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Four ethical principles in medical ethics
The four principles of medical ethics
Kants view on morality
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Timothy E. Quill in “Case of Individualized Decision Making”, described his patient Diane who was a vaginal cancer survivor, overcome alcoholism and depression. Dr. Quill diagnose her with Leukemia. He explained to Diane that the chemotherapy has only a 25% chance of survival and there were some complications involves in this process. Diane refused to take the treatment and decided to live the remaining of her life in a most enjoyable way possible, by avoiding all the pain of the treatment. Furthermore, when Diane heath condition deteriorate, Dr. Quill gave her some prescription that was primarily used to sleep assistance. He gave her information of the dose necessary to commit suicide. Diane decided to commit suicide and Dr. Quill diagnosis of death was Leukemia. Therefore, Diane did not do what she should be consider moral actions under the Kantian perspective because her maxim cannot become a universal law. Likewise, Dr. Quill did and did not did his best decision by …show more content…
Quill took two morals decision, to help Diane to commit suicide and lie about the diagnosis of Dianna cause of death. Under the Ethics of cares Dr. Quill did not do what he support to do in Diana situation. Care is a practice of doing an activity consistently over time. A practice need to incorporate standards to evaluate it. Under the ethics of care, helping patients to commit suicide was not constantly being part of his job. Moreover, if we take into consideration doctor standards to evaluate this situation it will not be permitted under doctor’s ethics rules to help patient to take away life. In other words, Dr. Quill actions to lie about the diagnosis of the cause of death is a crime. At that time, helping to suicide was illegal and it was paid with jail. In the ethics of cares, justice is a value and who ever do something wrong under this ethics need to pay for that. In other words, he did not took the best decision to lie about the diagnoses of death and may have to pay with
Preventions against this chance are not ensured. There have been hundreds of ignored cases that show the abuse of power at the hands of the physician. It is nearly impossible at this point to decipher between assisted suicide and medical murder. The many flaws in the design of this system can cause the problems for those involved to outweigh the benefits. The biggest problem, above all, in the debate over the ethics of physician-assisted suicide is the sanctity of life.
Issues relating to involuntary commitment laws revolve around patient autonomy used for and against involuntary treatment. The restoration of autonomy in patient who were once unable to make their own decisions was the goal of treatment. It was presumed that patients in need of treatment were also incapable of decision making. An argument can be made that ethical principles are the underlying the reasoning’s for the promotion of good, and the prevention of harm rather than patient autonomy. Patient autonomy comes from Emmanuel Kant’s ideal of respecting the person, which takes into account the patients liberties.
...endent judgments about their own fate. In keeping with this trend there is now a growing drive to review the current laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide.” (McCormack, 1998) Nurses are faced with various ethical dilemmas every day. If theses ethical decisions are not treated in a professional manner there can be harsh consequences for both the patient and the nurse.
Now let us just say that it was the husband on his deathbed, and his wife was the one out there trying to come up with these four thousand dollars. What exactly do you think she could have done differently to get the money? What exactly would this male doctor have made her do, to receive this cure for her husband? If she was the one out there begging and barrowing, do you think she would have, came up with more than two thousand dollars? Do you think if she was the breaking in and stealing, do you think they would have shown her some sort of sympathy? All of these actions falls right back into the ethics of care which also supports the virtue of
Ethics of caring places the nurse as the sole health care provider to deliver patient-centered care. Ethics of care includes caring for patients regardless of their views. If the nurse has issues with a certain cultural view the nurses need to recognize that and put them aside to be able to treat the patient impartially (C. Mead, A. Bursell, L. Ketelsen, 2006). This will allow the nurse to provide patient-centered care which will guide decision making to each patient’s unique situation. In the case of Mr. Sandoval, the nurse will be able to process the ethical dilemma to ensure the best care is provided. Finding the solution to the problem will create a good quality of life for Mr. Sandoval, which is important in Watson’s theory. Following the ethics of care will lead the nurse to make the right decisions, which will guide the nurse to caring for not just the body but the mind and soul as
... the patient’s suffering. They would have had anxious thoughts and frustration over their loved one’s incurable disease and the knowledge that they could not do more in order to ease the suffering. Assisted suicide is justified through Andre and Velasquez’s article and their use of deontology and utilitarianism. The analysis of Andre Velasquez’s argument and the evaluation of their uses of deontology and utilitarianism relating to assisted suicide clearly demonstrate the fact that assisted suicide is the morally right act to commit.
