Identifying Bioethical and Political Issues
Scenario 1: You are the healthcare administrator of a nursing home. You are informed by your Admissions Director that a new memory-impaired resident has been admitted into your long-term care unit. The staff is concerned about the involvement of family with your resident. Family members from out-of-town arrived and expressed concern about your resident’s do not resuscitate (DNR) orders which were authorized by the Power of Attorney of another family member. A quarrel erupts in the nursing home with family members voicing their opinions loudly. You arrive on the scene and are immediately told by the visiting family member, “Do you know who I am? I am a supervisor for the Department of Health and Human Services and will not hesitate to have your facility surveyed for noncompliance.” What do you do?
Any situation that erupts which can disturb the other residents is something that must be diffused immediately, as a healthcare administrator I would have to address this state of affairs with empathy and genuine concern for the opinions of the family members not in agreement with the do not resuscitate (DNR) order. First, I would ask that we move to a private location where we could speak and if voices are elevated it would not interfere with the day to day operation of the nursing home. Second, I would ask to see the Power of Attorney if it is available to speak to the legality of the document. Provided that, all the previous terms set in place are up to par, I would directly talk about the statement made about the family member making me aware of her position with the Department of Health and Human Services. Moreover, going through the document to point out the date signed, to make note if the new resident signed it before here memory was too far gone and if the Power of Attorney would not be substantial. Then I’d call attention to the difference between a Power of Attorney and Durable Power of Attorney. Grammarly states, “The biggest difference is in when the power ends. A general power of attorney ends when a person becomes mentally incapable because of sickness or injury to handle his or her own affairs… To get a durable power of attorney, you must show in the
The ethical principles for nurses to practice with beneficence and no maleficence. This legal battle between Terri Schiavo’s husband and her family was an ethical debate between continuing artificial life or remove her feeding tube by the request of her husband. Using the theories of utilitarianism and deontology can be applied or considered in making the most ethically correct resolution. The cases are very complex and raise many moral and ethical issues. The cases have brought awareness to society of “the importance of discussing end-of-life issues with family members and underscores how an advance directive, a living will and/or durable power of attorney for health care, are a healthcare proxy clarifies and provides evidence of the wishes of an individual regarding end-of-life decisions. Terri Schiavo should impress upon laypersons and professionals alike the uncertainty of the context in which issues of continuation and termination are argued ethically. Nobody knows what Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted. She left no advance directive and in its absence her husband says one thing and her parents
The nurses did not act as sentries towards the patient or the family. They did not protect the patient’s choice to die in peace, instead they just let the doctor jump in into the situation and try to resuscitate her even though she did not want that.The nurses should have stepped in and asked the frazzled husband what he wants the nurses and doctor to do. Not let the doctor yell at him until he is forced to allow it.
In discussing the difficult subject of biomedical ethics, there are different scenarios that play out differently because of people’s views about morality. Consider the scenario of an eighty year-old man whom we will call Mr. Simpson. Years of getting the flu with complications has left Mr. Simpson’s lungs very weak and unable to take another year of the flu. In fact another year of the flu will likely kill him. He does not want the flu shot because he sincerely believes that the actual flu shot will give him the flu. With further research, the doctor and the family find that Mr. Simpson will accept an immune boosting shot only. If the physician lies to Mr. Simpson about the injection then he will
The recommendation I am suggesting would include a singed “Do Not Resuscitate-DNR” agreement from Margie Whitson. Her legal guardian notified of her request and Hospice be contacted. This would be in leu of a possible health issues that would arise in the future. And with this in place, her wishes can be granted. Margie Whitson has lived a long full filled life and all of her family is deceased. She has come to terms with all the setbacks in her life and now wishes to just stop her suffering.
Some care aides were wonderful and went out of their way to go the extra mile; however, I noticed many of them didn’t tell the residents what they were going to be doing before they would do it, which would scare many of them. Often the residents would scream or wince from shock or pain, as the care aides would begin their care without prior disclosure. Many residents were not verbal, or had dementia and that was considered to be the factor in which it was justifiable to treat them this way. I was dismayed at how I witnessed the lights turn on, the blankets torn off, the residents being turned from side to side and their briefs being taken off, leaving them cold and completely exposed without any notice or indication of what was going to happen.
