Autonomy

“As stated in the American Nurses Association’s Code of Ethics, nurses have the moral obligation to respect the autonomy of their patients” (Tinnon, 2014, para.1). The legal challenge for an APN occurs in the situation when Brian does not want to share about the positive results for HD with his brother Jeff, keeping him totally unaware about the possible risk for…

would be planned to be at home in bed with her daughter holding her hand. Realistically, it is probable that Donorovich could come home to find her mother already deceased without a timely warning. The ethical issues imposed in this case involve the autonomy of O’Donnell, and her right to self-determination. While she was aware of her condition, she was not granted the permission by the law to choose how to end her own life, despite the fact that it was inevitably…

invested with the power and charged with the duty of taking care of a patient can all be authorized to give consent (Pozgar, 2013, pg. 410). The informed consent doctrine provides that a doctor has legal, ethical, and moral duty to respect patient autonomy and to provide only such medical care as authorized by the patient. The patient must be competent enough to make make a decision. There are a variety of consent forms designed to more specifically describe risks, benefits, and alternatives to…

Hospice is a service that was created to provide the patient comfort, dignity and help reduce the suffering that the patient and his family is enduring. Since hospice is a medical based service, many medical professionals, doctors, nurses, therapists, aides as well as case workers are employed to provide the best care possible at the end of someone’s life. Since the terminally ill are provided medical services, there are certain rules and regulations they must follow according to Medicare,…

How much autonomy should a minor have? Should their refusal of life-saving treatment be granted by physicians? These questions arise from the case of Emma Ogden, a twelve year old girl who lived with a congenital heart defect which led to many operations and repeated visits to the hospital. When Dr. Abdul Hamid, the transplant surgeon, told Emma and her parents that her best option would be getting a heart transplant and that even then, her prognosis was grim, she refused. Emma researched her…

Affirmative: The prompt-- Resolved: Adolescents ought to have the right to make autonomous medical choices. What it means a young person in the process of developing from a child into an adult (adolescent from Dictionary.com) should make their own medical decisions. To start, many people may be scared of this but change in this case, change is good. 1. My first point is that teenagers are more independent. A source says: “teenagers are much more independent in all areas of their lives...…

Euthanasia: Dying with Dignity Melissa Goodman, Diana Hutchings & Natasha Layden College of the North Atlantic “If I cannot give consent to my own death, who’s body is this? Who owns my life (News, 2014)?” Powerful words from Sue Rodriquez the individual who brought to light the topic of euthanasia in Canada during the early 1990’s (News, 2014). Even years after Sue’s attempts at legalizing euthanasia, it still remains a conflicting debate in Canada today. Euthanasia is defined as…

the situation at hand (Hood, 2013, p.68). As the nurse, I would choose and act based on my own moral values and the legal and institutional implications that could occur. In this situation, I would advocate for the patient using the principle of autonomy and not administer the medication per the discretion of the nurse. The nurse is not only holding her license liable in doing this type of dangerous…

Grace &McLaughlin (AJN, 2005), revealed on their study that people are most vulnerable when they are sick and health care providers often have a stereotype that they have better knowledge than the patient and they may unintentionally harm the patient. So, informed consent is very important to protect patient’s right and nurses are in an ideal place to play the advocacy role in different ways such as, a defender of patient’s right, .Johnston, M.J., (2009), also reemphasized the advocacy role of…

In Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the garret atop her grandmother’s house, in which Linda chooses to spend seven years of her life, symbolizes both the evils of slavery and the blessings of freedom. The garret, otherwise known as the loophole of retreat, measuring 9 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 3 feet sloping, fails to afford Linda with material comfort, consequently, deteriorating her physical and mental health. Lacking ventilation and light, the loophole’s narrow…