clients on pre-existing conditions, and many people became eligible for Medicaid. However, when the Court decision allowed for implementation of the act, there arose opposing views. These views were as a result of various religious beliefs among people and differing health priorities. For instance, controversy arose because of the priorities of Americans in terms of the health care goals that they saw to be fundamental in contradiction with different beliefs and values among citizens. It is evident from the views put forward by various groups that Americans would like to choose the kind of health care that they want to receive, from whom they would like to receive such care and when to receive it (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2014, p. 3). The ethical issue that results from the government imposing and forcing people to take specified healthcare covers is that of choice. A person should be allowed to make own choices pertaining to health care. Therefore, when the government or law comes in to force and specify the kind of health care that an individual should receive, it violates the provisions of the right to independent choice on matters pertaining to individual health. The same kind of violation is exhibited when the law stipulates by whom and when people are to receive health care cover. Ethically, the right for everyone to make their choices is supposed to be respected, but in this case, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act seem to undermine such a fundamental right. Secondly, after the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it appeared that all people are not treated equally, morally (Sorrell, 2012, p. 1). In some instances, depending on the organization for which women are working, they may not be covered for birth control by the medical plans of such companies, if the religious beliefs of the company owners are in contradiction with birth control. Similarly, there are those who are most likely to afford paying for the covers because of their financial status while others may not, or will have to sacrifice a lot. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does not seem to treat all the people equally here because low income earners will have to spend almost all their earnings on healthcare, given that the law has placed a requirement that everyone will have to be covered. It should also be noted that the law stipulates that the government will provide subsidized premiums for those who pay more than 8% of the incomes for health insurance (Sorrell, 2012, p. 1). This is more of deciding on how people should use their income, which raises ethical concerns. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as supported by law, face controversy from religious bodies, especially pertaining to the provision of insurance covers on birth control. Similarly, the Act has led to the authorization of mandatory cover for contraceptives and other birth control related expenses. Though, it was expected that religion affiliated organizations would be exempted, ethical issues still linger in the minds of many, pertaining to medical cover on birth control. For instance, the use of contraceptives as a birth control measure is presumed to be a major family planning and most probably, population control measure. However, birth control does not evade the opinions of many people who are of the opinion that the use of some contraceptives may cause death in the effort to prevent pregnancy or plan families. For instance, it is claimed that the use of the emergency pill is similar to abortion, incase fertilization had occurred. Though it is almost impossible to determine whether every case that involves use of the emergency pill could have been a possible termination of life, ethical issues still surround the use of such methods. In any case, those who object birth control believe that it is the responsibility of everyone to respect and preserve life at all stages. Ethical issues pertaining Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act relate to prevention of pregnancy and contradicting religious views, which state that some forms of family planning cause death. Therefore, there is a dilemma as to whether people should prevent unplanned pregnancies or they should allow for the occurrence of such pregnancies and seek abortion as a remedy. A person is at crossroads often, if a decision to control birth or not is to be made for her because there are religious views that are opposed to birth control. According to Fraga (2014, p. 3), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may lead to ethical concerns, as far as the freedom to decision making by patients and physicians is concerned. Physicians and patients are free to make independent, health care decisions, as per the law. Therfore, when the same law has to restrict the type of health care that people should receive and from whom such people will have to receive it, this freedom is forfeited. A major challenge that can be presented to an organization whose religious beliefs are opposed to the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is that of letting employees choose or making a choice for them. In case, the organization allows people to choose what they want in terms of health care, the organization’s liberty to exercise religious beliefs would be jeopardized. Contrary, if the organization chooses health care plans and covers for its employees based on its religious beliefs, it would jeopardize the freedom to independent choice for people. Therefore, it would be very difficult for the organization to choose the stand to adopt, as a result of this ethical issue. The ethical issue can be addressed by a religious affiliated organization by setting priorities. Normally, company priorities come before employee priorities because an employee is expected to work and help the organization achieve its priorities. Since in this case it is expected that the organization’s religious beliefs will have to be observed, a strategy of maintaining employees who will be negatively affected will have to found. In this case, they may have to seek medical cover for the pre-existing conditions that the organization does not cover elsewhere because the law allows them to do so. One of the factors that will affect the implementation of the aforementioned recommendations is mutual benefit. It is expected that as the organization benefits from the services an employee offers, the organization should also offer something in return. Therefore, the employee should have a positive feeling by benefitting in terms of health care plan. Leaving the employee to seek other health care covers from other sources may affect implementation. It is expected that, if both the employees and the organization have respect on the religious views of each other, there will be a positive outcome in the implementation of the recommendations. This is because employees will respect the organization’s religious views and desist from forcing it to provide medical covers that are in conditions while the organization will allow employees to seek what they want in terms of health care cover from other sources. References American College of Emergency Physicians. (2014). The Ethics of Health Care Reform: Issues in Emergency - Medicine - An Information Paper. Retrieved from http://www.acep.org/Physician-Resources/Practice-Resources/Professionalism/Ethics/The-Ethics-of-Health-Care-Reform--Issues-in-Emergency---Medicine---An-Information-Paper/ Fraga, B. (2014). A Catholic Guide to the Affordable Care Act: Controversial Health Care Law comes at Price of Religious Liberty, Coverage of Abortion, Experts say . Retrieved from https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Article/TabId/535/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/13783/A-Catholic-Guide-to-the-Affordable-Care-Act.aspx Pollock, J. (2010). Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice: Seventh Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning Press. Samaha, J. (2012). Criminal Procedure. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth Press. Sorrell, J. M. (2012). Ethics: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Ethical Perspectives in 21st Century Health Care. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol. 18 No. 1. Read More