...Ethical Health Care Issues In 1953, two scientists James Watson and Francis Click published the description of the double helix structure of the DNA. Little did they know that voyage from the double helix to The Human Genome Project (HGP) would become a reality. Fifty years later in 2003, National Institute Health accomplished mapping of 32,000 genes of the human genome. Gene mapping was a significant research that enabled researchers to focus on gene specific diseases and birth defects. More than 1000 research projects started inward voyage discovery of human kind rather outward exploration of the planets. Clinical research involving human beings have greater potential for risk of misusing the technology. Potential for misusing the genetic research and fear of unknown long term effects on the successive generations have sparked bioethics debates. Like abortion, gene mapping is a very controversial subject and both sides have strong views. For example, should a woman abort the pregnancy based on the abnormal genetic screening results? Genetic technology provides an enormous power within our grips and with this enormous power comes following the ethical standards. Ethical standards should be followed involving human subjects. Genetic screening standards should align with four ethical principles of: • Respect for the human autonomy, dignity, and obtaining informed consent • Genetic screening should cause the minimal amount of harm to the subject • Provides maximum benefit to...
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...Ethical Issues in Health Care HCS 545 April 25, 2011 Mary Nell Cummings Ethical Issues in Health Care In the United States, government ran systems exist of social support. Such systems are Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. These systems seem to be widely accepted in other countries than in America. Individualism and justice has been included in the United States foundation of welfare. Citizens feel a level of appropriateness allowing the government to spend tax monies to help an unfortunate person who has exhausted all of his or her energy, strength, and abilities to help himself. Americans further feel the efforts to help are satisfactory if an unreasonable amount of money is not used. Bioethics is a prevelent and sensitive topic of debate in health care. A single mother with children who is particially dependent upon welfare takes it upon herself to pay privately for a single treatment of Invitro Fertilization (IVF). This mother is implanted with several embryos and chooses not to reduce the number of fetuses and successfully delivers multiple premature babies. We must take into account the cost of delivery, care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and future cost to the Welfare system for all of this mother’s children. Reviewing this issue from a health care professional’s point of view, the four basic principles of ethics, beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence, and social justice, are part of this issue. The Four Basic Principals Autonomy ...
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...assist the DMEC in revitalizing back the City of Amsterdam to a state of optimal health. The APN, in collaboration with other members of the healthcare team will address the needs of the clients, whether it is obtaining a glucometer, offering nutritional support, or other treatments that might be relevant to their illness. This will increase the patients’ ability to reach their state of optimal health. Through collaboration,...
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...Ethical Health Care Issues Natalie Morman HCS/545 June 1, 2015 Dr. Ruth Bundy Ethical Health Care Issues The health care industry has four major ethical principles which are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Autonomy has respect for individuals, beneficence helps others, nonmaleficence does not harm others, and justice has a way of helping with risk and cost. Every individual in the world have rights to life and liberty, which should be highly respected, nurtured, and facilitated. Health care providers should not want to refuse patients when it comes to their medical needs for any type of reasons. There are health care providers who refuse to see patients because of their religion, ethical or moral beliefs. There are patients who refuse medical attention, because they do not trust the health care provider. This paper will discuss the refusal of the health care provider, refusal of the patient, and give a thorough explanation of the four major ethical principles. Refusal of Health Care by Provider According to Sonfield (2005), “The professional standards typically endorse providers the right to step away from providing health care service that violates his or her moral or religious beliefs” (p. 1). Health care providers cannot override a patient’s autonomy if the patient wants an abortion, end-of-life care or other forms of reproductive health care. When health care providers refuse to care for patients they cannot deny patients...
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...It is the obligation of healthcare practitioners to preserve patient privacy and confidentiality at all times. However, healthcare practitioners face diverse types and levels of privacy- and confidentiality-associated ethical dilemmas while dealing with specific types of patients. One such special case that presents ethical dilemmas on patient privacy and confidentiality is when a physician handles a criminal patient (Gardiner, 2003). The scenario becomes more complicated if it involves giving an emergency care to a patient who has been involved in a criminal act such as robbery, during which he or she has been shot or injured in some other ways. It is of the essence that physicians and other healthcare providers are conversant with the work...
