Ethical Issues In Health And Social Care Essay

708 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

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

Show More
Related

  • Patient Autonomy Case Study

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical reasoning. Inside these connections, it is the limit of a sound individual to make an educated, unpressured decision. Patient autonomy can conflict with clinician autonomy and, in such a clash of values, it is not obvious which should prevail. (Lantos, Matlock & Wendler, 2011). In order to gain informed consent, a patient

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Lisa Belkin's First Do No Harm

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    For anyone who has ever worked in healthcare, or simply for someone who has watched a popular hit television show such as Grey’s Anatomy, General Hospital, House or ER know that there can be times when a doctor or health care provider is placed in extremely difficult situations. Often times, those situations are something that we watch from the sidelines and hope for the best in the patient’s interest. However, what happens when you place yourself inside the doctors, nurses, or any other of the medical provider’s shoes? What if you were placed in charge of a patient who had an ethically challenging situation? What you would you do then? That is precisely what Lisa Belkin accomplishes in her book “First Do No Harm”. Belkin takes the reader on

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In Long Term Care Essay

    403 Words  | 1 Pages

    The issue I Journaled about in the course is to reduce falls among the elderly in long term care. In writing my journals one of my focuses is that patient’s dignity can destroyed after falling multiple times by diminishing their independence. Our responsibility as nurses is to inform patients of choices, options for selection, which is why I suggested that patients should be given as much independence as possible with close supervision, and to the best of our ability, inform the patient of the consequences of the choices. Another ethical principle the book explained about is the respect for a person, it is the patients right to choose how they go along with their daily living in long-term care. They can choose not to engage in activity that

    Read More

  • Case Study Patient Refuses Blood

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ethical and legal issues raised in this case are related to autonomy and beneficence. In health care, autonomy is the right of a competent patient to make informed decisions about the type of health care they would like to receive. This principle is founded on the concept of obtaining consent from the patient before administering any medication or medical procedure. Autonomy provides that a patient who has no mental incapacity has the right to decide whether to agree to medical treatment. This right is not restricted to what others consider as sensible provided the patient has the capacity to make the decisions.

    Read More

  • Healthcare Ethics Essay

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are questions about transplant allocation in regards to the four major ethical principles in medical ethics: beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence and justice. Beneficence is the “obligation of healthcare providers to help people” that are in need, autonomy is the “right of patients to make choices” in regards to their healthcare, nonmaleficence, is the “duty of the healthcare providers to do no harm”, and justice is the “concept of treating everyone in a fair manner” ("Medical Ethics & the Rationing of Health Care: Introduction", n.d., p. 1).

    Read More

  • Not-for-Profit Healthcare, For-profit Healthcare and Physician Incentives

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some medical facilities are not-for-profit organizations. They can be a charitable organization or an educational organization or both. There are other not-for-profit medical and public health programs that provide health care to many communities in this country. Some of the best hospitals in America are educational not-for-profit facilities. They work with some of the newest technology and some perform experimental procedures. Most public health programs are ran as not-for-profit organizations and operated for charitable and educational purposes. The not-for-profit organization is not liable to pay taxes under IRS code 501 (c)(3) (.org). This allows the organization to put its revenues back into the organization versus having to pay investors or owners. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years the amount of for-profit organizations has increased (Santa). The growing commercialization of health care has ethical implications and has become a matter of heated controversy (Santa). It’s becoming more difficult despite all the laws and regulations to protect patient’s privacy and confidentiality. An ethical implication that for-profits face is physicians receiving incentives for keeping cost down to increase profits. Some for-profits will encourage doctors to promote profit producing drugs, surgeries, tests and treatments. (Santa). Some of these same physicians may own the facility they operate which creates a huge conflict. On the other hand, financial incentives can cause physicians to delay important tests and treatments or to not perform them at all. In some cases patients are being discharged from hospitals before they are ready to go home (Orentlicher). On an ethical standpoint, the patient’s well being is put in jeopardy and the...

