In: Economics
Legal and Ethical Issues:Case Study Cathy Smith, an eighty-eight-year-old woman, was admitted to the emergency room from the nursing facility with acute respiratory distress. Although Smith does not have a living will, her daughter Rose, a health care professional, has the power of attorney (POA) to make her mother's health decisions. Smith suffers from end-stage Alzheimer's disease and recently experienced congestive heart failure. Her condition is alarming. The doctors want to place her on life-support equipment, including a ventilator. Smith's son, Andrew, agrees with the doctor's decision. However, Rose states her mother would never want to be placed on life-support machines to prolong her life. Analyze the scenario and answer the following questions: What are the autonomy-beneficial conflicts between Rose and Andrew related to placing their mother on life support in this case? Who has the right to make the decision on behalf of the client? Why? What are the ethical issues related to the competency and decision-making capacity of the client while making the health care decisions? Do these issues impact the services offered in long-term care? How? What are some of the critical issues related to informed consent? Who has the right to assume this responsibility? Why? To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format. Your initial posting should be addressed at 150-300 words. Post your response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Respond to at least two posts by the end of the week. Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.
1) What are the autonomy-beneficial conflicts between Rose and Andrew related to placing their mother on life support in this case. Who has the right to make the decision on behalf of the client? Why?
Answer: The conflict arose because Andrew wants to follow the doctor’s orders and his sister Rose knows her mom would never want to be on life support and thus doesn’t want to put mother on life-support. Rose holds the rights to make the decision on behalf of the client because she acts as POA thus legally in charge and also is over the mother’s health concern
2) What are the ethical issues related to the competency and decision-making capacity of the client while making the health care decisions? Do these issues impact the services offered in long-term care? How?
Answer: The ethical concerns in this scenario are that Cathy is not in a position to make the decision herself and Rose doesn’t want to follow the recommendations of doctor, and because of it Cathy will die without the life- support. As Cathy suffering from end-stage Alzheimer’s she need 24-hour care which has an impact on the long-term care because requires full time care every day, 24 hours a day and needs to be hooked to the equipment of life-support.
3) What are some of the critical issues related to informed consent? Who has the right to assume this responsibility? Why?
Answer: The critical issues are that Cathy cannot make decision herself and Rose doesn’t want to put Candy on life support while the son Andrew wants to. As Rose is POA she has the final legal in charge. If Cathy married her spouse would have the right to decide however Andrew is not P.O.A and Rose holds the right to take responsibility