MORAL ORIENTATION OF ELDERLY PERSONS - CONSIDERING ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN HEALTH-CARE

Knowledge about moral development and elderly persons is very limited. A hermeneutical interpretative study was conducted with healthy elder ly persons (n = 20) in order to explore and describe their moral orien tation based on the paradigms of justice (Kohlberg) and care (Gilligan ). The types of moral reasoning, dominance, alignment and orientation were determined. All but one participant included both types of reason ing when discussing an ethical conflict. None of the men's moral reaso ning was dominated by caring, but justice dominated the reasoning of f our women. The implications for ethical decision-making and future res earch are discussed.