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...Ethical Health Care Issues Kelly Jackson HCS/545 July 7, 2014 Linda Hagler-Reid Ethical Health Care Issues When working with patients and their families, the health care professionals occasionally will face unpopular and difficult decisions that relates to medical treatments which questions moral issues such as religious beliefs and even professional guidelines of ethical or not. Health care ethics is used as a parameter for staff to exemplify the standards of the proper ethics and provide the imaginary ethics road map to success when speaking to patients and families about choices based on beliefs, values, health, and possibly in the end death. When dealing with moral issues in this manner it becomes even more complex. Conflicts of Interest An example of a conflict of interest with a health care employee can exists when an employee is influenced, whether consciously or unconsciously by some form of financial or personal gain. This proves their self-interest and lack of morals when it comes to the good of the company. With a profit-driven organization the normal motive for the presence of an ethical struggle is generally linked to some practice of individual economic contemplations. A statement made by the American College of Physicians showed that “physicians meet industry representatives at the office and at professional meetings, collaborate in community-based research, and develop or invest in health-related industries. In all of these spheres, partnered activities...
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...Ethical Health Care Issues Robyn Moses HCS 545 / Health Law and Ethics Professor Laughon March 16, 2015 Health Care Issues One of the current health care issues that I chose to write about is euthanasia. I will examine and evaluate how the four principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice apply to this issue. The most recent person that exercised her autonomy to choose how she died and the time of her death was Brittany Maynard. Brittany died in Oregon, a state which allows physicians to assist terminally ill persons by prescribing life-ending medications (Egan, 2014). Is the right-to-die with dignity by choice ever going to be acceptable in the health care community? Euthanasia is defined as the act of being put to death painlessly by refusing treatment or the withdrawing of life support to avoid suffering the effects of a debilitating illness or incurable disease. According to the legal system, euthanasia is considered murder when assisted and suicide when patients take their lives. In many countries, euthanasia is not allowed and is punishable by law. Oregon became the first state in the United States in 1997 to make physician-assisted suicide legal. Attempts to have the law in Oregon overturned have been unsuccessful (Britannica, 2015). As more consumers become educated on diseases and their debilitating effects, more consumers may choose euthanasia as an alternative to suffering. Autonomy is the act of making one's choices without...
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...Ethical Health Care Issues Rahmat Ogunnusi HCS/545 June 22, 2015 Charles Barron Ethical Health Care Issues The society has great trust in health care organizations and their professionals to restore their health when befallen by an ailment. In doing so, especially when faced with difficult circumstances such as trying to determine who should get an organ donation first, health care professionals utilizes ethics of principles as a guide. The four ethics of principles states that people's autonomy should be respected, no harm should be done, health care professionals should do good, and justice should always prevail. The allocation of organ transplant is a form of treatment that also helps restore patient's life to a certain extent because there is always a chance that the recipient's system might reject the organ. Statistics shows that, in the US, at every given point in time, the ratio of available organ and the recipients are never proportionate. That is, the organs available are never enough for the amounts of recipients. Needless to say, the waiting list is always long, and proper strategies are always used in picking who gets the organ first. This situation as brought a lot of controversies as no one wants to die waiting for an organ and everyone thinks that their loved ones deserve to go first. Factors such as blood type, waiting time, right size donor and so on plays a big part in determining the priority of allocation. On the other hand, one of the biggest controversies...
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...can be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition Health insurers can no longer deny or charge more for coverage because of a pre-existing health condition like asthma, diabetes, or cancer. Nor can they limit benefits for these pre-existing conditions. This is an extremely positive element for the millions of people that have pre-existing conditions and could not afford the increased cost of health insurance. 2. Extended health coverage for young adults, up to 26 years old Extending coverage for young adults has led to a rapid and extensive increase in the number of young adults with dependent coverage. At the...
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...Ethical issues Beauchamp and Childress identify four principles; beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and concern for justice. We can use these principles to explore what ethical issues could exist for practitioners in trying to reduce inequalities in health. Autonomy – Principle of informed consent. Many of today’s health problems are related to lifestyle. People have the right to live an unhealthy life although this may not reflect our own choices. There is such a huge amount of information and heath advice in the media some of which is market driven, may not be research based or may be contentious. Sometimes people are not able to fully understand what matters for health and choose not to follow advice given. Beneficence – to do good or further the patient’s interest. Should we fund...
