Cultural Relativism Case Study

Cultural Relativism Case Study
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Cultural Relativism Case Study
Culture varies, which means that the medical decisions made in one culture can conflict with the expectations of another culture. From the case study on Director Lulu Wang's 2019 film, The Farewell, Billi should not go against her family's wishes and tell Nai Nai the true medical diagnosis since this would go against the culture (Wang, 2019). Even though Billi is accustomed to the Western way of life, this does not mean that she is free to break the Chinese cultural norms of bearing the emotional burden and not informing the patient about the cultural diagnosis. Cultural relativism means that Billi should understand the Chinese culture and respect it rather than judge based on her experiences with Western culture. A cultural relativist would argue based on the principles of normative cultural relativism. The ethical wrongness or rightness of a decision varies depending on the society, and there is no absolute standard that guides universal morals. In other words, each culture will and always does make its other ethical ideals.
I believe there are trans-cultural moral norms that can apply to deal with Billi's dilemma. The situation can be resolved by refuting the dilemma or paradox. The situation has to be carefully analyzed to determine which side of the argument is valid. Since Nai Nai is Chinese, the solution would be to respect the views of the Chinese culture rather than forcing the patient to adopt the Western-style (Wang, 2019). The value theory approach is also applicable, which entails choosing alternatives that offer the lesser evil or, the greater good (Raposo, 2019). In other words, both ...