Bioethics is a very diverse and subjective issue in Buddhism that bases its self around fundamental Buddhist laws such as the five precepts, the four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold path. Each Buddhist variant approaches bioethics differently based on the variants primary goal, ideals or practices. However all Buddhists views of bioethics are somewhat influenced by the universal goal of Buddhism to become liberated from the constant cycle of reincarnation or samsara. In conjecture with Buddhism, the occurrence of samsara allows for one to attain a new view on everything including bioethics allowing for the chance to discover or come to an ultimate realisation which in turn allows for the ultimate realisation of issues relating to
The Human Genome Project is the largest scientific endeavor undertaken since the Manhattan Project, and, as with the Manhattan Project, the completion of the Human Genome Project has brought to surface many moral and ethical issues concerning the use of the knowledge gained from the project. Although genetic tests for certain diseases have been available for 15 years (Ridley, 1999), the completion of the Human Genome Project will certainly lead to an exponential increase in the number of genetic tests available. Therefore, before genetic testing becomes a routine part of a visit to a doctor's office, the two main questions at the heart of the controversy surrounding genetic testing must be
This report will be analysing the policies and legislations guiding the service user and the organisation caring for them. The importance of ethics in social care will also be explained .the case study will be discussed using the policies and legislations provided by the government.
One of the must have necessities of a human being is the provision of sound health care and every government, both national or local is obligated to offer this essential service to all the citizens without favor or any discrimination of any kind. Where else it is paramount that every employer to make sure the health and the safety of the employees are given the first priory. This will make sure the employees who are injured during the work are taken care of, and they are relieved the burden of the cost of health care. Thus, it is common to find most companies get the services of insurance companies and other organizations which provide health care programs for workers such as IndUShealth to make sure the welfare of the employees is in safe
While some people might say that stem cell research is immoral and unethical, others believe that it is a magical solution for almost any problem, thus leading to a very controversial issue. Scientists have been searching for years for ways to eradicate incurable diseases and perform other medical procedures that yesterday's technology would not fix. With the rapidly arising, positive research on stem cell technology, the potential that exists to restore any deficiency is in the same way, likely to destroy humanity. America is suffering from its inability to choose who holds precedence over this issue. Too many of us find it impossible to reach a basis for which our differing opinions can be shared and formed into a universal and
Eugenics, the word that got its bad reputation years ago through an event that changed history: the Holocaust. First dubbed by Francis Galton in the 1880’s, the word Eugenics stemmed from the words “good” and “generation.” (Eugenics-Meanings) Eugenics means the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population. This improvement is done through discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics); or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics). (Contemporary)There have always been heated discussions over right or wrong, moral or immoral concerning
The Goal of the Human Genome Project is to obtain genetic mapping information and to determine the complete sequence of all human DNA by the year of 2005. The project started in 1990 and 180 million dollars are being spent on it annually. This adds up to a total of over 2 billion dollars for the 15 year budget. Of this 2 billion dollars budgeted, 5% is spent annually on the ethical, legal and social issues. This report focused on some of these issues.
This is illustrated in Mrs. Smith’s case. Mrs. Smith is an 85 year old who has suffered from a large stroke that extends to both of her brain hemispheres which has left her unconscious and unable to make medical decisions for herself. She only has some brain stem reflexes and requires a ventilator for life support. Mrs. Smith did not set up an advanced directive, which is defined by Miracle (2011) “mechanism by which individuals make known how they want medical treatment decisions made when they can no longer make them for themselves” (p.229). Without an advanced directive, medical decisions will fall to Mrs. Smith’s children, Sara and Frank. Each of which have different views regarding their mother’s plan of care. The decision that needs to be made is whether to prolong Mrs. Smith’s life with continued medical intervention, as Sara would like to do, or stop all treatments and care, as Frank
Before a health care organization implements an EMR system, they should have a security system in place, which includes “access control” component. Access control within an EMR system is controlled by distinct user roles and access levels, the enforcement of strong login passwords, severe user verification/authorization and user inactivity locks. Health care of professionals regardless of their level, each have specific permissions for accessing data. Even though the organization have the right security system in place to prevent unauthorized users from access patient records, autonomous patients will expect to have access to his or her records with ease. Access their record will ensure that their information is correct and safe.
As technology advances and medical procedures and research expand, new treatments and new conflicts are created. A problem that has always plagued medical science is failing organs. As of today, organ failure is impossible to reverse and the only solution is replacement. There is a massive demand for healthy organs and with this demand comes the issue of bioethics.