Five Historical Medical Ethic Cases - Minority Nurse (2023)

FAQs

What are the top 5 ethical issues in healthcare? ›

America's practice of abortion is not merely a matter of medical technology but of a changing ethical consciousness. The continuing dispute over legalized abortion since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade is a conflict between two historically different ethical views of human life.

The ethical principles that nurses must adhere to are the principles of justice, beneficence, nonmaleficence, accountability, fidelity, autonomy, and veracity.

Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing

One ethical dilemma that can occur in healthcare facilities is when nurses themselves are not properly equipped to complete their duties. Nurses who notice their coworker's lack of knowledge face an ethical dilemma of whether they should bring the issue to their nurse manager.

A central ethical question in the abortion debate is over the moral status of the fetus. Opinions range from the belief that the fetus is a human being with full moral status and rights from conception to the belief that a fetus has no rights, even if it is human in a biological sense.

The Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling on January 22, 1973, decriminalized abortion nationwide. It gave people the right to access abortion legally all across the country and freed patients to access the health care they needed when they needed it without fear.

In 1970, Jane Roe (a fictional name used in court documents to protect the plaintiff's identity) filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, where she resided, challenging a Texas law making abortion illegal except by a doctor's orders to save a woman's life.

The major 10 ethical issues, as perceived by the participants in order of their importance, were: (1) Patients' Rights, (2) Equity of resources, (3) Confidentiality of the patients, (4) Patient Safety, (5) Conflict of Interests, (6) Ethics of privatization, (7) Informed Consent, (8) Dealing with the opposite sex, (9) ...

The search yielded 10 nursing ethical values: Human dignity, privacy, justice, autonomy in decision making, precision and accuracy in caring, commitment, human relationship, sympathy, honesty, and individual and professional competency.

What are some real life examples of ethical dilemmas? ›

Patient Confidentiality

One of the biggest legal and ethical issues in healthcare is patient confidentiality which is why 15% of survey respondents noted that doctor-patient confidentiality is their top ethical issue in practicing medicine.

In LDRS 111 you were introduced to four different ethical dilemma paradigms: truth vs loyalty, short-term vs long-term, individual vs community, and justice vs mercy.

These issues include patients' decision-making capacity and right to refuse treatment; withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, including nutrition and hydration; "no code" decisions; medical futility; and assisted suicide.

Unethical accounting, harassment, health and safety, technology, privacy, social media, and discrimination are the five primary types of ethical issues in the workplace.

Ethical conflict themes underlying the specialty areas included: differences in the definition of adequacy of care among professionals, the institution and society; differences in the philosophical orientations of nurses, physicians and other health professionals involved in patient care; a lack of respect for the ...

Nurses are advocates for patients and must find a balance while delivering patient care. There are four main principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence. Each patient has the right to make their own decisions based on their own beliefs and values. [4].

What kind of nurses do abortions? ›

Nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants can provide early abortion care that is clinically as safe as physicians; Outpatient abortion is very safe, whether it is provided by physicians or by nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives or physician assistants.

Roe v. Wade was named for "Jane Roe," a pseudonym of a Texas resident named Norma McCorvey, and Henry Wade — then-district attorney for Dallas County, Texas. In 1969, McCorvey was denied access to abortion because her pregnancy didn't pose a medical risk to her life.

Wade was a 1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court that ruled that a state law that banned abortion was unconstitutional. The decision said that a woman's right to privacy extended to the fetus that she was carrying.

Connecticut case established — for the first time — a constitutional right to privacy regarding reproductive decisions that paved the way for the legalization of birth control for unmarried couples, and ultimately, Roe v. Wade and safe and legal abortion.

In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Court identified a constitutionally protected right to privacy, which the court reasoned prohibited states from denying birth control to married couples.

The majority held that abortion is not a constitutional right as the Constitution does not mention it and its substantive right was not "deeply rooted" in the country's history, and that individual states have the authority to regulate access to abortion.

One of the recommendations to reduce medication errors and harm is to use the “five rights”: the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, and the right time.

What is ethics in nursing with examples? ›

Nurses have an obligation not to inflict harm and not to allow others to inflict harm. They must also promote good actions on behalf of their patients. Examples of nonmaleficence are always being truthful to patients and never allowing one patient to be harmed for the benefit of another.

Primarily, the lack of full protection of nurses across the health industry has raised ethical questions such as the extent of their duty, scarce resources, and the failure of personal protective equipment.

Some examples of ethical dilemma include: Taking credit for others' work. Offering a client a worse product for your own profit. Utilizing inside knowledge for your own profit.

The ethical principles that nurses must adhere to are the principles of justice, beneficence, nonmaleficence, accountability, fidelity, autonomy, and veracity.

Ethical decision-making in healthcare.

For example, a patient may refuse care due to cultural/religious views, or may want an unnecessary treatment which may not be in his or her best interests; euthanasia is another example of a provider's sense of morals conflicting with his or her ethical obligations.

Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing

One ethical dilemma that can occur in healthcare facilities is when nurses themselves are not properly equipped to complete their duties. Nurses who notice their coworker's lack of knowledge face an ethical dilemma of whether they should bring the issue to their nurse manager.

Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

The protection of private patient information is one of the most important ethical and legal issues in the field of healthcare. Conversations between a physician and a patient are strictly confidential, as is information about an individual's medical condition.

What is an example of an ethical dilemma in healthcare? ›

One of the most common scenarios when the empirical knowledge vs. religious belief ethical dilemma arises is when nurses are treating patients that are Jehovah's Witnesses. Their religious beliefs do not permit such patients to accept a blood transfusion.

Four Pillars of Medical Ethics

Beneficence (doing good) Non-maleficence (to do no harm) Autonomy (giving the patient the freedom to choose freely, where they are able) Justice (ensuring fairness)

The three major types of ethics are deontological, teleological and virtue-based.

Principlism is a commonly used ethical approach in healthcare and biomedical sciences. It emphasises four key ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, which are shared by most ethical theories, and blends these with virtues and practical wisdom.

An example is patient triage: when a nurse must decide which of several needy patients requires immediate attention. That decision may depend on where the nurse can do the most good, or where the need is greatest, depending on the nurse's determination of the most just course of action.