Charles Sabatino, JD, explains to his audience in the article Overview of Legal and Ethical Issues in Health Care, “The law has a lot to say about personal decision making. For example, people have the legal right to make their own health care decisions. However, poor health can jeopardize people’s ability to exercise their legal rights. Sudden or chronic illness can cause profound weakness and confusion, which makes people vulnerable and can lead to the unwilling loss of control” (2015). Believe it or not, lawyers are just as involved in healthcare as they are in the law aspect of society. A living will is a document that is written in collaboration with a lawyer that expresses a person’s wishes regarding future medical interventions when that individual no longer has the ability to make health care decisions on their own. An example in this particular scenario is a person who has Alzheimer’s disease. The diagnosed person may create this document before the person no longer has the ability to make decision on their own. Being on the subject of decision making, a legal capacity, in the healthcare field, is the ability and right to manage one’s own affair, usually beginning at the age eight-teen. Patient Confidentiality is handled in a very serious manner in all aspects of the medical field. According to the American Medical Association, “physicians have always had a duty to keep their patients’ confidences. In essence, the physician’s duty to maintain confidentiality means that a physician may not disclose any medical information revealed by a patient or discovered by a physician in connection with the treatment of a patient. Protecting patients’ confidentiality is the law of the land. Included in the patchwork are federal and state constitutional privacy rights, federal and state legislation and regulation governing both
Charles Sabatino, JD, explains to his audience in the article Overview of Legal and Ethical Issues in Health Care, “The law has a lot to say about personal decision making. For example, people have the legal right to make their own health care decisions. However, poor health can jeopardize people’s ability to exercise their legal rights. Sudden or chronic illness can cause profound weakness and confusion, which makes people vulnerable and can lead to the unwilling loss of control” (2015). Believe it or not, lawyers are just as involved in healthcare as they are in the law aspect of society. A living will is a document that is written in collaboration with a lawyer that expresses a person’s wishes regarding future medical interventions when that individual no longer has the ability to make health care decisions on their own. An example in this particular scenario is a person who has Alzheimer’s disease. The diagnosed person may create this document before the person no longer has the ability to make decision on their own. Being on the subject of decision making, a legal capacity, in the healthcare field, is the ability and right to manage one’s own affair, usually beginning at the age eight-teen. Patient Confidentiality is handled in a very serious manner in all aspects of the medical field. According to the American Medical Association, “physicians have always had a duty to keep their patients’ confidences. In essence, the physician’s duty to maintain confidentiality means that a physician may not disclose any medical information revealed by a patient or discovered by a physician in connection with the treatment of a patient. Protecting patients’ confidentiality is the law of the land. Included in the patchwork are federal and state constitutional privacy rights, federal and state legislation and regulation governing both