Beneficence and Non-Maleficence Essay

Introduction

The first journal entry on beneficence and non-maleficence presents a scenario of a twenty-five-year-old pregnant woman with a uterus cancer. The woman is expectant of her first child. However, to curb the spread of the cancerous cells, the uterus of the woman must be removed. Removing the uterus of the woman would nonetheless result in an abortion, which means losing her first baby. The scenario presents a dilemma. However, the double effects in the scenario will be helping the mother of the baby to survive and in the process lose her baby. It is ethically okay to save the life of the mother by removing the uterus. Removal of the uterus through surgery will help in saving cost and suffering to the woman.

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Therefore, in honor of the principle of beneficence, which requires the healthcare practitioners to always relieve pain at the best of their ability, it will be a good practice to remove the uterus of the woman. However, on the other hand, removing the uterus of the woman presented in the scenario would cause her more pain taking into account the current pregnancy is her first. Thus, removal of the uterus will mean the woman will no longer be able to carry a child on her own. However, depending on the level of infection of the cancerous cells, ovaries and the fallopian tube may not be removed. In the situation that they are not removed, the woman would still have other options of getting a baby of her own through the surrogate mothers. However, on the possibility that all the ovaries will be removed, it is still necessary to undertake the surgery as failure to do so would increase the risk of the mother and her child.

The removal of the uterus is the best option for the woman. The other option available for the treatment of the woman, on the non-maleficence side, is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy has adverse side effects to the patient. The side effects of chemotherapy include the loss of hair and nausea. These effects are often visible may lower the self-esteem of the patient. Thus, in such situations, the principle of double effects often apply. The principle states that if doing something which is morally good has a negative side. Then, it is always ethically right to do so provided the negative side was not the intended motive. According to Sanders (2015), the doctrine of double effects always applies even in the situations where the effects of the negative side can be foreseen as in the case of the woman. Therefore, the actions are justifiable by the principle of beneficence as it takes into account the welfare of the woman in question and her survival chances. The most important goal in the scenario presented is the life of the woman with cancerous cells. Therefore, her welfare is important. To best protect her welfare and her life while ensuring she maintains her high self-esteem, a surgery to remove her uterus is the best option.

Confidentiality

There are various issues presented in the passage. These issues involve the genetic inheritance and the family tree. The passage presents the situation of a young man who has confirmed that he will develop the Huntington's disease as the lab tests have turned out to be positive. The Huntington's disease is a fatal genetic disorder. The disease causes a progressive breakdown of the nerve cells found in the brain. As a result, it deteriorates the physical as well as mental abilities of an individual during their most active years. Unfortunately, all the research that has been undertaken to find the cure for the disease have turned out to be futile.

The Huntington's disease is a quintessential family disease with every child of any parent having the disease; there is always an equal probability of these children inheriting and carrying these faulty genes. Thus, in the situation presented. The newly married man being a carrier need to inform his family of his situation. However, considering his request. Doctors must act under the principle of confidentiality to protect his condition. Nonetheless, it must also be noted that the patient has a twin brother. Depending on the type of twins they are, there are high chances that the twin brother is also a carrier of the faulty gene. Ethically, the doctors ought to find a way of making the twin brother aware of his situation beforehand.

The given situation also presents a situation of a dilemma to the healthcare provider involved. The family of the man needs to be informed of the impending medical situation of the newly married man to enable the wife to decide on whether to continue with their marriage or not. Since for the Huntington's disease, the children of the two couples may or may not be affected. However, looking into other healthcare principles such as justice. Every healthcare decision must always entail elements of fairness. The fairness aspect must always be visible in every decision as well as the resulting treatments using the scarce resources.

Thus, taking this principle into account, it will be ethically wrong for the healthcare practitioner involved the young man's case in keeping the information from his family members as well as his twin brother since the condition involve all the family members. Under the principle of justice, it is believed that every human being has equal moral worth. Thus, all the family members of the young man must be treated equally to him. Equal treatment in such situations usually requires the burden of proof which has been provided for by the results of the young man's tests. The principle of justice in healthcare practices also requires a fair distribution of the health outcomes across the societies. This principle often calls for health equity for every member as opposed to what the young man is asking for (Williams & Pigeot, 2017). The impending situation also involves the principle of proportionality which requires one to outweigh the pros and cons of any decision that is to be made in the in the healthcare sector regarding its health benefits. The young man's request has adverse health effects and would conflict with the principle of proportionality.