Immanuel Kant holds the position that suicide is immorally correct. In this paper I will explain his view of suicide and examine the psychological reasoning behind why one may desire to take their own life. I will also discuss present day court cases regarding physician assisted suicide. In Kant’s Duty is Prior to Happiness his first argument of why suicide is immoral and by extension physician assisted suicide- derives from the fact that it violates the universal law of nature. A man who suffers through a series of despair may out of self-love desire to end their own life. Kant states the reasoning for this decision is to shorten their own life when its continued duration brings more evil than satisfaction. This goes against the definition
Health care professionals have a legal and moral obligation to care. They have to respect the patient’s decision even though they themselves find it difficult (Butts and Rich 2005). Decisions are not unproblematic. They have to be rationalised, as there are many dividing thoughts, which must be acknowledged.
There are many ethical principles and theories involving the end-of-life issue. The questions and the various views involving in the issues with a competent patients’ refusal of life sustaining treatment and the participation of the health care professional on patient assisted suicide. Among the views to consider are the individual beliefs, cultural, social and religious beliefs of the patient and the professional health care provider.
For the purpose of this discussion, by using MORAL framework for ethical decision-making I will analyze Question 4: What ethical principle does a physician face when he or she gets a request for assisted suicide? As the nurse, what are the conflicting ethical principles that you might face with this request?
The issues of morality can be expressed through examples of different methods of analyzing a situation. John Stuart Mill's view of "Utilitarianism" is to create more pleasure and less pain for everyone involved. Immanuel Kant's view is to do what is morally just in the situtation. The Millian approach is a consequential theory because the act is determined by the outcome of what is right or wrong. However the Kantian view explains morality through forms that he believes are essential to free and sensible judgment. In this paper I will prove that Immanuel Kant's view is the best choice when these two theory's are discussed because free will gives people the right to make a decision not based on how it effects others but how it effects the individual.
David Meager and David Balk stated that “the role (s) the dying individual played in the family can affect the family decision –making process. For instance, the patient played a role of peacekeeper or scapegoat within the family, his or her impending departure will like stabilize relationships between other family members because there is no one now available to help manage or take the blame for conflict”. David Meager and David Balk stated that current consensus is “that it is the individual patient’s right to refuse medical treatment, even if doing so hasten one’s death, has led to controversy about whether the morally accepted view to permit “nature to take its own course (i.e., passive euthanasia) can and/or should be extended to permitting a terminally ill patient to direct natures course (i.e., active euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. The question, is whether there is a moral distinction between intentionally allowing a disease process to result in the death or intentionally causing death through the use of additional means (usually pharmaceutical) to stop disease. Health care providers, bioethicists, and families are divided to respond to this questions”. The writer know for a fact, that to make a painful decision (even if it was the dying choice) to not treat the symptoms because the disease could not be treated, was a thin line
Once a person has freely made his choice, health care providers are required to respect the patient’s decision as part of the patient’s autonomy. A patient’s family might demand doctors to keep a patient alive living off of either machines or pain medication, even after doctors established such methods would not be effective anymore. Even though, the patient’s family knows that the treatment is no longer achievable, they may still expect doctors to do everything under the patient’s autonomy. However, the true reason is that the family is not ready to let go of a loved one. Therefore, they are willing to put the patient through pointless pain and suffering at the end of his or her life. In such cases, it would be easy for a doctor to obey the family’s request, but it would not be the right thing to do for the patient. Doctors must educate and instruct patients and their families about patient autonomy, and the principle of “do no harm” in
Philosophers Kant, Mill, Aristotle, and Held each describe their moral approaches to ethical problems and dilemmas in our text book, Exploring Ethics. I compared Kant’s “categorical imperative,” Mill’s “utilitarianism,” Aristotle’s “nature of virtue,” and Held’s “ethics of care,” philosophies. Each of the theories were approaches to moral dilemmas in life and they each made logical sense, but Mill’s utilitarianism approach seemed to me to be the best way to face a moral or ethical dilemma. Mill’s approach is centered around “the greatest happiness principle,” promoting the most happiness as possible with the least amount of pain.
Kent Emanuel considers the Categorical Imperative as the central principle of his ethical theory. He claims that some human actions such as stealing, cheating, and lying are usually immoral and are not right things to do, despite their good outcomes. Based on the Categorical Imperative, he has formulated several principles including the Formula of Universal Law (FUL). The Formula of Universal Law (FUL) is Kant 's first formulation of the Categorical Imperative, which states “Act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature” (G, 4:421/31). In The Formula of Universal Law (FUL), Immanuel Kent introduces a philosophical term such as “Maxim” and “Will”. It is very important to understand these terms in order to comprehend the concept of FUL to a greater extent. In general speaking, humans are considered as a rational being among all the organisms. However, while performing their duties, most individual tends to maximize the benefits of their actions rather than observing whether their actions are rational or not. Overall, people usually make their decisions based on the standards that will give them the best outcome. Thus, Kent considered “Maxim” as the principle on the basis of which Human beings make their decisions. For instance, doctors save the