In: Nursing
You are tasked (decision authority) to develop a distribution plan for your state's life-saving medical resources (e.g. organs, stem cells, access to healthcare, etc.).
Today there is significant more demand than supply. You should take everything into consideration: patients characteristics (age, past, and future health, faith, quality of life, risk/benefits, smoker/nonsmoker, any other factors you consider important in this decision making process). Specifically, consider the following elements in your paper:
To what extent should we take into account individual responsibility for need in deciding who gets these medical resources?
The needs of both Robert and Susan. Both need liver transplants.
When should individual decisions and responsbility count priority for access to medical resources and health care?
As in the position of deciding authority in the distribution of life saving's medical resources, I will generally follow the ethical guidelines and legal principles. There is an increased demand than supply. So, sometimes the life saving has to be concerned first than morals. Even though, prioritize the patient according to the waiting list sometimes decisions taken based upon the Individuals justice, autonomy, respect for persons. The four principle of bioethics also says that the autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, justice gives the right to self- determination. But everything should be approved by the National Organ Transplant Act, and the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network.
Sometimes conflict may arise if both of them have equitable access for organ allocation. In such cases, the organ can be allocated based on some of the factors such as ethical rules of honesty and not to harm an individual, clinical outcome, age factor, cause for organ failure, psychological factors, and financial support.
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has implemented the new policy in the allocation of liver for transplants. It gives priority to the sicker based on the Model for End-stage Liver disease(MELD) score. The score is determined based on the laboratory values of serum bilirubin, INR, prothrombin time, serum creatinine and ranges from 6 to 40. If both are having similar MELD score then the priority is given based on the match run of blood type, height, and weight.