Movie Review : Wit ( 2001 )

Ethical dilemmas exist everywhere around us in everyday situations. Something as simple as picking up a piece of trash off the floor to whether you should use a previously written paper from a separate class for a current assignment in this class. It exists in reality and even on television shows. How, then, do people resolve these ethical dilemmas and how do they defend their decisions? Nurse Jackie is a television series impregnated with ethical dilemmas, especially in medical care. In this paper, I will discuss the ethical issues found in the “Tiny Bubbles” episode of Nurse Jackie. I will further discuss the ethical reasoning with support of ethical principles. In addition, I will discuss how patient’s autonomy and non-maleficence principle of bioethics plays a role in decision making. Overall, there was a difficult struggle on the ethical theory of and utilitarianism, with ethical relativism playing a huge factor.

Cassandra’s case is unique based on her experiences, and therefore a simple norm of autonomy vs. beneficence can not be created, and instead must be weighed differently based on the circumstances of each case. Cassandra should be able to make the erudite decision, and it should be superior to the doctor’s own plans for the course of action. Cassandra should be able to decide what the best course of treatment is for herself, and, if she does not want chemotherapy, then her sentiments should be respected and followed rather than her being forced into treatment and having to live with severe side effects. While doctors are charged with with the necessity to help patients, they must also care about the individual’s own desires - Cassandra’s beliefs should be compromised with rather than trampled

The NMC (2015) are the providers of the Nursing Code of Conduct. The code contains the professional standards to which all nurses must uphold, allowing for accountability of patients that come into their care. As well as the code of conduct, all nursing professionals have a responsibility to develop their knowledge in relation to law within clinical practice, and furthermore, ethical frameworks that are linked to judgment and decision making when providing care (Savage & Moore, 2006). In light of this, the overall aim of this essay is to elaborate on issues surrounding law and ethics in nursing. To do so, a case study has been chosen from a previous clinical experience. The focus of the case study will be on the decision of withdrawal from life sustaining treatment. Emphasis will be largely on the law and ethics concerning the issue of withdrawal from treatment. Moreover, the ethics and law involved in the palliative/advanced end of life care planning and decision making. In order to protect the identity and uphold the confidentiality of the case study, a pseudonym will be used throughout. Hendrick (2005) portrays confidentiality as being ‘one of the most important and well established moral obligations of health-care ethics’.

All medical providers have a duty to protect the health and dignity of their patients. Even if that is the intention of the provider, specific ethical dilemmas in healthcare may arise making it difficult for the provider to make an ethically appropriate choice. Wit, directed by Mike Nichols, takes the viewer through the healthcare of Dr. Vivian Bearing, an English professor, as she embarks on an eight-month experimental treatment to hopefully cure her stage IV ovarian cancer. As Dr. Bearing undergoes this treatment, ethical issues arise regarding her healthcare that compromises her well-being and dignity. George D. Pozgar points out that ethics is concerned with values relating to human conduct that focuses on the rightness and wrongness of actions, as well as the goodness and badness of motives and ends.1 It is clear in the film that the actions taken by the medical providers, violated ethical principles within the scope of health care such as patient dignity and respect, patient autonomy, and consent to research/treatment.

The film WIT, produced by Simon Bosanquet, clearly defines poor bedside manner in all levels of medicine, from the radiologist who performed the x-ray to the physicians in charge of the patient’s care. The film is based on a seventeenth century poet professor, Vivian Bearing, who gets diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer that has already metastasized. Professor Bearing goes through intense series of experimental chemotherapy agents that are detrimental to her health, yet everyone in the medical team seems to ask the question, “how are you feeling today?” In reality no one seems to really show true interest to what she is going through. The film portrays a lack of empathy for Professor Bearing, giving a sense of loneliness and hopelessness. The professors’ rights seem to be taken from her and the medical professional fail to treat her with the dignity and respect she deserves.

In “Bacteria on the Brain” By Emily Eakin, she writes about the ethics surrounding a doctor who attempts to save the lives of patients with brain tumors by using his own alternative methods. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the author writes about Victor and his creature’s attempts to expand science, and answer moral questions concerning life and death. Regarding the substance of the article, Neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Muizelaar and his controversial treatment of three patients suffering from terminal brain cancer engenders serious ethical debate. On one hand, Muizelaar epitomizes a man of brilliance and ingenuity, driven by the desire to correct his patients’ otherwise hopeless situations. On the other hand, a man filled with hubris who discounted the risks in his pursuit of success. Given the evidence present in the text of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley would contend that Muizelaar’s actions were innovative and driven by his desire to save the lives of his patients.

