The Cultural Diversity

Abstract

Human beings associate and interact with one another in different ways. Therefore, there are aspects of life that are common to a group of people in an area or age group. The beliefs, values, norms, practices, and the total traits that define the way of life of a group is what is termed as culture. In the health care system, the practitioners can be said to be a group of individuals that have a unifying culture. The ethics of the profession play a vital role in building a culture that ensures cooperation and collaboration to achieve a common goal- restoring patient’s health. However, these people are in a profession that draws practitioners from different backgrounds. The individuals practitioners also can be traced to have varied culture depending with where they have come from; social organization, race, nationality, religion, and political environment. In an attempt to ensure that these differences are diluted, the government/ regulatory body formulates the code of ethics, rules and regulation that will guide behaviors and practices (Ng, 2010).

Cultural diversity has been a significant issue of concern in the health care setup. Irrespective of the location of the health care institution, there exist differing cultural backgrounds. Patient and practitioners have their individual culture that they uphold and respect. Unless each player respect, and uphold the others culture, there will never exist a smooth, professional relationship among them. In the wake of exposing the extent cultural diversity, two articles are analyzed critically. The cultural aspects in these two articles, concepts and their impact on health care will be illustrated in this paper. The paper also gives a discussion on the implication of these aspects to nursing care.

Legalizing Abortion

The article discloses the points on the role of the government in the debate of abortion. Beliefs, morals, and norms are part of the culture that should be upheld by individuals for smooth cohesion in the society. The cultural aspects illustrated by this article include religion, beliefs, values, practices, human dignity and rights. The author sympathizes with the powerless being whose fate lies on the hands of people who are alive, but do not uphold the rights to life. The key prayers in this discussion are the family members, the health practitioners, the government and the unlucky infant (Johnson et. al, 2009).

In this article, the Phillip describes how the woman’s rights are given a higher priority over the fetus, just because it cannot present its claims. He refers to this situation as “the anarchic jungle of society without law or the imposition of some moral system upon individuals.” The article laments how ruthless it is to grant choice of freedom some individuals the expense of others. The moral point in this decision making lack because the victim is defenseless. Culturally, some communities/society accepts abortion while others forbid the act (Baldonado, 2008).

Death by Medical Through

The main idea in "Death by Medical Through" is that of injustice to defenseless being. The author illustrates how the technology has resulted to ‘murder’ in the name of saving the society the unacceptable individuals. Women have increased tendency to undergo  a blood test to determine their children’s genetic fitness. The test is done during the first trimester where decision to keep the pregnancy or not is made depending with the results. The articles illustrate an example of a case where a healthy baby was killed since the test proved that the baby had Down syndrome. Eliminating the weak genes or the disadvantaged individuals in the community are an immoral, ethically unacceptable and an act that illustrate the culture of death. The aspects of culture revealed in this article include beliefs, values, discrimination morals and social injustice (Bennet et. al, 2010).

Discussion

The two articles show how culture can influence the health care system in a country. Once a government adopts a law, it becomes a concern that dictates the behaviors of the affected group of people. The beliefs of most individuals in the world hold that infants are innocent being that do not deserve any form of injustice from the society. It is also morally wrong to punish a being of mistakes that are beyond their power. Killing children that are diagnosed with congenital diseases should not be allowed. The nursing practices aims at helping individuals perform or achieve what they cannot of their own. Moreover, the nursing care upholds fidelity, justice and autonomy of the patients. At no time should the nurses act in a way to breech these rules. The extent and degree of ethical decisions should not be undermine in the name of personal gains, favors or bias on whatever aspect of patients life.

The value of human beings should not be undermined just because they are disabled in one way or another. There is every reason as to why these people should be given a chance to live in the society. Culturally, the elimination of these people in the society should be termed as murder. In the nursing practice, the ethics upholds that restoration of human health- thus life, is of priority during the practice. Eliminating the weak infants because of genetic make-up, disability, or other biological reasons leaves children as objects with not rights. This makes the profession loss its principle of value in life. The code of ethic stipulates the importance of doing no harm (beneficence) and preventing intentional harm (nonmaleficence) to patients.

Conclusion

Nursing practitioners are the people who form a close link between patients and the health care institution. Unfortunately, they are the people blame for implementation of such policies. Legalizing abortion credits the rights of the mother over those of the infants, thus should not be allowed. However, in health all patients’ rights should be observed. Thus, the right to perform abortion should be left at the hands of practitioners in cases of emergencies only.