John Q Moral Development

In the movie “John Q” the main character, John Archibald faces a difficult time in his life. He is facing financial problems at the beginning of the movie when we see that his truck is being towed away and he gets in an argument with his wife but when their son, Michael, comes down for breakfast, John and his wife, Denise, try to keep him as happy as possible making him laugh. Later that day at a baseball game, John and Denise witness Michael run the bases and suddenly collapse. They rush him to a hospital. They are then informed by Dr.Turner that Michael has an enlarged heart and that it is vital for them to do a transplant or he will die. This is when we see Kohlberg’s stages of Moral Development go into effect. We witness John go through the Pre-Conventional, Conventional, and Post-Conventional stages of moral development.

Now John has to raise $75,000 to get Michael’s name on the donor list. This is the Pre-conventional part of Kohlberg’s moral ladder. At his point John goes through all of the moral norms of raising money trying to do everything in his legal power to raise $75,000. He begins to do things like sell his possessions, have a garage sale, pawn his items, receive donations from his church and he even goes on public television to try and raise money. Unfortunately he is only able to raise $22,000, in consequence, not being able to put Michael’s name on the list. The hospital realizes that John cannot raise the money so the chair, Rebecca Payne, releases Michael from the hospital. Denise becomes very upset at John, calls him, and tells him to “do