The play W;t by Margaret Edson is an account of a powerful and intelligent woman named Vivian Bearing battling a tragic disease. Vivian has been diagnosed with stage-four metastic ovarian cancer. Her treatment is a long and arduous process that takes place at the University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her primary doctor, Dr. Harvey Kelekian, and his assistant, Dr. Jason Posner, are conducting an experiment on her. They are using new treatment on her to evolve their research. Literary terms are employed throughout the play for the audience to sympathize with Vivian’s journey of suffering, loneliness, and introspection. Vivian takes the audience on an odyssey, allowing them to experience her battle with life and death.

Ethics, in our society, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, now part of the Department of Health and Human Services, created The Belmont Report, which is one such safeguard establishing principles for all human research (USDHHS, 1979). This paper will discuss the ethical issue of informed consent within The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the disregard to parts of the Belmont Report, as well as compare the role of the nurse in charge of Henrietta’s care versus the standards of care set for modern nurses.

In a lot of events, to understand them and make a decision whether the situation is right or wrong, one has to look at each individual. Not everyone thinks a like nor share the same virtues and ethics. According to the research and medicine collide in Haiti there are three points of view ill come across. First will be a Utilitarian guiding me about the ethics in this event, then there’s a Kantian helping, and finally ill speak upon this event to depict if there ethics involved.

The film covers five nurses serving in different areas and difficulties who take the viewer through the challenges that they experience in the line of work. They depict the different suffering groups of people in our society namely; the aging, the sick, prisoners, and

While the nursing profession is fulfilling, it is not without challenges. Nurses are faced with a multitude of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice on a daily basis. According to Fant (2012) no matter where nurses function in their diverse roles, they are faced with ethical decisions that can impact them and their patients. Some examples of moral issues that nurses encounter in contemporary nursing practice and research include but not limited to: refusal of treatment, scarcity of resources, disagreement with caregivers, treating patients with impaired decision-making, futile treatment decisions for cancer patients, end-of-life decisions, advanced treatment directives, and euthanasia (Leuter, Petrucci, Mattei, Tabassi, & Lancia, 2013).

With the utilization of the Act-utilitarianism mindset, an alternative plan of action to focus on the circumstances surrounding Andrea and the community at large can be established using Uustals ethical decision making model. The nine steps identified by Uustal can allow the nursing process to be applied in an effort to guide the nurse in practicing proper judgment. The quandary involves community, personal and patient dilemmas. While many nurses strive for adhesion to values of patient autonomy and keeping ones word, the very nature of health care can raise cause for nurses to contradict and deviate from their own ethical stand points, all in an effort to do the right thing. Due to Andrea’s development of cervical cancer, nurse Hathaway was right in disclosing the minor’s disease to her parents. Adolescents usually are covered by their family’s insurance, but they may not have coverage for unaccompanied care, and they may

In conclusion, Person introduces two conflicting opinions of the main message, medical ethics. However, there is a bias towards Jenna’s initial view, and the opinions of Lily and Alleys. Overall, the author uses this book as a way of showing us the ever-more relevant debate of medical ethics, but wants us to make our own decision of what view to

One of the complexities of 21st century medicine is the evolution of nursing care theories in combination with a changing need and expectation of the stakeholder population. Nurses must be advocates and communicators, but must balance these along with an overall philosophy of ethics while still remaining mindful of budgets and the need for the medical institution to be profitable. It seems as if these issues comprise a three-part template for nursing: respect for patient value & individuality, education of patients, and cognition and respect for the realities of contemporary medicine. In many ways, too, modern technology has advanced further than societal wisdom, especially when confronting the issue of death. The modern nurse's role is to create a nurse-patient culture that encourages the individual to take responsibility for their healthcare and, in partnership with the nurse, to be involved in their recovery. The modern complexities of healthcare, then, when combined, focus us towards a multidimensional template (combining at least psychology, biology and philosophy) (Beckstead and Beckstead, 2004).

Michael H., a 68-year-old man, was admitted for exploratory surgery of his abdomen. He is frail, and his attending physician describes him as “emotionally labile.” Marcy R. is a social worker at BFL General Hospital, who is assigned to the unit that Michael H has been admitted. After Michael’s surgery, Marcy R. was approached by Michael H.’s daughter, Ellen B. in which Ellen has told Marcy that her father’s physician had just informed her that the lab report from the exploratory surgery shows that her father has terminal cancer. Ellen said that she and the family are in shock and they have decided that they not want the hospital staff to tell her father about the terminal nature of his cancer once he recovers from anesthesia. In this essay, I will discuss the ethical dilemma of “to tell Michael or not to tell him he has terminal cancer. He has the right to confidentiality by not withholding information from him when he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, informed consent, and self-determination.