Role Fidelity

Fidelity is a principle within the healthcare sector which requires the practitioners to practice loyalty, truthfulness, dedication, as well as advocacy while dealing with their patients. The principle involves an agreement to keep to the ethics of the healthcare sector (Ikram, Whittingham & Seale, 2017). The concept is based on the virtue of caring while keeping a given commitment. In the journal entry, a situation is presented of a reactive woman without an idea of her situation. As an interpreter, the woman ought to learn of her situation. However, the information must be passed to the woman ensuring fidelity is taken into account.

First, the woman ought to be taken through the counseling sessions and be prepared psychologically before breaking the news. A counseling session will help know the expected reactions of the woman as well as her actions after receiving the news on her health status. The counseling session will help offer appropriate guidance on the recommended lifestyles and practices that the woman needs to start practicing with her status. With regards to truthfulness as an aspect of role fidelity, the woman will need to be informed of the truth about what killed her husband. Telling her the truth will help avoid torments that may arise as a result of her trying to figure out where she got infected.

Apart from role fidelity, other healthcare principles such as confidentiality and beneficence come into play. The status of the woman needs to be kept private. Thus, breaking the information to her will require us to get into a private room, take her through the guidance and counseling sessions informing her of how she can lead a healthy life by taking the Anti-Retroviral Drugs which will help her stay healthy and reduce the chances of her passing the drug to others. The drugs are recommended to help in keeping the viral load low thus preventing the spread of the virus as a result. The woman needs to be assured that her status will remain confidential between her and the health care center where she has been diagnosed.

The assurance process will be done during the guidance and counseling sessions with the woman. The principle of beneficence which requires the healthcare practitioners to have the welfare of their patients as their main goal will also be essential during the process of breaking the health information to the patient. The effects of learning that her husband betrayed her and lied to her about his HIV status must be considered before breaking the news. The woman must also be made aware of the stigma that comes with her condition. She must also be informed of how to carry herself in such situations to avoid getting hurt.

Teen Pregnancy

Kate

Considering the present situation in which Kate is in, it would be wise to carry out an abortion. Morally, people will tend to judge the action as bad. However, with Kate's New York University scholarship at stake, and this is one opportunity that she had been looking forward to her entire life, she would not want to miss this because of the pregnancy. From the way John is speaking, he intentionally impregnated Kate to prevent her from going to New York University. It is also clear that he intends to intimidate Kate by bringing to the attention of the whole class that he Kate is pregnant with his babe which she intends to do away with. John does not take into account the stigmatization that he is yet to put Kate through.

To Kate, the end justifies the means. Her main focus, as well as interest, is going to study at New York University. She is ready to do away with anything that would get into her way and prevent her from pursuing her lifelong dream of studying at the New York University. She is not a believer of the deontological perspective of the moral laws. She, however, believes in the utilitarianism theory. She is more concerned about her happiness than the moral, ethical standards of the society. She, however, gives hope to John of a possibility that they would have a family together and bore many children without considering the consequences of the procedure and the possible implications.

Kate Utilitarian

Utilitarianism is considered as one of the best and most influential moral theories in various sectors across the globe. The core idea of this theory is on the effects of the process. The theory does not take into account the consideration of the actions that lead to the final effects (Gawronski & Beer, 2017). The action may be considered as right or wrong morally by individuals. The theory has been widely used in the healthcare sector. Utilitarian principle borrows its idea from the theory. Thus, in Kate's situation, her ultimate goal is joining New York University. She does not, however, intend to be admitted to the university while pregnant. Therefore, using the Utilitarian approach, she has fixed her mind to procure an abortion which her boyfriend John is against. However, she does not care about John's advice who has tried to convince her otherwise to ensure she changes her mind not to undergo the procedure. Jamie, on the other hand, sees no problem with what Kate is yet to undertake. She is also in support of the effects of the procedure which would see her best friend Kate gets admission to the scholarship to New York University which she was awarded. Based on their approach to the situation, the two friends Jamie and Kate focuses on the effects and not the action. They fail to consider the moral as well as legal implications involved in the process. From the discussion, they have also not informed their parents of what Kate is yet to undergo.

References

Gawronski, B., & Beer, J. S. (2017). What makes moral dilemma judgments "utilitarian" or...