John Q: Moral Reasoning

John Q: Moral Reasoning

Olivia Athelus

University of Maryland University College

Abstract

When working parents discover that their son needs a heart transplant, they turn to the insurance provided by the husband's employer. The astounded father can only say "But I have insurance," in response to the news that the critical transplant is not covered. His next panicked move is to convert virtually all of the family's saleable assets to cash to meet the hospital administrator's requirement of an up-front deposit to assure a place for the boy on the transplant list. The amount of cash raised falls short of the mark, and time is running out. Prompted by his wife's plea that he "do something," John Q arrives at the hospital Emergency Department ready for action. He gains control with a gun (Later, we learn that it is unloaded), pulls chains from a duffel bag to padlock the doors, and makes it known that in exchange for the release of hostages, the administration is to grant permission for his son's heart transplant. He ensures everyone with his infamous line “I will not bury my son, my son will bury me”, meaning he will not stop until he saves his son’s life. In the end, the near-sacrifice of John Q's life and the apparent threat to other lives—coupled with administration's eventual willingness to put the son on the transplant list—create an improbable resolution that permits the boy's survival.

John Q: Moral Reasoning

When faced with a difficult decision of taking his dying son back home with no treatment, John Q. Archibald has two options: a heart transplant, or optimizing Mike's "quality of life" during the "months ... weeks ... days" left to him. Throughout the movie several examples of Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s studies on moral development are shown, the studies suggest that in everyday situations cognitive processes and reasoning may be less relevant, and that emotions and insights may instead affect many of our moral judgments (Mercier, 2011).

John Quincy Archibald is a hardworking class African American that would do just about anything for his family. The Archibald’s live paycheck-to-paycheck struggling to meet ends meet. At the peak of their financial crisis, it is discovered that Michael’s heart is failing and his survival depends on how quickly he can receive a transplant. While the family does have medical insurance, they are told that a heart transplant is an elective surgery. Since it has been deemed an elective surgery, insurance will not cover the surgery. The hospital also informs the family that the surgery is $250,000 and they require a thirty percent down payment to put Michael’s name on the transplant list.

Though they are struggling to pay their bills, they begin selling all of their worldly possessions and multiple attempts to gather donations, but they are still unable to raise the money. Still hoping that they would be able to get Mike’s name on the list, they are informed by the hospital that they are going to discharge Michael and that the Archibald’s should begin to prepare for his death. At this point of the movie a shift within the Archibald’s has began, it is seen that they begin to go through the stages of grief, a study by Kubler-Ross's that postulates a series of emotions experienced by terminally ill patients prior to death, or people who have lost a loved one, wherein the five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

        The cycle of the study within the movie can go from the Archibald’s denial of not being able to pay for the surgery, because they feel as though the insurance should have taken care of it; being angry at the insurance company for not fully covering the costly surgery, to the health administrators putting the life of a child at risk; beginning to bargain with the health administrators that would be able to pay them as long as they have the time. They never make it to the last two stages because John Q is told by his wife “You better do something. You have to”.