Assignment task:
Suppose a 14-year-old girl asks her doctor at Calamity Valley clinic (which is part of the Calamity Valley hospital system) for a pregnancy test, because she has been sexually active. In the state Calamity Valley Hospital is located in, minors can consent to care for contraception and family planning care without their parents' consent, and the current law says they can request that physicians keep this information private from the parents. So, the doctor performs the pregnancy test, and it is negative. The girl is relieved and the doctor discusses birth control options with her, since it is clear she is already sexually active.
Later that week, the girl's parents come into the clinic. They found out their daughter was at the clinic, and they don't believe their daughter's explanation that she came in to discuss some knee problems related to being on the school tennis team. (The daughter did discuss this with the doctor, but the focus was on the pregnancy test.) The doctor knows the parents from past visits, and it is clear that they are loving and caring parents who only want the best for their child. The parents explain that they've noticed the child acting unusually and they're concerned, and they wondered if it was related to the clinic visit. They forcefully ask to see the records and know what happened at their daughter's recent clinic visit. "We are concerned she's hiding something from us because she's embarrassed or thinks we'll be mad," they say. "But we just want to know what's happening so that we can help."
The law in this case is clear: the current law requires the doctor to keep the information confidential and not share it with the parents. Still, as the doctor knows from her moral philosophy classes, the mere fact that something is legal doesn't show that it's moral. So, the doctor wonders: does she have a moral obligation to fill the parents in on their daughter's pregnancy test, or does she have a moral obligation to keep that information private as the patient has requested?
Our goal is to address the question: Does the physician have a moral obligation to share the 14-year-old patient's information (including the fact that she had a pregnancy test) with her parents?
Identify the best 'yes' argument and the best 'no' argument. One argument should be an Argument from Principle, and the other should be an Argument from Analogy.
Represent in standard form the best 'yes' argument. The argument should fit either the General Form of Argument from Principle or the General Form of Argument from Analogy.
Write a brief paragraph providing supplementary information for each premise of the 'yes' argument. For details and demonstration of how to do this, see Chapter 7 (for Argument from Principle) and Chapter 10 (for Argument from Analogy) of Doing Practical Ethics.
Represent in standard form the best 'no' argument. The argument should fit either the General Form of Argument from Principle or the General Form of Argument from Analogy.
Write a brief paragraph providing supplementary information for each premise of the 'no' argument. For details and demonstration of how to do this, see Chapter 7 (for Argument from Principle) and Chapter 10 (for Argument from Analogy) of Doing Practical Ethics.