It is in the field of ethics, but the writer should be more of a Health Care Ethics professional writer.Try and make the paper bleed on to the fourth page if you can. Some notes from the class are provided. One of the Cases have to be written on and I am going to provide one for you guys to write on. And I will provide the article as it is the most information that is needed to write the paper. If you use my notes which are book notes and the case study there doesn’t have to be a work cited page. If you choose to use other sources there must be a work cited page. Use I statements. If citing someone who works against your claim, make sure to fight it back. Use proper in text citation. 12 point font and double spaced.

Ethical Issues in End of Life Care

Technological advancements that are evolving rapidly in the world have led to healthcare professionals facing multiple challenges entailing ethical dilemmas in the treatment of patients. There has been an issue that is conflicting among the health professionals and patients when it comes to making the best choice. The nurses act as the resource and the advocate to the patient. The ethical decision-making process has been used as tool in solving ethical issues during challenging situations. The principles of healthcare ethics have presented and provided direction while estimating the importance of the ethical decision made by the healthcare profession. These include beneficence, autonomy, justice, and non-maleficence. The health care principles are applied differently according to the situation at hand. It also depends on the condition applied and the law governing to the principle. This paper has focused on the issues such as free decision making, rationing of care in futile treatments and the relevance of advance directives.

Ethical Issues

After realizing that it was difficult for Mr. Stone to recover, Dr. Holmes would consult not only the patient but also his wife who had accompanied him to the hospital.  This is because of the complex network of relationships and the interest of partners including parents and others that are close to them has increased ethical dilemmas due to some bioethics that has emphasized the importance of community and family interests when it comes to decision making.

As a medical professional, Dr. Holmes is concern with cardiac problems associated with Mr. Stone’s health. Through medical advancements, Dr. Holmes believes that through inserting a left ventricular assist with bridge a strategy before a suitable donor is available. Mr. Stone has asked for a LVAD implantation to relieve the burden to his wife.  Through advances in medical science, Mr. Stone was able to survive the surgery but the lung parenchyma had been irreversibly damaged and due to this condition, he would not improve much. However, as a medical profession, he was ethical because he was concern with the survival of the patient and used an implanted life-saving device after an ineligible heart transplant. Evolution in medical sciences has reshaped the circumstances during prolonging lives and during deaths and various ethical issues that have surrounded the caring for life. In this case the ventilator has been used in order to prolong the life of Mr. Stone despite the ineligible heart transplant.

Every living human being is mortal, and hence has no chance to evade death which is inventible. This is the reason that Mr. Stones asked the medical profession to switch of the machine in order to reduce the burden to the people he would leave behind one day because he would not life on the machine forever. However, advancement in treatment have changed the norms of natural death. Through technology, the health professionals have been able to intervene the time of death and also increased the lives of people through prolonged deaths. Medical technologies have been involved in reshaping the circumstances that have been surrounding the natural death to sustain human lives. The health professionals have relied on medical technologies to support life that is less meaningful at an end of life situation. This includes the ventilators and feeding tubes that facilitate life. These medical technologies have offered patients with a secondary support but have given the families and patients a task in choosing treatment preference for the end of life care.

End of Life Issues

Decision making for care in an end of life situation has earned preference because it has the capability of prolonging the human life through support of the medical technologies. For this reason, Dr. Holmes had decided to use the implanted life saving device as a form of care after loss of eligibility of the heart transplant. However, it has led to increased healthcare cost to the individuals and their families causing them to struggle a lot as the sustain the secondary support. Mr. Stone considered the issue of blowing up savings and decided that it was relevant that the machine should be switched off. The end of life care is facing ethical dilemmas because at some point a patient may desire the secondary support whereas it is a struggle to their people. In this case the patient has the right to make decision on whether to prolong death through the medical treatment technologies (Hinshaw 126). Every individual has the right to end life treatment choices which should be respected by the health professionals. However, despite having the limitations has led to another ethical dilemma with respect to using the prognosis and advanced treatment. This is because the health professions have to ensure that the treatment has no effect to the individual it is administered to.

The health care professions have a key role in the offering the patients with detailed information related to the advanced treatment that can be used for life care. This information that is provided by the physicians is used to enhance their understanding on the limitations, drawbacks and benefits of their treatment (Csikai et al. 18). This information may be emotional and cause more stress to then patient. Hence it become an ethical dilemma as to whether to let the patient know or whether they should just keep the information to themselves. Dr. Holmes informed Mr. Stone of what was happening despite the fear that the patient would be emotional with all the hopes that this burden would relieved to his wife. The health profession has the duty of explaining and convincing the patient of the implications as they try to convince them of the consequences in order to be ethical in the provision of the treatment.

Conclusion

Advancement in care planning has led to ethical issues related to end of life care situations. The treatment at the end of life situations have increased healthcare costs and also promotes inequitable healthcare. However, due to the rights of the patient, they can ethically consider the expensive treatment. These treatments have also been a leading factor in undignified and humiliating situations for patients which have then become emotionally burdensome. Decisions on medical treatment have offered sources of conflict between health professions, families and patients with ethical dilemmas between preserving life and acting in a patient’s interest.

Works Cited

Csikai, Ellen L., and Kelli Bass. “Health care social workers’ views of ethical issues, practice, and policy in end-of-life care.” Social Work in Health Care 32.2 (2001): 1-22.

Daher, Michel. “Ethical issues in end-of-life care.” J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 32.1 (2010): 41-43.

Hinshaw, Daniel B. “Ethical issues in end-of-life care.” Le Journal medical libanais. The Lebanese medical journal 56.2 (2008): 122-128.

Truog, Robert D., et al. “Recommendations for end-of-life care in the intensive care unit: The Ethics Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.” Critical care medicine 29.12 (2001): 2332-2348.