CASE STUDY: TO LIE OR NOT

CASE STUDY: TO LIE OR NOT

Jose is 17 years old diagnosed with brain tumour 5 years ago. Jose was in and out of the hospital. He was found of be very happy and friendly. He is an A student and loves science and want to be a doctor “so I can save other kids”.

Last week he came with his family to the emergency department with weakness and stomach pain. After series of tests, it was found that the cancer returned and metastatic to other parts of his body. During a team meeting with the parents Jose was at school that day the physician highlights that no cure has been promised but more palliative care approach is recommended.

Jose’s Parents (Jack and Lin) are successful businesspeople who found this to be a difficult experience. They have been fighting a lot in front of the nurses and Jose. During that team not to divulge to Jose that his cancer is terminal.

The mother said, ‘IF HE WILL KNOW THAT HIS IS DYING, I KNOW IT WILL DEVASTATE HIM”. The father asked to keep Jose in the oncology unit and not to move him to the palliative care he said “I know he will figure out that he is dying so lets pretend the pain medication you give is his chemotherapy”.  It cost around $2000 a day to the Canadian health are system to keep a patient in an acute oncology unit.

Questions

What value or ethical dilemma  IN THE CASE STUDY stood out for you? Thinking about this, can you connect to an ethical dilemma that you faced from your experience as a nurse or in your life in general. Share your story focusing on the values that guided you in working through it.

Focusing on the value of “not lying” veracity (truth telling), out of the three moral theories  Virtue Ethics, Deontology, and Utilitarianism , which ONE is most important in supporting the value of veracity or not supporting veracity and Why?

Based on the moral theory you selected in question 2, what are the challenges of using this one theory? Why?