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...Ethical Health Care Issues Paper Sylvia Clarkson HCS/545 December 17, 2014 Dr. Michael Grossman According to Emanuel Medical Center, Ethics in healthcare is defined as doing the right thing for the patient - providing care and treatment that deliver medical benefits, reflect what's important to the patient's well-being, and respect what the patient wants (Emanuel Medical Center, 2014). Health Care ethics is concerned with the implementation of well researched decisions while taking into cognizance the patients’ religious and cultural beliefs, and wellbeing in relation to the treatment that is rendered unto the patient. It is mandatory by healthcare professionals to abide by medical ethics principles, most especially when dealing directly with patients. Some professionals confront the ethical issues directly while others turn away (Colonel John S. Murray, PhD, RN, USAF, NC, 2014). How individuals respond to these ethical dilemmas depends on their previous experiences with unethical behavior, their individual personality traits, and their ethical values, as well as their knowledge of ethical principles (Clancy, 2003). In this modern era, there are certain ethical issues that might arise in relation to a patient’s clinical management. A prominent medical ethical issue is the refusal of a patient for treatment, such as receiving blood transfusion because of his or her belief. The most renowned international religious group of people that refuse...
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...I am going to discuss ethical issues relating to research in the health and social care sectors. Ethical issues refers to moral situations that may be faced by a researcher whilst carrying out research or even whilst at work. They are normally put in a situation where they have to think about whether what they are doing is worth doing or not. There are many ethical issues that can occur whilst carrying out research. These are few of them: • If the research topic is a sensitive/controversial • Seeking Informed consent • Debriefing • Right to withdraw • Deception • Confidentiality • Protection from harm • Cultural/ language barriers • If the results cannot be generalised to the whole population or to the real world (population/ ecological validity)...
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...Debate on Health Care Ethical Issues HCS/435 Victor Gibb By: David Moeller, April Shaffer, Josephine Johnson, Rachelle Jacquay, Angie Wellman, Margaret Werzinsky Intro Supp Side The topic of euthanasia has been of much debate for many years. Throughout the outline varying sides have been focused on in regards to this topic. On one side there are supporters of euthanasia that believe that each individual has the right to make their own choices when dealing with the quality of life they want to be subjected too. Many are in favor because euthanasia can help decrease the suffering that terminally ill patients have to endure. Then there are those that oppose this line of thinking, “These people are convinced that no individual has the right to determine the end of his life” (Geiger, 2010). When discussing the topic of euthanasia this has been deemed an ethical issue because it deals with moral principles, which is different for each individual. Opp Side Supp Side Euthanasia is a topic that brings about much debate, but when it comes to an individual’s life they should have a legal right to choose what is best for them. Many in opposition of euthanasia go along with the view that it is wrong for a person to end their life and that it is right to have laws that prohibit such actions. But the question that arises is if this legal course gives a person the right that was granted...
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...In South Africa the majority of burn patients are 20 years of age of younger and is the leading cause of “unnatural” for death for patients 5 years and younger according to the article Ethical decision making in severe pediatric burn victims. Medical providers are forced with the difficult decision making to weigh the cost of treatment and preservation of life. “Care of the burnt child is entirely emergency driven, labor intensive, has an appreciable mobility and mortality, and experiences the same economic pressures as the rest of health care” (Rode, Millar, Castle, & Lyle, 2011, p. 17). It is widely known and debated that the patients age is considered when deciding the patient’s healthcare plan verse cost. So in these young patients...
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...It could be said that coverage that ‘once would have been impossible to see, is now viewed as the norm’ [Deppa, Joan. 1993. [p.3]]. However, because our world is now so instantly updated, news people covering the tragedies have ‘less time to make journalistic decisions, no time to reconsider what they transmit and little opportunity to think through the ethical issues involved’ [Deppa, Joan. 1993. [p.3]]. An image, no matter how it is shown, has a lot of power. It conveys information and excites emotions. It provokes a response, and it channels a lasting impression. The victory of television over photojournalism was gradual and is still only partial. News photography is still able to provide a lasting emotional intensity and allows images to abide in the collective memory - permitting us to remember, and possibly react. But television definitely triumphs as the main source for information and entertainment. This is supported by a 2003 study conducted in the US finding that as many as 79% of Americans received “most of their news about national and international issues” from television. TV was followed by newspapers at 45%, the Internet at 19%, radio at 16%, and magazines at 5% [Kavoori, Ananda & Fraley, Todd. 2006. [p.4]]. The publics perceptions of disaster, though they are influenced by other factors like family, friends and school, are ultimately formed by the media (of any...
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