Ethical Dilemmas In Health Care

When looking at the issues at hand with Gabriela’s and Brittany’s stories, our group all agreed that autonomy and nonmaleficence were key aspects being portrayed. We specifically discussed the roles and viewpoints of the doctors. With Gabriela, due to her age and condition the doctors believed it would do her more harm (nonmaleficence) to go ahead with the kidney transplant and gave pros and cons of different operations to better her life. However, the doctors believe it is best that she proceeds with her treatment and get moved to hospice care. It was great for the doctors to provide the patients family with the information not just the patient. This affects the issue of autonomy where the doctors are giving them options and the family is making Gabriela’s medical decisions for her because Gabriela does not have the mental capacity but shows that she doesn’t have the autonomy. Though she has the loving supports system, we all agreed that as doctors they should be knowledgeable or aware of the cultural difference. We agreed a Spanish translator would be appropriate for proper care in her case. …show more content…
The doctors respected her choice because she met the criteria for an informed consent and the family was supportive of her autonomy. For the doctors, nonmaleficience was a factor in that they are ethically responsible to provide no harm to Brittany but in contrast her decision goes against that where they are giving her medication that will end her life. We believed that this was difficult to come to a consensus. Putting ourselves in the doctors shoes we believed it would be unbearable to go through the process with a patient who is choosing to end their