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Courses Name: Ethics and Regulations in Heal

***Please complete my answer to be 500 words ..

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Question: 1: In certain cases it's legally and ethically appropriate for health professionals to proceed with a treatment without consent or proceed with a treatment that is against the patient decision, give your opinion in detail and examples.

Question: 2: What is capacity and when does an adult lack capacity

***Please complete my answer to be 500 words ..

I need new and unique answers, please. (Use your own words, don't copy and paste)

-> In some cases, it is legally and ethically appropriate for health professionals to proceed with treatment without consent or proceed with a treatment that is against the patient's decision.

As based on my opinion it is absolutely acceptable in some cases, as we know in some cases there have some ethical issues in India working with human cells (like cloning or gene modification etc).

But in some cases like for example, a patient who has a critical fever for some days and is under treatment in a hospital, accidentally he has positive in corona virus because of symptoms are relatively the same, that treatment will also proceed against the patient's decision.

-> Capacity means the ability to use and understand information to make a decision and communicate any decision made. A person lacks capacity if their mind is impaired or disturbed in some ways, which means they are unable to make a decision at that time.

Answer 1

1. Professional ethics for doctors include aspects of treating patient and also making them aware of their problems and medicines being prescribed.

Generally doctors do consult patients for few tests like- HIV and cancer. Patients willingness to go for HIV test is mandatory and non disclosure of the reports to others is also taken care by doctors.

while treating critically ill patients or patients suffering for cancer, patients willingness has to be taken. The procedures include chemotherapy which have several side effects and the dietary intake is totally different from normal individuals. Hence removal of tumor and chemotherapies need patience consent.

In cases of transplantations, sperm donations, surrogacy, blood donations, female foeticide, abortions etc, both donor and recipient have to be aware of all the facts. Patients consent becomes mandatory in either of the cases.

While treating patients suffering from liver damage, thrombosis, acute renal failure, patients need to be told the situations, given confidence and with their consent appropriate is to be done.

Examples of Unethical behavior of Doctors: We have sen several cases of kidney transplantations where the donors are unaware that they are left with one kidney. In cases of abortions, the woman who is undergoing abortion is not told by the family nor the doctor but realizes after the medicines are given to her. There are many cases of female foeticide which talk hundreds of stories where women are forcibly asked to abort child.

In cases of clinical testing done by few companies, they take patient volunteers with consent and administer the medicine which is yet to be released into market. But there are many incidents where, a doctor gives medicines, asks patients to come at the end of every week and give blood samples. Ignorant of the consequences, the volunteers suffer and doctor collects blood samples. The suffering of the patients is ignored, they are not paid and tests are done taking advantage of their ignorance.

There are also cases of psychologists administering medicines for trails to mentally ill patients. taking advantage of their state of illness, few unprofessional practitioners administer some drugs for trial and also try out range of dose that the patient can tolerate. All the lead to severe suffering of patient and in few cases patients die out of anxiety that comes out of these medicines.

In cases of cancer therapy, the patient has to know the stage of cancer. They have to be educated about the severity and then with their consent the doctors have to proceed. In many situations, the patients during last stages may not be willing to take pain as the chances of survival are very less. In these situations it becomes mandatory for the doctors to tell the family members the entire situation and proceed with treatment. If there are any chances of survival out of treatment , then the doctors can counsel the patients, family members and then proceed. If it is just for number or count that the doctors want to handle a case and do a trail, then it becomes unethical.

Doctors must have positive attitude and ethical behavior , educating patients and taking their opinion before proceeding is a must in this profession.

2. Capacity or mental capacity of an individual refers to the ability to understand, interpret and take decisions. In case of few brain related problems called have mental health problems or disabilities, people lack the capacity to understand what is being told to them. some lack the ability to retain the information told to them which is forgetful nature, some understand the information which is told to them but lack the capacity to communicate their decisions or feeling and some cannot take decisions on their own.

There are several reasons for the above:

1. A person who consumed alcohol cannot take decision

2. A person having learning disability also cannot take decisions

3. A person who has brain injury or mental health problems cannot take decisions

4. A person who is unconsciousness state , who is feeling drowsy or feeling dizziness also cannot take decisions.

In patients suffering from Schizophrenia which is a diseased state where the patients general behavior is affected the patients cannot take decisions. In this extremely disordered state of mind, the patients cannot take decisions.

In cases of Attention Deficit/ Hyperactive Disorder( ADHD), the patients cannot give attention to what doctors say and they exhibit hyperactive behavior which leads to their inability to take decisions.

In patients suffering from Obsessive compulsive disorder, the patients cannot take decision as their mind is preoccupied with some thoughts and they either continuously talk or keep worrying about some thing and hence even if the doctor tries to explain they cannot perceive it and hence cannot take decision.

In cases of neurodevelopment disorders, like Tourette's syndrome where the patients have no much control over their involuntary movements , may not be in a position to take decisions.

Even patients suffering from Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD), they go into a confused state as they have too many choices and cannot take decisions.

The above are few examples of disorders that can affect the decision making ability of individuals.