Question

What are the ethical problems that may arise during the end of life care

Answer 1

The development of ethical problems occur in most situations ,but it is more common during the end of life care because at this period the patient and care givers experience charged emotions ,grief and loss .

​​​​​​Areas where ethical problems arise during the end of life care.

# ) Compromised Autonomy

Autonomy provides the right to the client to control or receive the treatment according to their preferences .but sometimes the right for autonomy has some limitation and leads to ethical problems .some times the autonomy gets limited in case if legally required and duly justified .Thus the patient autonomy gets compressed .

# ) communication breakdown

It is important to communicate with the terminally ill client to make understand their situation ,to break the bad news in a sensitive manner and to encourage questions from the patients .But in some situation communication breakdown may occur as a result of fear towards death,cultural norms and religious belief and stigma towards the topic of death and dying .

Religious and spiritual issues and some desires are very important for some client .communication breakdown leads to poor satisfaction among them .

#) Futile or non beneficial care

Some times the client were provided with treatment which are not beneficial for them which will increase the hospital stay and increases the client suffering .this finally contribute to bad death in the client.There is a great obligation that not to cause harm to the client unless it might leads to some benefits for the client .getting compressed the right of non beneficence cause ethical problems .

# ) Shared decision making

Shared decision making is very helpful to take the decision effectively and easily ,but some times it become an ethical issue when one or more of the parties get involved in the decision making regarding the client and treatment .

#) Poor symptom management

some times the medication given for the benefit of the client cause some potential risk and side effects leads to poor symptom management in the client .