Ethical and Critical Thinking Questions on Mary Typhoid.edited (1)
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Ohio State University *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
RE
Subject
Health Science
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
7
Uploaded by DeaconSnowSeaLion27
1
Ethical and Critical Thinking Questions on Mary Typhoid
Student’s Name:
Institution:
Professor:
Date:
2
Question 1
In this case, Mary is a typhoid carrier and how she was treated by the environment
surrounding her raises several ethical questions. Some of the ethical questions raised in this
context are: Was isolating her from the other people justice to her? Was she responsible after
being let out of the isolated lodge in Dark Harbor? After being released, the department where
she worked as a cook was denied the duty, and the department decided not to let her continue
with the task, was this decision fair to her? Soper's findings were to test Mary's stool, urine, and
blood; could this be compared to liberty? Finally, if we talk of empathy, Mary moved from
Ireland after she lost the job she was doing as a cook; the families she cared for and being sent to
isolation almost made her insane.
All the questions asked should be analyzed without bias, bearing that everyone should be
respected in any particular situation, not just Typhoid Mary. Ethical questions enable one to be
treated with respect and equally without being one-sided or favoring one party (Typhoid Mary,
2019). It is essential to practice fairness. Before doing anything to a person, ensure you evaluate
their feelings towards the act you are about to perform on them. An individual's Character is vital
since it determines who you are without many explanations. Therefore, my main ethical thinking
questions include responsibility, Character, and fairness.
Question 2
As I have just said, my main important questions among the eight questions include
responsibility, Character, and fairness. Commitment is significant in this context because we can
ask ourselves whether Mary, after being told that they wanted to test her to find out whether she
was a typhoid carrier. In my opinion, in this case, I believe that Soper was right by testing Mary's
3
stool, urine, and blood to find out whether she was the carrier and if she was the reason the
families she worked for were experiencing typhoid fever. Mary would have taken that experience
as the reason why she deserved the check-up to avoid infecting others and also would be safe for
her life. Other questions that seem to be vital to me involve the Character. Mary's Character, in
this case, is essential since it plays a crucial role in whether she was to get treated or not,
according to the situation she was in at that moment. The last questions that I chose fall under
fairness. We can ask ourselves whether it was fair to isolate Mary; separating her may seem
unfair, but her response to the isolation looks unreasonable.
Responsibility, to my understanding, is an essential selection since Mary was advised on
how to get tested. Therefore, she had to abandon the responsibility she was assigned for cooking
to try whether she was a typhoid carrier. In this case, she was not responsible and experienced
fear since it came from nowhere. Soper demanded her test, and she felt she was invaded. The
second factor that I chose was Character, and, in this case, Mary had poor Character that made
her isolated. Mary's action of carrying a fork to Soper somehow shows she was not cooperative
and might have led to the treatment she was given, which led to her isolation. Fairness is another
crucial factor since it seems unfair to see Mary being isolated alone, yet there were several cases
of typhoid fever (Marineli et al., 2019). It would be fair if the rest who had signs of typhoid fever
were also separated.
Question 3
My viewpoint on Mary’s issue concentrates on the outcomes. I believe that, at one point,
being isolated from others could be a potential short-term outcome. After the test, it showed that
Mary was infected, and the step taken to prevent the spread of typhoid, therefore, became a long-
term outcome.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
4
To practice fairness in this case, everyone with typhoid was supposed to be isolated, just
like Mary. The isolation happened to Mary and not the rest, bringing us to the unfairness being
practiced by Soper. The act of separating her at some point is fair since she could still be
infecting other people through the food she was cooking.
Question 4
I have witnessed this after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which started with
few cases and people ignored it at first until it became fatal. People succumbed to the pandemic.
Without isolation, people could get together with their families and friends. The suspected cases
were reported immediately, and proper care was taken for them to avoid massive spreading.
The situation that I was in helped my view on health care where I was in nursing, and
having read this Mary case, I upheld the essence of having a quarantine in times of an outbreak.
Even though it looked unfair to quarantine Mary Mallon alone, it was a brilliant idea and step
taken to prevent the healthy others from being infected through food contact.
Question 5
The evidence supporting my viewpoint includes many things that Mary Mallon did. In
my key questions, mainly on the
Character
, I mentioned that her Character was poor since she
did not cooperate with the Soper and did not do as asked. If she had collaborated, maybe she
would have been treated better, and she might have retained her cooking job. She chased Soper
out of the kitchen, and at some point, she was with a fork, which showed that she was not
cooperative (Inglis-Arkell, 2018).
After being individualized in a cottage, she started being cooperative, which became
positive progress on her side. This saved the lives of people that she could infect in the process of
5
food contact. She was doing what the authorities had asked, but after being quarantined, she
started cooperating with the rules even though she had lost her job.
Question 6
In my view, the stakeholders are the people from New York who had employed Mary to
work for them as a cook. This is so because many people came into contact with her cooking
food. It was unknowingly since none of them thought Mary could be a typhoid carrier, and
therefore, this is why I felt they were at a higher stake. Even after being diagnosed as a typhoid
carrier, Mary dared to change her last name to go back to the kitchen since she had a higher
income, which still put people at risk (Rosenberg, 2019).
The other stakeholder would be George Soper. Soper was the individual who was first to
note the condition of Mary and suspected there must be something that was making people who
come into contact with her suffer. Wealthy families hired him to investigate typhoid fever in
those families, and that is when he came to contact Mary in the kitchen.
Question 7
I believe that even though Mary was isolated after recovering from typhoid fever, she
deserved a chance to work elsewhere since she was unaware of her condition. It was not her wish
to infect people. Chasing her away from their job and some families depending on her salary was
not an excellent idea by the stakeholders.
I also believe that Soper accused Mary and took away her freedom and self-worth. This is
after he quickly posted the issue in the newspaper. This is the reason Mary went further on
changing her name to continue working in the kitchen since she was getting higher pay in the
kitchen.
6
Question 8
I believe there were two main viewpoints and stakeholders in that typhoid Mary case. The
first supported Mary Mallon's confinement, and the second rejected her confinement. Some
showed empathy and probably are the ones who chose against Mary's confinement. Some did not
agree with her confinement and believed that the health department in New York was taking her
rights away.
I believe that if my point can be agreed upon, we would have a pretty complex evolution.
There would be no way to have a similar case handled differently. Mary was not alone and was
diagnosed with typhoid fever, but she was quarantined alone, and she even lost her job, bearing
in mind some people were dependent on her.
Finally, I believed that a majority was against Mary's confinement, and they were very
bitter about how she was treated. Even though it is impossible to treat everyone in the same way
due to differences in the circumstances, it is always good to check on both sides when handling
someone after learning that people depend on her.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
7
References
Inglis-Arkell, E. (2018, December 25). What the City of New York Did to "Typhoid Mary" Was
Pretty Horrific. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from https://io9.gizmodo.com/what-the-
city-ofnew-york-did-to-typhoid-mary-was-pre-1674812001
Marineli, F., Tsoucalas, G., Karamanou, M., & Androutsos, G. (2019). Retrieved February 23,
2019, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959940/
Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). Learn the Sad Story of Typhoid Mary, Who Spread Typhoid in the Early
1900s. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from
https://www.thoughtco.com/typhoid-mary-
1779179
Typhoid Mary - Mary Mallon (1869 - 1938). (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2019, from
http://www.historyandwomen.com/2010/01/typhoid-mary-mary-mallon-1869-1938.html