The mental capacity of the patient should be considered in this case. The patient is under a huge amount of stress and pain which will most likely affect his mental capacity. Pain and trauma is can change a person’s viewpoint on the situation and in turn change their decision about the treatment that they want to receive.
Religion has and always will play a big part in medicine. Many patients refuse treatment because it goes against their beliefs and later they die to the disease. Religious devotion should be dismissed at when a patient is in a life-threatening situation. (BBC, Ethics) Life is considered more important than religion and should be valued more.
Principles of Biomedical Ethics
Respect for Autonomy: Autonomy in medicine is defined
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Beneficent actions can be taken to help prevent or remove harms or to simply improve the situation of others. Physicians are expected to refrain from causing harm, but they also have an obligation to help their patient. Physicians are not necessarily expected to live up to this broad definition of beneficence. However, the goal of medicine is to promote the welfare of patients, and physicians possess skills and knowledge that enable them to assist others. Due to the nature of the relationship between physicians and patients, doctors do have an obligation to 1) prevent and remove harms, and 2) weigh and balance possible benefits against possible risks of an action. Beneficence can also include protecting and defending the rights of others, rescuing persons who are in danger, and helping individuals with disabilities. An example of this would be providing vaccinations for the public, because this is done for the benefit of others and has more benefits than …show more content…
Physicians must not provide ineffective treatments to patients as these offer risk with no possibility of benefit and in turn have a chance of harming patients. Also, physicians must not do anything that would purposely harm patients without the action being balanced by proportional benefit. Because many medications, procedures, and interventions cause harm in addition to benefit, the principle of non-maleficence provides little concrete guidance in the care of patients.
Justice: Justice in health care is usually defined as a form of fairness (Medical Ethics). It is generally held that persons who are equals should qualify for equal treatment. This means that everyone who is equal needs to have equal access to the same treatment and medicine and no one is valued over anybody. An example of this would be if Bob and Jill both worked equally and they both contracted a disease. They both should get the same access to the same treatment because they are both equal.
All Possible
Gill argues that keeping a person healthy cannot be a physician’s only moral duty because in cases of terminal ill patients, they can no longer be treated or healed (372). If a physician’s only duty were to heal patients then they would not tend to the terminally ill because there would be nothing else that they could do, which is something that most people would find to be morally wrong (Gill, 373). No one would be okay with a doctor not helping a person at all who has received a terminal sentence. So instead of promoting health in this case, the physicians must find a way to reduce the suffering of the patient. This means that the physician should be able to reduce the suffering in the way that the patient asks for.
A second ethical principle addressed is beneficence. The Belmont Report defines beneficence as all test subjects involved in research must be informed of all risk and benefits of treatment in which they agree to undergo (ZZZ). Thirdly, the ethical principle of justice is addressed in the Belmont Report. Justice includes individual justice and societal justice. The Belmont Report states individuals justice means the doctor or researcher are not allowed to administer potentially helpful treatments to a favored class while offering much riskier to others (ZZ).
Informed Consent “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” details the injustice and hardships that an African American woman endured when skin color determined the value of a person/during a time dominated by racial segregation/when racial segregation was the law of the land. Born in Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks was forced to follow to racial segregation laws that prohibited Blacks from interacting with Whites in such public places as bathrooms, seating areas, colleges, and hospitals. Like all African Americans, she was treated as an inferior member of society due to her skin color. At the age of thirty, Mrs. Lacks had developed cervical cancer and went to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which only treated Blacks at the time.
193). Healthcare providers are called to follow beneficence, the duty to promote the wellbeing of others (Essential learning: Law and ethics, 2022). More specifically, they can utilize paternalism, which is the ability to override the patient’s autonomy for their best interest. Some of the healthcare staff thought of following beneficence as using paternalism to heavily sedate the patients to the point of euthanization to prevent them from suffering a slow, painful death. They were using paternalism to decide that euthanization was more in favor of the patient’s best interest as most of the patients receiving sedation were not conscious enough to make the decision for
The first APA ethical principle I’d like to discuss in terms of the impacts it may have on my consulting project with NW Noggin is Principle A which is further comprised of the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. The principle of beneficence says physicians are expected to care for their patients to the best of their ability; essentially this ethical principle implies physicians should behave in an altruistic and charitable manner towards their patients (e.g., selflessness, serving the greater good). The principle of nonmaleficence parallels the principle of beneficence, for it exclaims a physician will do no harm (i.e., the no harm rule) meaning they will avoid committing unnecessary harm to their patients. In my consulting project, the potential impacts of Principle A could arise in the development and implementation of services for both the consultants and the organization they are serving.
