Medical Ethics PDF

ETHICS Richard Malumba  Ethics Principles of conduct governing a group or individual A set of moral principles or values  Medical ethics Concerns issues related to practice of medicine Explores and promotes principles guiding conduct of health care prof...

ETHICS Richard Malumba  Ethics Principles of conduct governing a group or individual A set of moral principles or values  Medical ethics Concerns issues related to practice of medicine Explores and promotes principles guiding conduct of health care professionals  Medical ethics Set of ethical principles and rules that inspire and guide the professional conduct of medical professionals It focuses on the medical worker- patient relationship  Cont.. Takes account of the ethical and legal issues that patients and medical professionals must address to reach good decisions for individual patients  Cont.. Medical ethics may be traced to guidelines on the duty of physicians in the Hippocratic oath Historically taken by physicians, it required new physicians to swear by the healing gods that they will uphold specific medical standards  Cont.. Ethics do NOT decide what is morally right or wrong; Rather it considers how we should act best in light of our duties and obligations as moral agents  Why ethics? Conflicts of interests between the government and medical institutions, between medical institutions and medical personnel, between physicians and patients are getting more and more serious and complex The ethical dilemmas of high technology medicine-brain death, organ transplantation, and concerns about quality of life-have become increasingly prominent  Cont.. It is generally held that clinicians should always act in the best interest of their patients but; – sometimes there is a conflict between obligations to a patient and those perceived to be owed to the community or to other patients – It may not always be the case that what the clinician believes is in the best interest of the patient is what the patient wishes or will consent to  Principles of Medical ethics Respect for individual autonomy − Based on respect for persons, which holds that individual persons have right to make their own choices and develop their own life plan − Translates into the principle of informed consent; You shall not treat a patient without the informed consent of the patient or his or her lawful surrogate, except in narrowly defined exceptions  Cont.. −Every effort must be made to discuss treatment preferences with patients and to document them in the patients’ charts Beneficence & non-maleficence Both principles rest on the fundamental importance of what is in the patient’s interest −Beneficence requires us, other things being equal, to do good or what will further the patient’s interest −Non-maleficence requires us, other things being equal; to avoid harm to the patient or what would be against the patient’s interests  Beneficence Includes; −Prevent the infliction of needless pain −Prevent killing −Prevent incapacitating others  Non maleficence Includes; −Do not kill −Do not cause needless pain −Do not incapacitate others The important point to notice is that each of these principles can be met by doing nothing  Justice Distribution of goods and service, including medical goods and services, fairly The health care provider has a responsibility to be an advocate for the patient within the institutional setting in which he or she practices  Cont.. Health care providers ought to attempt to ensure that patients get what they need Government-owned hospitals should be open to all They ought to grant priority to the economically disadvantaged on the basis of medical need paid for out of general funds