This Is Me Now – Final Paper Assignment

Cultural, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Health Care

For FIVE of the topics, write at least 300 words covering each of the following:
• Describe something significant you learned about this topic.
• Based on what you learned this semester, how has your opinion been affected?
• How has your ability to discuss/analyze the cultural, legal, and/or ethical aspects of issues
related to this topic improved?

You must write at least several sentences for each bullet point and your explanations need to be
specific to the topic. In other words, vague responses such as “My opinion really hasn’t been
affected” or “Learning about this has improved my ability to discuss this issue with others” are
not acceptable.

• Autonomy, truth-telling, and confidentiality

• Something significant I learned: This was one of my favorite units. I liked learning about

the different cases and decisions. Everyone’s opinion can be so different on this topic.

This topic is brought up a lot in healthcare for choices. For this topic, I don’t think I

could have a set opinion because it would depend on the situation and all the people

involved. I learned that patients making their own decision can improve their quality of

life. The story about Dax Cowart was my favorite from this unit. It really showed that

the person that makes the choices change the patient’s life. Dax suffered severe burns

and was forced to undergo treatment for them. He wasn’t allowed to choose the care he

wanted. Dax wanted the doctors to let him die but they wouldn’t do that. Dax’s mother

was chosen to make the decisions for Dax. In the end, he didn’t blame her, he blamed the

doctors that put her in that position. Now, he is happy that he is alive but if it were to

happen again, he wishes that he would get to choose how his life goes.

• How my opinion has been affected: I don’t know if my opinion has been affected much

after this unit. Now I definitely think that it would depend on the situation for who

decides what. For adolescents, I do think that the parents get to decide because they are

the child’s guardian for a reason. If the parents is clearly showing that they aren’t making

the right choices then I guess my answer would change.

 • How my ability to discuss/analyze has improved: I think that for this topic I would be

okay with discussing and analyzing. I could discuss this topic with others. Autonomy is

pretty straight forward to an extent and I think that now that I know more about it, I

would be able to discuss it pretty well.

• Reproductive control

• Something significant I learned: One of the most significant things I learned from this

unit was about Ruby Torres. Her case was so important and brought lots of attention to
embryos. Ruby and her soon-to-be husband created embryos that they didn't know would

be a problem later on. A few years after they got married, they decided to get divorced

and a fight for the embryos started. Ruby wanted to be a mother but her ex-husband

didn't want to be a father with her. They went to court and kept going back. In the end,

Ruby doesn't get to keep the embryos and she is hoping that someone else will get to

have them. There are so many different ways of reproduction. Egg donation was one

thing that I hadn't thought about before this unit also. Sperm donation is talked about

more, but egg donation isn't as well known. I thought that it was very interesting to learn

about egg donation and the costs of it all. Before this unit, I had never thought this much

about reproduction control. I had never thought that people go through this trial and it is

so real.

• How my opinion has been affected: My opinion has definitely improved on this topic. I

didn't have much of an opinion before the research and talking with people before this

unit. I knew that reproduction control was important but I didn't know how much it

changed people's lives. I've learned that I have to do more research on all perspectives

before forming an opinion on something.

• How my ability to discuss/analyze has improved: After talking with my mom and reading

more about this topic, I had a better understanding of how to discuss this topic. I had a

better understanding of reproductive control and the different technology that is available.
 My mom and dad tried a lot of different ways to have a baby. It took them 4 years to have

my older brother and then 6 more years to have me. When talking with my mom about

this, I gained a new perspective on how important this topic is in people's lives. It can

take a very significant toll on people.

• Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide

• Something significant I learned: Learning about euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide

was my favorite unit. Even though it was a lot of work, I really like watching the movies
and learning about the different patients that were considered and went through

euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide. I really liked watching, “How to die in Oregon.” I

thought that it was really interesting that it is legal there and so many people want it

legalized in more places in the US. In some ways, from the family's perspective of the

patient, I think it is unfair to take your life away from them but that may seem selfish on

their end as well.

• How my opinion has been affected: My opinion changed so many times while watching

these movies. At first, I thought that I was very against it. After watching the videos and

seeing all of the perspectives of the patients, my opinion changed a little. I am still

against it and would only use it for very extreme cases. I still don’t think that it should be

used for mental health issues or if a patient isn’t terminally ill. I don’t like Belgium’s rule

about the patient determining their pain or non-wanting to live. Cody’s case changed my

mind a little about the topic. She was so free to decide when and where she wanted to do

it and if she wanted to do it at all. I loved that she had the freedom to decide for herself.

