Ethical Theories in Health and Social Care

Introduction
Human values that are ought to be respected by each and every individual working
within the health and social area, are often known as ethics. These should be considered
while interrelating with communities, families and even individuals. Ethics, at times is
thought to be a term that initiate the feeling of being accused of mistakes or wrongdoing or
even malpractice, specially when it comes to professionals working in the healthcare sector,
then again it is nothing of that sort (Holland, 2015). The paper below explores different
ethical theories with regards to the social and healthcare sector.
Ethical Theories
There are two ethical theories, which are most relevant towards the health and social
care deontology and utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the theory which considers an act
morally correct if it is for the greater good of the population. The utilitarianism theory
neglects the individual rights of the people while taking into account the vast majority to be
of utmost importance. On the other hand, the deontology focuses on the manner in which
things are carried out rather than concentrating on the outcomes. This ethical theory embraces
its principal and respects the basic rights, the right to privacy, fulfilling promising, truth. The
theory of deontology focus upon the wrongness or rightness of an act (Doherty, and Purtilo,
2015).
Ethical Principles
Confidentiality and Truthfulness
Two notions, which health and social care practitioners work with commonly in their
day to day routines are confidentiality and truthfulness. The confidentiality concept impulses
the practitioners to secrecy, which means the information or knowledge that an individual has
the obligation or a right to hide or cover. For instance, if a family of an individual who is
suffering from HIV stresses a nurse or doctor to give them the test result, he or she should
refrain from doing so until the patient himself allows it (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, and
Korhonen, 2015).
On the other hand, truthfulness is just coming out with the simple truth to the person
who has the right to know. For instance, an individual has taken a test for HIV and the
medical practitioner has been informed about it. If the person comes and asks about the result
of the test he or she has taken, the doctor or nurse must give them the truth, regardless of how
upsetting it is for the person (Marckmann, Schmidt, Sofaer, and Strech, 2015).
Autonomy
Autonomy refers to the people’s right to independence, self-determination and
freedom to being able to choose what they want. With regards to the healthcare context, the
autonomy concept is the doctors and nurses understanding of the ethical obligation that the
patient has the right to make decisions with regards to their own health (Kangasniemi,
Pakkanen, and Korhonen, 2015). The autonomy of a patient is ought to be respected devoid
of the fact that the medical practitioner does not agree with his/her decision. Nevertheless,
certain conditions are there within which the right of autonomy or personal choice possibly
will be restricted, for the reason that it involves a concern for the societal wellbeing. For
example, if an individual is diagnosed with tuberculosis, the patient or patients might be
required to take prescribed medication as well as would need to be isolated in order to
prevent the spreading of the disease’s infectious agents (Chadwick, and Gallagher, 2016).
Informed consent
The term informed consent means that every person that has to or will go under any
medical procedure are ought to give their consent for the test or procedure. To have the
patient fully informed, the medical practitioner, doctor or nurse, should explain the patient
clearly what the procedure is about, what is involved in the procedure, in addition to what
might happen if the procedure is not carried out (McLean, 2016). This is implied in most of
the work related to the healthcare practitioner’s day to day tasks. For example, if a mother
brings her child to get vaccinated, it is necessary to have informed consent for the fact that
the doctor or nurse is performing a procedure which will have benefits but also has side-
effects. On the other hand, bringing the child in for the procedure to be carried out is also in
itself consent (Marckmann, Schmidt, Sofaer, and Strech, 2015).
Beneficence and Non-maleficence
The phrase beneficence explains about the consideration of doing good for your
patient, for instance providing immunization. However, the non-maleficence concept
revolves around the concept of “do no harm,” whether unintentionally or intentionally to the
patients, for instance not deserting the patients who needs medical attention (Doherty, and
Purtilo, 2015). On the other hand, certain circumstances are there within which it becomes
impossible to avoid doing any harm and do good all at once. For instance, one is not able to
always avoid doing harm, for instance, if a patient is suffering from a disease that is
communicable comes within the premises, the nurse or doctor would most probably suggest
to isolate the individuals carrying the infectious disease agents, even if its against their will,
in order to prevent the disease from spreading further (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, and
Korhonen, 2015).
Justice
This is a very intricate ethical code as it involves impartiality, equality, and fairness,
in varied terms, this ethical code is linked towards being fair to each and every individual that
comes to seek medical help in a healthcare institution. There are basically two branches of
justice in healthcare context, social justice and distributive justice (Holland, 2015). The
distributive justice relates to people owning the right to being treated with equality
irrespective of their ethnicity, age, culture, marital status, gender, social standing, medical
diagnosis, religious or political beliefs, economic level as well as any other individual
characteristics. On the other hand, social justice is related to the equitable rights application
to participation and access within all services and goods aspects that are provided within the
society, unrelatedly of the individual characteristics, and health practitioners are urged to
carry out both of these forms of justice through empowerment and inclusion (Post, and
Blustein, 2015).
References
Chadwick, R. and Gallagher, A., 2016. Ethics and nursing practice. Macmillan International
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Doherty, R.F. and Purtilo, R.B., 2015. Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions-E-Book.
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Holland, S., 2015. Public health ethics. John Wiley & Sons.
Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P. and Korhonen, A., 2015. Professional ethics in nursing: an
integrative review. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(8), pp.1744-1757.
Marckmann, G., Schmidt, H., Sofaer, N. and Strech, D., 2015. Putting public health ethics
into practice: a systematic framework. Frontiers in public health, 3, p.23.
McLean, S.A. ed., 2016. First do no harm: Law, ethics and healthcare. Routledge.
Post, L.F. and Blustein, J., 2015. Handbook for health care ethics committees. JHU Press.