The Legal And Ethical Effects Of Decision Making

Autonomy can override beneficence when life-support is withdrawn (Prozgar, 2010). In addition, when a physician takes the position of withdrawing life-supporting equipment, the principle of non-maleficence is severed. Since helping patients die violates the physician’s virtue of duty to save lives,” distributed justice is served by releasing a room in the intensive care unit for a patient who has a higher chance of resolving their medical problems (Pozgar, G. 2010). There are so many inflict fuzzy gray areas and ideas about conflicting DNR policies that political disputes had to go to the courts to sort out the issues legally.

.“As medical technology continues to advance and health care choices become more complicated, the preservation of end-of-life autonomy is an increasingly important issue faced by various client populations.” (Galambos, 1998).

Other barriers in implementation might include the legality of certain medical interventions, associated costs and limited resources for providing the best care possible (Mason, 2013, p.12). As nurses, a barrier in implementing advance directives might also arise when advocated end-of-life wishes are undervalued or poorly recognized by others who do not share the same comfort or high priority in the medical workplace. Finally, the patient, families, and healthcare professionals face barriers in misconceptions regarding advance directives, especially in regards to

In summary, although hospices have served millions since its beginning there is a marked under-utilization exists among African-Americans. Studies reveal African-Americans have a disconnect from the hospice philosophy of care. Challenges to hospice use include issues of racial segregation, mistrust of the medical community, historical syphilis experimentation, and the stigma of hospice. Religious beliefs have been identified as a major player in end-of-life decisions, as well as the African-American community at large.

(TCO D) A patient's family may be actively involved in end-of-life decisions for patients who are incapacitated or incompetent. Compare and contrast two legal cases that address the rights

The African-American cultural view of death is one of normalcy. They view death as comfortable and familiar. The sanctity of life and its preservation is extremely important within African-American culture but when death comes it is considered natural and an accepted part of life (Barrett, 2002). This differs from the traditional American cultural perspective that after the mid to late 1900’s came to view death as unnatural and something to be hidden (Corr, 2009). African-American culture may consider death to be a natural part of life but the sanctity of life is also very important to them. For this reason African-Americans are more inclined to aggressively pursue life saving treatments than those from traditional American culture (Barrett, 2005). Members of African-American culture are also less likely to want to talk about or deal with end of life decision-making (Welch, 2005).

This film explains the legal role of advance directives in end of life issues. An advance directive is “a written document directing how medical decisions are to be made in the future when the patient lacks decisional capacity and is unable to decide and choose” (Hanlon, End of Life Issues, Slide 28, Bullet 1). All three of the cases demonstrate the importance in filling out some form of directive. When there is nothing to go off of, it makes decisions extremely tough for families and medical providers. Having legal documentation of patient wishes helps understand what treatments they would or would not consent to. In cases like

In accordance with previous studies, they found that higher education is correlated to positive attitudes toward Advance Directives. They found that when family members have higher education than patients, the family members also have more positive attitudes than patients about Advance Directives. Aside from looking at level of education and demographics, they also discovered that on one’s perceptions of the healthcare professionals’ role in treatment decisions, belief in opportunities for treatment choices, effect of an Advance Directive, and perceptions regarding the severity of illnesses all effect one’s decision to complete or reject an Advance Directive. This study also discovered that physicians, nurses, social workers, and other healthcare experts might contribute to the low percentage of individuals who complete an Advanced Directive. Physicians’ lack of discussion and nurse’s lack of education to patients about Advanced Directives may be the results of few completed Advance Directives. Due to time limitations and other possible legal complications that may occur, it can be challenging for healthcare professionals to adequately discuss an Advanced

Ethical dilemma may also arise in cases where a patient may feel their right to DNR should be carried out when giving direct order. The DNR process, however, is required to be documented by a physician. Andrew Putnam (2003) presents a case where an eighty-eight year old patient’s code status was DNR; “However, the patient has never signed formal advance directive statement or assigned durable power of attorney for her health care to anyone.” (Putnam, 2003, 2025) Ethics can be simply stated as doing the right thing (Roberts, 2002, 242); but in this case ethics is questioned because the physician was faced with the decision to carry out the wishes of the patient or to make a decision based on legality. In this case, it may have been morally right to carry out the wishes of the patient who wanted DNR orders carried out, but it may have been the right choice to do the legal thing and not carried out due to lack of signed documentation.

With major advancement in medical treatments, it is now possible to keep a patient alive, which would not have been possible in former times. This has made end of life issue one of the most controversial issues in healthcare. Medical improvements have set the stage for ethical and legal controversies about not only the patient’s rights but also the family’s rights and the medical profession’s proper role. It is critical that any decision made in such situation is ethical and legal to preserve the rights of the patient and also protect the healthcare institution involved. It is very important when making decisions to discontinue treatments to make sure all other alternatives have been explored.

It should come as no surprise that, with important exceptions, the prevailing view in the judiciary, as in the medical profession, is receptive to the quality of life ethic. Judges are often dismissive of the pro-life position that all human beings possess dignity and the right to live, regardless of their age or degree of disability. When the relative or other individual designated by state law to make health care decisions for an incompetent person who has left no clear advance directive chooses to cut off food and fluids, courts are rarely willing to agree with other relatives who seek to overturn that decision. Indeed, the current battleground is over efforts by health care personnel to cut off food, fluid and life-saving treatments from patients they think have a poor quality of life AGAINST THE

The ethical decision making process is based on moral rules and unchanging principles that are derived from reason and can be applied universally. These universal rules and principles must be considered separate from the consequences or the facts of a particular situation. (McWay, 2014). Health care workers face ethical issues and have to use the ethical decision making process to determine what is best for their patients.

The first step of the Ethical Decision-Making Procedure is stated as, “1.0 Become Aware of Dilemma” (McNamara). According to the given case scenario, the dilemma is clearly stated. It reads that the client (mother) does not believe in rewards or support the use of them for her son. The mother is going against what the BCBA believes in and stands for, thus causing a direct dilemma. Removing reinforcers is not feasible for the professional BCBA, and this must be properly addressed with the client. Situations like these are where the Ethical Compliance Code comes into place for the sake of the clients and professionals involved.

Management constitute amongst major components of a company, organization or a business. As such, management oversees employees interactions with their supervisors and also control of people within a particular organization. Also, it includes critical and ethical decision-making process so as to address various ethical dilemmas experienced by employees while undertaking their respective assigned duties within the company. Ethical dilemmas are hereby to stay as issues usually arise now and then and place a variety of options that bear different repercussions. Therefore, it calls for ethical and critical decision-making skills so as to make the most appropriate option that bears more benefits in comparison to other options presented. While making ethical decisions, it 's substantially important to play heed to a certain ethical decision-making theory. This would enable an individual making the decision to ripe best possible consequences rather than living to regret. Moreover, ethical decision making is typically important in business as making a wrong decision may result not only in huge losses but also poor relationship amongst colleagues and miserable life for employee(s) working in a particular company or business in question.

The advance directive, or living will, is one way of circumventing the ethical dilemma of Quinlan, as it is essentially a set of choices by the competent patient if faced with different hypothetical circumstances. Patients can thus feel comfortable knowing that their competent wishes have been documented and can be easily interpreted in case of catastrophe. However, the authority of advance directives is a topic hotly debated amongst medical ethicists (see Advance Directive Authority). Arguments against directives state that not all factors are considered by the person creating the advance order. Also, in some cases of severe dementia, it is argued that the personal identity of the author is no longer intact and therefore has no authority over the treatment of the “new” person. The debate on this topic is extremely complex, but many of today’s cases are decided on an individual basis, with the directive often being upheld.