Abstract

In healthcare settings, nurses and doctors experience moral dilemmas, where they are left with no choice but to violate their moral code. For example, a nurse may witness a patient die because their hospital lacked the resources necessary to treat them. A lingering feeling of personal responsibility, termed moral residue will remain in such cases. This residue plays a critical role in moral dilemmas and is up for much debate from both philosophical and empirical perspectives. Philosophers focus on the internal aspects of a moral agent. For example, these scholars view an agent’s virtues, reactive attitudes, and emotional fittingness as important. Empirical research sees external factors, such as management, understaffing, and ethical codes as being important when looking at moral dilemmas. My research looks to understand this discrepancy, identify why each field differs, and propose an intersectional understanding of moral dilemmas.