Medical Malpractice and Tort Reform Allegations of medical malpractice by a physician has become increasingly common in today 's society. Although the legal system supports extensive research and negotiation between the parties to avoid trial by jury (Bal, 2009), the increase of court related lawsuits involving medical malpractice continues to rise. In the year 2014, medical malpractice costs, settlements and awards totaled 3.9 billion dollars with an estimate of over 4 billion dollars in the year 2015 ("Medical malpractice payouts continue to climb in U.S.," 2015) Although several states have seen a decrease, many, especially in the south and northwest, have increased exponentially ("Medical malpractice payouts continue to climb in U.S.,"
Based on your readings from this section and the videos respond to the following questions and to 2 of your classmates. Describe a challenging, diversity-related situation that you have faced, and likely will continue to face in your nursing career. A challenging, diversity-related situation that I have faced, and likely will continue to face in my nursing career is caring post-operative patients with various pain and treatment beliefs. As a Med-Surg nurse, I often care for patients with countless diagnoses/surgeries and of various cultural beliefs and practices regarding pain and treatment beliefs.
In the case of Donald (Dax) Cowart, one can determine that the conflict is between Beneficence and Autonomy. The doctors were morally right in choosing to treat Donald despite his autonomy by using the principle of beneficence. Firstly, doctors entire training is about how to save lives, so in a sense it is something they are morally obligated to do. Patients go to hospital in the hopes of being treated.
The ethical principle of autonomy provides for respect for the patient’s autonomy to make decisions and choices concerning their life and death. Respecting the patient’s autonomy goes against the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. There also exists the issue of religious beliefs the patient, family, or the caretaker holds, with which the caretaker has to grapple. The caretaker thus faces issues of fidelity to patient welfare by not abandoning the patient or their family, compassionate provision of pain relief methods, and the moral precept to neither hasten death nor prolong life.
Moreover, doctors' altruism towards their patients and others has been less well examined and is understood, as opposed to express, in explanations about medicinal expert qualities and dispositions. Furthermore, the altruistic conduct by doctors may incorporate, for instance, keeping on working or giving casual medicinal exhortation outside contracted hours, giving free treatment to poor patients in charge for service health care frameworks, and a general eagerness to go the additional mile in expert working. There is much proof that numerous specialists work beyond their contracted hours, yet there is likewise a growing feeling that selflessness in medicine (Eby & Kelley,
They must ensure that they are providing adequate services to patients and at the same time ensuring that insurance companies are getting paid (Saint Joseph’s University, 2011, Para 6). Along with that they must secure that they are getting paid. Furthermore, physician moral and ethics are challenged as well; Thus, causing them to rethink how they take on their responsibilities as a medical care provider by trying to keep patients best interest, insurance companies interest and their own interests. This conflict with trying to meet the needs of several different stakeholders causes strain on the physician because they must walk fine line to please each. While trying to please a specific stakeholder another holder could be compromised.
Autonomy: In a healthcare setting, the right of a patient to make informed choices about their body is defined as autonomy. The moral principle of respect for autonomy directs healthcare providers to refrain from preventing patients from making their own decisions unless these choices pose serious risks to the patient or society. This means that an informed and competent patient has the ability to either accept or decline treatments, surgeries and medications. From the information gathered in the assignment case, it can be assumed that Joseph is in a rational state of mind.
Ethical Complexity of Distribute Justice and Rationing Medicine is a practice based on moral standards applied to clinical values and judgments, also known as medical ethics. Ethical values consists of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice. However, these ethical principles are affected when distributive justice and rationing of health care resources are implemented “…in a world in which need is boundless but resources are not…” (Scheunemann & White, 2011, p. 1630). The historic Hippocratic Oath described the four main principles of medical practice and established a moral conduct for clinicians. Beneficence demands that health care providers develop and maintain skills and knowledge, consider individual circumstances of all patients, and strive for the patient’s benefit.
The practice of health care includes many scenarios that have to do with making adequate decisions when it comes to a patient’s life, and the way they are treated. Having an ethical code in all health care organizations is very important, because it helps health care workers with reaching a suited and ethical decision when it comes to the patient. In health care, patient will always be put first, and their autonomy will always be respected. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where a patient might be in harm, or might be making their condition worse because of the decisions they made. Health care workers will always be there to
Terminally ill patients have right to die through refusal of medication such as withdrawing a respirator and refusing food and water until dying in about ten to twelve days because of their religion. Being a Christian has a lot to deal with this, especially physicians because the tradition doesn’t allow murder and that only god decides what to give and what to take. It’s hard for them to take their own life because of their own religion. Christianity has a role in both patients and