Question

The article "Deadly Choices at Memorial" recounts many ethically difficult situations faced by health care providers. Describe one of the scenarios where there was an ethically difficult situation. What were the two difficult choices? What ethical principles were at hand? What decision did the health care provider make? Lastly, if you were in that scenario, do you think you would have made the same decision? Please explain in 400 words.

Answer 1

In heath care system , a health care provider faces many ethically difficult situation in which he / she had to choose between two different options and both of them are equally difficult .

Imagine a case scenario in which a 14 yr old girl come to emergency due to fracture of leg , now while examining this girl ,the health care provider find out that she had a boyfriend and while meeting him this girl faces accident and her leg fractures , now she wants oral contraceptives pills and also requested the health care provider to not to tell her mother who is very strict with cultural values and discipline . Now after full examination heath care provider feels that it is safe to give this girl an oral contraceptives pills . Now imagine when the doctor was giving pill to this girl ,her mother enters the room and ask doctor that what medication he/she is giving to her daughter ?

Now what does doctor do ? Does he/she tell her mother or doesn't ? Whose confidentiality does doctor maintain ?

Now this case because a case of ethical dilemma in which doctor has to decide what is wrong and what is right ? How he maintains both patient and her parents right of information ? This is one of the critical case .

Now if health care provider choose patient right of confidentiality than it makes her mother angery and betray cuz it's about her daughter and a doctor must inform everything to parents and if doctor tell her mother than its negligence of patients confidentiality .

So in situation like this , it is given in ethical code of conduct of nursing practice that a doctor or nurse first see the patient conditions and do anything to maintain patients rights . To some extent oral contraceptives pills are allowed to use in minor patients without informing their parents . But if the patient situation is critical then it is uttermost important to tell their parents about the condition .

If I were in same situation ,I will try to convince the girl that she tell her mother everything cuz it's important for her as well as for her mother also but if she was not convinced than I'll try to convince her mother by same process .