Healthcare -- Doing as Much Good as Possible
Many healthcare professionals believe that medicine and ethics are integrated. I agree with this concept. To do good medicine, one must also do good ethics, and to do good ethics, one must also do very good medicine. The two simply cannot be removed from each other.
In today's society, the demands of medicine are so great, and the tendency is so real to allow medicine to become routine and to lose sight of the phenomenal value of humanity. Therefore, healthcare professionals must consider how they can sustain a commitment to patients that truly puts their interests above our own. A fundamental aspect of the ethical life in medicine is to somehow be adequately motivated to do what is good and right for patients, especially in a world where, in many cases, no one else will be. This paper will describe why healthcare professionals should be exclusively concerned with doing as much good as possible, and how they can realize this goal by studying medical ethics.
Introduction
For hundreds of years, mankind has struggled with issues of life, preservation of life, old age, death and dying, and how to achieve a good death (Stanton, 2003). Ancient Greeks offered lethal poisons to society's elderly, ill, and injured if requested, while the early Christians viewed life as a gift from God, believing suicide to be a mortal sin. The German Reich used active euthanasia to eliminate the unwanted from society. Today, the struggle continues with modern medicine's capability of preserving life and terminating life by artificial means.
Significant advances in medical technology have greatly increased the estimated average life expectancy in the United States from 47.3 years in 1900 to 76.5 years in 1997 (National Vital Statistics Report, 2001). With the successes of medical technology and increased life expectancy comes the burden of choice, especially regarding old age and chronic illness. Choices require healthcare professionals and patients to make important decisions.
In 1900, there were few options for the ill because there were few medications and minimal surgical techniques (Stanton, 2003). Many illnesses resulted in death. However, with modern technology, death is no longer the inevitable outcome of illness. Today, many choices of treatments, including simple antibiotic treatment and aggressive life-sustaining treatments, exist. As the end of life nears, there are a variety of choices, including futility, withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. Healthcare professionals are asked to participate in making these difficult choices on a daily basis. Families and patients ask, "What do you think?" "What would you do if this were your father?"
Sound decision-making practices that consider moral and ethical principles, professional standards, societal law, and the rights, values, and beliefs of the individuals involved assist healthcare professionals, patients and families in making these choices. Thus, in order to place the importance of doing good above all else, healthcare professionals must understand basic ethical principles and practical decision-making tools that can be utilized to assist patients and families in making important healthcare choices.
Ethical Principles
A variety of basic universal principles of ethics should be considered when making decisions regarding healthcare (Stanton, 2003). These principles or duties can assist in determining how to "do good" and consider the best interests of the patient. For instance, when dealing with a patient at the end of his life, healthcare professionals can use these principles to help answer the question of whether they are prolonging life or prolonging the process of dying. In addition, healthcare professionals need to know their own personal beliefs and values for moral decision-making and actions.
Value of Life
Thiroux (2001, pp. 162-163) describes the value-of-life principle as a fundamental element of all ethical systems. He describes it as the preservation and protection of human life, "Human beings should revere life and accept death." Thiroux adds "that an individual's right to his own life and death is a basic concept."
While many would agree that life is preferred over death, good healthcare professionals understand that human beings are mortal (Stanton, 2003). Thus, when considering end-of-life decisions, healthcare professionals should not fail to heed that death is final and irrevocable and the decision to terminate life-sustaining care should not be taken lightly. The survivors, the families and caretakers of the deceased will live with the consequences of their decisions. In this case, the healthcare professional must understand that "doing good" means taking the family, patient and individual circumstances into consideration.
Beneficence
Medical Ethics Ethics is a topic that is nearly as old as the human race. Ethics is sometimes referred to a branch of philosophy called moral philosophy. Ethics is often conceptualized as a code or a system meant to categorize or otherwise classify as well as recommend behavior that is right and behavior that is wrong. Ethical codes often describe what right and wrong is in general as well. The practice
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