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Ethical Issues in Health Care

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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
Medicine Net (2011), defines autonomy as the right of a patient to make decisions about the care received without influence from a health care provider. Providing education to a patient is allowed as part of autonomy. Autonomy does not allow the provider to make decisions for the patient. Kapp states that “in addition to exercising the right to make choices about which diagnostic or

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