Case Study

HSA 4553 Legal and Ethical

Ethical Dilemma Assignment #1

In an Ethics Committee, many people are involved and include representatives such as

religion, law, nursing, financial, family, the patient, physicians, and others. Your role in this

assignment will be as an Ethicist. Your response(s) should be geared toward only this and not

be influenced by law, medicine, religion, or other factors. This is difficult to do, but by going

through the four steps listed below, you will be able to come to an effective recommendation.

Instructions:

1. There is specific question(s) underneath each of the four steps that you are to answer.

2. Make sure to be elaborate on your response, meaning full sentences and utilize the

textbook to help support your findings. The use of other sources to support your answer

is accepted if the source is credible (not from newspaper, social site, blogs, or personal

opinions).

3. At the end of your assignment you are to create a minimum of 2 complete paragraphs

with your FINAL ETHICAL decision that the committee should take based on your

answers to the four areas, approach this with careful thought and reflection.

Please create a Word Document Form and provide your answers to each question under each

category. There is no formality to the paper layout, but if you use source(s) to support your

answer(s) and you cite within the answer, you need to provide the source(s) used at the end of

your paper in a “Reference” APA style page. Refer to resources provided within the course on

appropriate APA Reference Page format.

Save your word document as follows: last name, initial, assignment #1

**As a reminder if you are using “Pages” from Mac you need to convert it to a Word Doc format

because Canvas does not support Pages and the I will not be able to provide feedback within the

paper.

Medical Indicators:

1. What is the patient’s medical problem?

2. Is the problem acute, chronic, critical, reversible, emergent, or terminal, and what are the goals of treatment?

3. In what circumstances are medical treatments not indicated?

4. What are the probabilities of success of the variable treatment options?

5. In sum, how can this patient be benefitted by medical and nursing care, and how can harm be avoided?

Patient References:

1. Has the patient been informed of risks and benefits, understood this information, and given

consent?

2. Is the patient mentally capable and legally competent, and is there evidence of incapacity?

3. If mentally capable, what preferences about treatment is the patient stating?

4. If incapacitated, what preferences about treatment has the patient expressed in the past?

5. Who is the appropriate surrogate to make decisions for the incapacitated patient?

Quality of Life:

1. What are the prospects, with or without treatment, for a return to a normal life? What physical,

mental, and social deficits might the patient experience if the treatment succeeds?

2. On what grounds can anyone judge that some quality of life would be undesirable for a patient

who cannot make or express such judgement?

3. Are there biases that might prejudice the provider’s evaluation of the patient’s quality of life?

4. What ethical issues arise concerning improving or enhancing a patient’s quality of life?

5. Does quality of life assessments raise any questions regarding changes in treatment plans, such

as forgoing life-sustaining treatment?

Contextual Features:

1. Are there professional, interprofessional, or business interests that might create conflicts of

interest in the clinical treatment of patients?

2. Are there parties other than clinicians and patients, such as family members, who have an

interest in clinical decisions?

3. What are the limits imposed on patient confidentiality by the legitimate interest of third

parties?

4. Are there financial factors that create conflicts of interest in clinical decisions?

5. Are there problems of allocation of scarce health resources that might affect clinical decisions?