40/'yo | ! . pertet! one of de best rrvisws J have Sarah Gakstatter 5 ueA \ . ; 5 BUN seen classes 4 Philosophy 320 - Unit 3 Review maf I bet a ry Use Subat ‘As part of the Confidentiality Plus unit, the issue of patient autonomy versus physician p (i? 0- yi patcmalism is discussed. Our western healthcare setting considers individual patient autonomy top-priority when determining what should be done for the patient. However, on the grounds of \ ' the principle of beneficence, there are circumstances under which the health care practitioner y we 1 ‘would be deemed ethically and/or legally justified in taking an altemative course of action than y i that which is desired by the patient under the concept of therapeutic privilege. This justificatio F is derived from the principle of informed consent under which “in order for patients to be truly autonomous, they must understand the nature of the condition, the treatment options, and the risks involved” (EHC 389). The problem, though, is it can be difficult to determine whether this justification is present in a given situation, The issue of patient autonomy versus physician paternalism provides a challenge in this unit because there are numerous ways the issue can manifest itself in various senarios, and itis not always easy to determine whether autonomy or paternalism takes priotity in those situations. One of these situations is outlined in Case #7 of Cases in Bioethics (CB 29). This case addresses the paternalism versus autonomy issue when a child is the patient as well as when \ fg) religious beliefs are pat ofthe scenero. In ths case, the parents of aten-month-old boy witha / > J | presumptive diagnosis of leukemia decided to use faith-healing for their child instead of using wt medical measures. Because children are viewed as being incompetent, it is the parents or Ri guardians of the children who are entrusted with making autonomous decisions for their children.) However, ifthe situation jeopardizes the child’s life, the physician could exercise therapeutic privilege on the grounds that the possibility of the child dying classifies as an emergency situation. This would justify the physician’s intervention and allow pateriialismto take priority