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Ethical health care issue.
Being ethical is one thing that is so important to all and sundry. In every manner of life, whether at home, at the work place, or any social place, ethics shape our behavior. The health care field is one sector that has ethics to be part of the practices. Ethical issues continue to be serious issues for discussions in the trends of the health care system. Viewing ethics as the fundamental platform for health care practices, the recognition of rights, an economic issue and shifts in social and family systems throws light on the ethical issues more in the health field (Fernandes & Moreira, 2013). Individual or group ethics of professionals may go a long way to change the organizational values. An organ donation situation occurred in a facility that was of ethical concern, the situation; its ethical implication and evaluation are discussed in this paper. This issue is being evaluated and discussed based on the four ethical principles, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.
The story of a father and daughter wanting to save each other poses an ethical issue of consent. This is a father who is willing and able to donate his only kidney to his needy daughter. The daughter here is in dire need of a kidney transplant. His father in 1996, according to CNN’s Kahn J.F donated one of his kidneys to his daughter while in jail (2000). The response to the transplant thereof has not been positive. Her father is ready to do an exchange and donate his second and only kidney left to her daughter. This means that the father instead of the daughter will have to go on dialysis for the rest of his life that comes with a huge amount of health risk. This leaves the story a complicated one because the father is still in jail, and this means the dialysis will be paid for by the state.
People often do donate their organs for transplant, but we are yet to hear of one such as this, offering your only organ. The donor feels that at his risk his daughter must survive but health-wisely must this be allowed? This remains an issue of ethical consent. Should one risk his life for the benefit of the other? Most of the time, we are happy about the doings of people in terms of saving lives of others, but in this case a more risky challenge lies ahead when a father wishes to offer “his only kidney to his daughter after her body has rejected his first kidney” (Kahn, 2000 para 6). Some may argue that the decision is to the donor but again, the health care professionals who are in charge of performing this activity do have a basis on which they make such decisions. The recipient of the donation happens to be the physicians’ customer and must consider the outcome of his or her customer (patient) as well as the donors.
When the four basic ethical principles are applied, we can have some form of conclusion. The ethical principles namely, Justice, Beneficence, Autonomy and Non-maleficence comes into play in this issue. Justice in simple terms states that, do what is seen as fair or deserved (Morrison, 2011). Beneficence principle says do what is good or termed beneficial to the patient. Non- maleficence goes, do no harm to any patient and Autonomy whispers make your own choice or have a say in your health care decisions. When these four principles are carefully examined against the kidney transplant issue, it strongly can be argued that justice on the part of the physicians may be altered if the father is allowed to do the donation. At this time, we will have to look at the situation again. The physicians have in their custody the daughter who needs a transplant, so the daughter is the patient here. Whether she wanted the transplant was not mentioned, but it can be inferred that she was willing to get it done due to the fact that she had a first one. Her choice of involving in the treatment situation was allowed. Autonomy is positively being exercised here. On the other hand the physicians knowing that allowing the process means another is harmed do not want to go against Non-maleficence as an ethical principle. The father would be harmed when his kidney is donated to her daughter even though doing so would benefit the recipient (Beneficence). It must be noted that the daughter is the main patient here, but then the donor also becomes a patient too when the organ needs to come from him before use. Going ahead with the operation will not be a fair deal; the father will be harmed.
Some time ago, the decision of a person to receive treatment was left to the patient and the family alone along with the physician, but circumstances have changed and now the government is involved. This brought the argument that not actively treating a patient is unethical and illegal (Fielding, 1986). Physicians have some standards to uphold in high esteem, and this does not allow them to go ahead with the transplant. Exchanging the health of a person for the other counteracts to the basic beliefs that the society have about justice and the rights of individuals, even though the parties are willing (Kahn, 2000). It is only when the operation benefits both sides or has a low risk on the donor that the transplant process could be considered.
Also the cost of the dialysis even if the process could be handled was going to be footed by the state which, of course, is from tax- payers’ pockets, but that was not just the issue. The big picture here was that justice would have never prevailed if the physicians have decided to carry on the process. According to Johnstone (2011), the justice of people is a basic universal human need, which like care identifies itself as being important to develop fully, maintain health, and help human survival in the whole of the world. The four basic principles, forms the framework of bioethics (Rancich, Pérez, Morales, & Gelpi, 2005).
In a nutshell, ethics is seen as a universal form of rules or principles to shape and guide decision making. A good health care ethics consultant by analogy, is one who utilizes his or her skill not by just listing or enumerating rules of ethics, theories or models and principles, but engaging in consultations that include diligently applying them with the intention to aid others to make choices that are perceived as acceptable in the society as well as within a specified industry (Baylis, 1999). Health professionals in all aspect or situation must comply with the ethical codes of the health industry and consider the benefits that a patient derives from a decision other than even the least harm that could be caused to a patient.

Reference 1. Fernandes, Maria; Moreira, Isabel (Feb, 2013). Ethical issues experienced by intensive care unit nurses in everyday practice; Nursing Ethics. 20 (1), p72-82, 11p 2. Kahn, J. F (2000). Take My Kidney Please; CNN interactive, Ethics Matters Archive. Retrieved on February 18th, 2013 from http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/bioethics/9901/kidney.donation/template.html 3. Morrison, E. E. (2011). Ethics in health administration: A practical approach for decision makers (2nd ed.). Retrieved from the University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. 4. Fielding, Jonathan E. (1986). Ethical Issues in Health Care; Benefits quarterly, 2(4), p1-3 5. Johnstone, M. (2011). Nursing and justice as a basic human need. Nursing Philosophy, 12(1), 34-44. doi:10.1111/j.1466-769X.2010.00459.x 6. Rancich, A., Pérez, M., Morales, C., & Gelpi, R. (2005). Beneficence, justice, and lifelong learning expressed in medical oath; Journal Of Continuing Education In The Health Professions, 25(3), 211-220. 7. Baylis, F. (1999). Health Care Ethics Consultation: 'Training in Virtue'; Human Studies, 22(1), 25-41.