Ethical Issues In Health And Social Care Essay

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Recommended: Ethical dilemmas in health care settings

Hospitals and health clinics all over the country have been facing a constant problem for as long as their practice has been in existence. They face this problem whenever a new patient walks through the door. The problem is a conflict of ethical points of view and there seems to be no clear way of solving this problem. Clinics and hospitals are often subject to ethical fallout due to children and adults not being able to make decisions for themselves.
21st CENTURY SOCIETAL DILEMMAS The health clinics and hospitals of the 21st century are under a constant barrage of legal issues and ethical barriers. This day and age is fraught with social justice activism and that activism spreads far, wide, and encompasses anything in its path. This activism has recently spread to the area of pediatrics in medicine. Its main …show more content…

They must first and foremost respect the patient’s autonomy in their healthcare. The issue of where a child or an incapacitated person can have this right is a big social issue. If the child is allowed to govern itself, do they have the proper cognitive abilities and prefrontal cortex to make the right decisions? In the case of the incapacitated they are unable to make a decision at all, so where is there autonomy? Autonomy implies that fact that each and every person has the right to take a full and main role in their own healthcare. Does this apply to these two groups? This requires that a patient be fully informed of their health conditions, treatment, complications that might occur, and outcome of treatment. Children do not have the proper nurture and growth for this and require guidance from a parent or guardian. In this act though the ethical guidelines of autonomy break so where is the middle ground? The disabled and incapacitated are not able to make their own decisions and have autonomy so the ethical guidelines break once

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