Faith and medicine often work in parallel. They do not cross each other. While in grave medical situations, people may pray and have faith their loved ones will recover, often there is no intersection between both areas. When there is an intersection, that is when questions arise of whether a person should choose medicine over faith or vice versa. In the "Healing and Autonomy" case study, faith and medicine place a couple in a difficult situation of whether to choose faith or medicine or perhaps create a middle ground where both can seemingly exist.
The most issues facing Mike and Joanne in "Healing and Autonomy" are several. The first issue is treatment refusal. The couple refused their son James' kidney dialysis. Mike believed faith healing would be able to give James the ability to heal without any medical intervention. This led to complications for James and the eventual need for a kidney transplant. Mike continued believing faith would heal him and wanted to postpone James receiving a kidney from James, his twin.
The other issue seen in the case study is patient autonomy. With patient autonomy, patients have the right to make decisions concerning their medical care without the influence of their medical provider. Patient education can be permitted in patient autonomy, but the health care provider cannot make the decision for the patient. The doctor recommended James get a dialysis due to complications from acute glomerulonephritis. He tried to explain to Mike the need for a dialysis. He educated him on his options concerning a possible kidney donation from Samuel, but could not decide for Mike and Joanne the outcome. In these situations, as much as doctors may want to interfere and make the decisions for the person deciding treatment, they cannot and are merely presented with the responsibility of informing the patient and going with whatever decision the patient or...
(2008). The study measures public opinion concerning two scenarios: one in which the kidney donor is given a fixed financial compensation; and one in which the donor is provided with health insurance coverage for life. According to the findings of the study, "although almost half of the respondents (46%) were reluctant towards introducing a system with fixed compensation to increase the number of living kidney donors, still 25% of
Healing and Autonomy Case Study1From the viewpoint of the Christian worldview, the physician's duty is to provide the best possible care to James while also respecting Mike and Joanne's religious beliefs and autonomy. However, it's important to note that this autonomy is shared with James, the patient, whose life and wellbeing are the primary concern. The physician has an ethical obligation, under the principle of beneficence, to intervene when a
The kidneys of someone that has chronic renal failure are generally smaller than average kidneys, with some notable and important exceptions (Rogers, 2004). Two of these exceptions would be polycystic kidney disease and diabetic nephropathy (Rogers, 2004). Another diagnostic tool that is used, that of the study of the serum creatinine levels, can not only diagnose chronic renal failure, but also help to distinguish it from acute renal failure,
Ethics Abe and Mary had an extremely difficult decision to make. The couple did indeed have a child to save the life of Annisa. It could be possible that in the future Marissa-Eve's relationship could be harmed by this truth. Eve may feel as though her sister's life is more important than her own. In many ways Eve was treated as a means to an end because her life was
Since the antigens are closely linked to race and ethnicity, it is much easier to find a biological match among people with similar ethnic and racial backgrounds than it is among any two randomly selected individuals. On the basis of tissue matching, organs from blacks will almost always go to blacks and organs from whites will almost always go to whites. Blacks, however, have a much higher incidence of
Hemodialysis on End Stage Renal Disease Patients and the Increasing Role for the Nurse It is a difficult condition of a kidney failure when one's kidney could no longer carry out the proper metabolism system to eliminate waste products. Kidney is the essential organ that is responsible in waste elimination, including others like detoxification process of drugs and toxic materials, also in controlling water balance, salt balance, blood pressures and
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