Verified Document

Health Care Ethics Essay

Ethics in Health Care The medical industry is filled with professionals who must be competent in many aspects of interaction in order to be successful and allow for patients to heal themselves in a positive manner. Professionalism is noted by a certain ethical attitude that must permeate the environment if the efforts of these people are to be successful. The ethical approach within the medical industry is extremely important due to the nature of the job and the reliance that normal everyday people have on the professionals within this industry to make wise choices based on the best interests of the individual.

The four major ethical principles of autonomy, non-malfeasance, beneficence and justice are ideals that may be rightly or wrongly applied to a patients healing process within the health care industry. The purpose of this essay is to describe the ethical issue of patient non-compliance with treatment using these four aforementioned principles. This essay will discuss how the patient's freedom of choice must be respected in all cases and by applying these ethical principles will help illuminate and contextualize this argument into a clear understanding of how ethics and medicine must coexist in order for the environment to produce the desired results and strategic aims are met.

Autonomy

Autonomy is the idea that each individual has the power and capability to make decisions and take action from an internal and selfish place. This idea is threatened however when people become sick and rely on others to help them heal. The medical profession plays a delicate role in determining if a patient can and will make the best decisions for themselves. This ethical challenge of ensuring that the individual's wishes are being addressed is inherent at all levels of the medical industry and it must be taken with respect and a level of importance that replaces the doctor's values with the patients'.

(2013), autonomy "requires that an individual is independent from controlling influences and has the capacity for intentional action. The most common way in which a surgeon demonstrates respect for the autonomy of a patient is by obtaining informed consent for a surgical procedure. Noncompliance may be considered as a form of autonomy. A patient may refuse to comply with a treatment regimen or postoperative instructions after careful consideration of the risks of his or her actions." In some cases it becomes clear that patients do not want to be healed and doctors must respect those wishes if they are to follow a legal and ethical order.
Non-Malfeasance

Non-maleficence suggests that a doctor should not be inflincting direct harm or pain on their patient. This ethical tenet is perhaps the most impossible to attain due to the nature of allopathic treatment. Since allopath methods are rooted in the idea of hurting one part of the body in hopes to make another feel better suggests that modern medicine must harm, destroy and kill in order to save and preserve the larger body. This idea is rooted in violence and coercison and creates an difficult environment for doctors to maneuver within due to the impossibility of achieving this standard.

This ethical standard serves as decent guideline but fails to address the more important issues of treatment and healing within the medical profession. To help alleviate this problem in today's complicated medical world requires the doctors and other health professionals to place more respect in the feelings, opinions and desires of the patient when the request non-compliance to their orders.

Doctors are not gods and their opinions are very fallible especially when information is incomplete and insufficient to convince the patient to take a course of action that they do not desire to take. The complications behind…

Sources used in this document:
References

Coy, J.A. (1989). Autonomy-based informed consent: ethical implications for patient noncompliance. Physical Therapy, 69(10), 826-833.

Habermann, B., Broome, M., Pryor, E.R., & Ziner, K.W. (2010). Research coordinators experiences with scientific misconduct and research integrity. Nursing research, 59(1), 51.

Sciberras, N. et al. (2013). The Ethical and Practical Challenges of Patient Noncompliance in Orthopedic Surgery. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2013 May.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Health Care Ethics the Ethical
Words: 662 Length: 2 Document Type: Book Report

Many of the chapters relate to medical research as well as medical procedures, with the informed consent issue in particular affecting both human beings involved in medical research and those facing a medical crisis and wanting to now what their treatment will entail. Throughout, the authors present ways of thinking about these ethical issues and also encourage medical personnel to consider these matters and to have a means for making

Healthcare Ethics -- Stem Cells
Words: 577 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

While freedom of religion absolutely guarantees the right to refrain from choosing to submit to stem cell-based treatment, the same freedoms and the concept of separation of church and state absolutely preclude religious beliefs about when life "begins" (or about anything else) from dictating laws that affect other people who may not share those particular beliefs (Dershowitz, 2002). Beneficence and Non-malfeasance Certainly, both the concept of beneficence and non-malfeasance absolutely prohibit

Healthcare Ethics - Gardasil Healthcare
Words: 344 Length: 1 Document Type: Term Paper

Assuming all those issues are addressed, mandatory HPV vaccination may be a good idea for all children and the option should be made available to adults and funded, at least in part, by government funds and profit limitations on vaccine sales. REFERENCES Allen, Terry, J. Merck's Murky Dealings: HPV Vaccine Lobby Backfires; Corpwatch (March 7, 2008). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from Corpwatch: Holding Corporations Accountable website, at http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14401 Pharmaceutical News (March 5,

Healthcare Ethics -- Bearing the
Words: 640 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

In principle, the logical basis for making any such distinctions would relate to whether or not patients could reasonably be considered to have contributed to the problem in the first place. The easiest choices would be individual at both ends of the spectrum: those who suffer from medical conditions that are known to be responsible on one end and those whose conditions are entirely the result of irresponsible choices.

Ethics in a Long-Term Healthcare Business Ethics
Words: 1098 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Ethics in a Long-Term Healthcare Business Ethics in the health care industry spans a wide spectrum of activities and most of the obligations are cast by law on the professionals and the second by the common practice and morals of the profession. Both are important to the progress of the institution and also the health care industry. Compliance of statutes is of primary importance. Compliance There are many rules and statutes that must

Healthcare - HIPAA Questions Healthcare
Words: 622 Length: 2 Document Type: Thesis

Those entities must also arrange for employee awareness training on HIPAA privacy concepts. They must also provide regular assessment procedures to measure compliance with HIPAA rules and related principles and policies pertaining to the electronic transfer of protected information. Finally, HIPAA rules also require that covered entities issue patients written privacy policy notices that include patients' rights to complain about HIPAA violations (USDHHSOCR, 2003; Tong, 2007). 4. How will employees

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now