Baby Boy Doe Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical dilemmas can occur in every business in our country, this is especially true in the healthcare industry. Understanding what makes something an ethical dilemma is beneficial in solving the issue at hand. Having moral principles is also important and can guide a person to make an ethical decision. The story of Baby Boy Doe is a good example of an ethical dilemma that can be viewed as being handled ethically and also not ethically.

The story of Baby Boy Doe is most certainly an ethical dilemma. When the parents of the baby chose not to get the atresia surgery to save their boys life, they were legally in the right. The doctors had to choose between following policies while listening to the parents and doing the surgery without their permission

Unfortunately they made the decision to essentially end their child’s life. One can assume they chose this because of his mental disability which is extremely unethical in our society today. There was a similar story that made headlines in 1982 when a boy was born with downs syndrome and a tracheoesophageal fistula. The parents of the child decided to refuse surgery for their newborn baby and it resulted in the baby dying of dehydration (White, 2011). This caused an uproar and there was a revision made to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act that made physicians able to make medical decisions for infants even if the parents do not concur (White, 2011).

Baby Boy Doe’s story was interesting to read and analyze when thinking about ethics. The doctors in this story did what they should have as far as hospital policies are concerned, but they may not have acted as ethically as some would expect. The hospital and the parents are responsible for the death of the child, they each acted as ethically as they could but the end result was devastating. Ethical decision making can be difficult but understanding how to identify an ethical dilemma and moral principles can make the decision easier to work