    Read More

  • Medical Paternalism Analysis

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Not all cases is patient autonomy the most important thing to respect and honor. There will always be situations where Medical paternalism is justified. Justifiable paternalism in a medical perspective is prolonging patients’ lives allowing them to exercise their autonomy. Failing to respect a patient’s treatment requests or denials is a violation of the autonomy at that point in time during their illness. While the previous statement is true, the medical professional is violating a patient’s future autonomy. For this reason, medical professionals have the right to act paternalistically, therefore medical paternalism is justified by means of future autonomy and obligations to promote patient

    Read More

  • Essay On Health Care Directive

    1333 Words  | 3 Pages

    This provides people with control over their health care when they cannot speak for themselves. In other words, a health care directive is a legal document recognized by a legislative body to promote autonomy (The Health Care Directives Act, 1992). Autonomy is described as the quality to function independently (Mosby, 2013). Autonomy is the fundamental concept of health care directives, it allows people to openly express their personal values and beliefs, without judgement of health care decisions, “…autonomous decisions as those made intentionally and with substantial understanding and freedom from controlling influences” (Entwistle, Carter, Cribb, & McCaffery, 2010). When all information is provided, the individual can make an informed decision about their health care and have a right to no influencing factors. The health care directive document provide people the opportunity to consent to or refuse treatment and who will have the authority to make decisions on the individual’s behalf if unconscious, or mental incapacity arise (The Health Care Directives Act, 1992). In order to fully practice autonomy, especially in regards to health care directives, the appropriate mental development is key to comprehending

    Read More

  • Ethical Framework Of Public Health Essay

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    While the moral backing for public health in its current state may be sound, what many researchers fail to understand is that the many moral failings of its predecessors that color the legacy of public health internationally and at home. As discussed in the chapter “Colonial Medicine and its Legacies” within the textbook Reimagining Global Health arranged by Paul Farmer, before the conception of global health there was international health which sought to distribute health as a good horizontally across international, political lines. Under the framework of international health, public health workers became agents of a cold war enmeshed in the fiscal, geopolitical, and territorial struggles between two hegemons rather than the holistic value of community health. While international health as a framework has largely been abandoned, much of its rhetoric can be found within our current framework of public health such as the enumeration of certain parts of the world as "1st world", "2nd world",

    Read More

  • Ethical and Professional Implications

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    Garrett, Thomas, Baillie, Harold, and Garrett, Rosellen. Health Care Ethics; Principles and Problems. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall,

    Read More

  • Jahi Mcmath Case Summary

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    Autonomy allows patients to refuse medical treatment (Aiken, 2009, p. 125). In this case the patient is a minor child and the mother has the right to refuse to take her off life support. Beneficence means the healthcare professionals should always try to help the patients and to make the situation better (Aiken, 2009, p. 126). The doctors are not making the situation better

    Read More

  • The Four Principles in Biomedical Ethics

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this diverse society we are confronted everyday with so many ethical choices in provision of healthcare for individuals. It becomes very difficult to find a guideline that would include a border perspective which might include individual’s beliefs and preference across the world. Due to these controversies, the four principles in biomedical ethic which includes autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice help us understand and explain which medical practices are ethical and acceptable. These principles are not only used to protect the rights of a patient but also the physician from being violated.

    Read More

  • Essay On Nursing Code Of Ethics

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses has five elements that pertain to the Principle of Autonomy. Each individual element applies to “respect individual persons” (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett T, M., Garrett R. M., 2013, p.33). In Chapter 2 of the Health Care ethics: Principles and problems text, it discusses thouroghly the consent of an individual to make their own decisions regarding their health and future requests of care. As a nurse or within all heath care professions, we must treat each individual patient with care, respect, and to remain mindful to the patient regarding any aspect of their lives. In the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses, it explains ways of maintaining the empathy required in the health field. It further discusses that the respect for human dignity must be a priority, relationships to patients must remain neutral, the severity of the situation, the right to self-rule, and the professionalism that must be upheld by the nurse and their associates.

    Read More

  • Ethical Standards Of Human Services Essay

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Human services have become an essential part of social protection, because it reduces inequality of citizens against social risks allowing them to obtain a more social well-being and quality of life. It includes several programs and resources that address specific social problems and perform an action to satisfy a need for a person. In the human services field the Ethical Standards for Human Services Professionals was created to guide on the fundamental values of the human services profession that include respecting the dignity and welfare of all people; promoting self-determination; honoring cultural diversity; advocating for social justice; and acting with integrity, honesty, genuineness, and objectivity. (Wood, S. n.d.) With these

    Read More

  • Nursing Code of Ethics

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    Garrett, T. M., Baillie, H. W., & Garrett, R. M. (2010). Health care ethics: Principles and problems (5thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Read More

More about Ethical Issues In Health And Social Care Essay

Open Document