Dr. Katz Ethical Theory

Katie, a 24 year old pregnant female, 33 weeks gestation is admitted to the hospital in sickle cell crisis. Also, she has preeclampsia and is in a tremendous amount of pain. Katie has a medical history of taking opioids and morphine during her pregnancy for pain due to her sickle cell disease. The doctors take Katie right back to the delivery room and prep her for a cesarean section. The baby is born and taken to the Intensive Care Nursery for monitoring due to prematurity and low birth weight. Moreover, in order to prevent the baby from going into withdrawal from her Mother's opioid use, the neonatal doctors would like to start giving the baby a low dose of morphine in order to wean the baby from the drugs.
Doctor Katz the neonatologist approaches Katie and asks her to sign a consent form asking for permission to give the morphine to her baby so that she will not suffer during the detoxing process. Dr. Katz is a great doctor and …show more content…
Plus, ethical principles are rules of conduct derived from ethical theories. These principles provide a practical basis or framework for identifying what kinds of actions, intentions, and motives are valued. Moreover, Dr. Katz was acting in beneficence and justice with wanting to give the baby morphine. Whereas, Katie was using the principal of autonomy which gave her the right to make her own decision. In this case, Katie’s right to autonomy conflicts with the moral principles of Dr. Katz. Similarly, autonomous decisions can be affected by the mental capacity, mental status, and maturity of the decision maker. Dr. Katz approached the hospital ethics committee and asked them to get involved to help be a resource for the patient, family, and staff. In summation, the ethics committee promoted the baby’s rights and was there to assist Katie in making an ethical informed