She wanted to do it when she could still do some things but before she felt she was a

burden on her family.

• How my ability to discuss/analyze has improved: For this topic, I don’t know how well I

would be able to discuss it. I feel like I know a lot but not enough to discuss and analyze

in a big discussion. But I have learned a lot from this class about it. I know a lot more
 now than I did before. So I feel like my discussion abilities are okay for this topic but

could be better.

• Health care for people of color, LGBTQ+

• Something significant I learned: My favorite thing from this unit was finding an article

and analyzing it. The article I found was about a girl that had a terrible experience at an

urgent care. I was shocked at her situation with the health care workers. She was treated

awful. People should never be racist. Even in health care, employees are supposed to do
everything they can for the patient. The patient should always come first. I learned that

everyone has feelings and that no one wants to be treated like that. I understand if a

healthcare worker is having a bad day but that doesn’t mean they need to take it out on

the patient.

• How my opinion has been affected: I don’t think my opinion has changed much. Before

the unit I didn’t think that racisim and discrimination against LGBTQ+ was okay. I still

don’t think it is okay now, after the unit. A patient’s treatment should never be change or

depend on the color of the skin. It doesn’t matter because they are still human and

deserve the care that is provided for everyone. Some people are just racist and thats

never okay and they shouldn’t bring that into their work life. I try my best to be kind to

everyone. Even if I am having a bad day, I always make sure I greet the patient and smile

at them. I want them to feel safe in the OR and know that we are going to do our very

best to get them better. The patient is at their most vulnerable and they are trusting

healthcare workers to help them. It doesn’t help them is when employees are rude and

racist.

• How my ability to discuss/analyze has improved: I think my discussion skills have

improved for this topic after learning more about it. I feel more comfortable talking

about it. I think that I could do well discussing this topic with others now.
• Those with AIDS/HIV

• Something significant I learned: From the video, I learned that HIV is a lot more serious

that I previously thought. It can spread like crazy and it can make you very sick if not

treated correctly. People in third world countries could get it more because they don’t

have as much access to treatment or help. I also learned about all the rules and laws. I

didn’t know those even existed before this unit. I thought it was insane how these rules

can be seen as discriminating and also helping keep people safe. In the video, an

example was shared about a man who had to do mandatory blood testing. Shortly after,
he was deported out of the country without explanation. It was because he was HIV

positive. The country that he was in didn’t want anyone positive with HIV in the country

to prevent the spread. I think that it is good to have rules like this. It keeps everyone safe

and healthy. However, they needed to give the man notice and explanation of what the

blood tests were for, and why he was being deported. There should have been a lot more

communication going on throughout that process.

• How my opinion has been affected: I didn’t know much about this topic before this class.

I’m not sure what my opinion was before learning about it because I didn’t think about it.

When I first started the module with the TedTalk, I was a little confused. My opinion kept

changing while watching that video. Now, I think that all rules are there to keep us safe

and people will feel discriminated no matter what. There has to be rules to organize

everything. I do think that the rules regarding HIV, could be altered a little and take in

mind a little more empathy for the people who actually suffer from the virus.

• How my ability to discuss/analyze has improved: My discussion and analyzation skills

have improved for this topic. Before this class I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Now I feel I have a little more knowledge on the topic and would be okay carrying a

discussion about it.

The overall impact this class has had on me (300+ words): I learned so much from this class. I
feel like I know a lot more about health care. I work in health care and am in the OR all day.

Some of these topics, I haven’t encountered yet but I am sure that I will. One thing I’ve taken

from this class was that I wish people were nicer to each other. I wish that people would have

more empathy and compassion. The world would be such a better place. Unfortunately, this is a

difficult thing to accomplish for some reason. It only takes one person to make a difference. A

lot of the topics that we learned in this class, I hadn’t learned about before. This was a good thing

because I think that an ethics class is a good place to learn from. I liked learning all of the

different perspectives from everyone else. Sometimes it is hard for me to share my opinion.
Especially with people I don’t know. The discussion boards were a good way to get me out of

my comfort zone and get me talking about my opinions. My favorite part was learning about all

of the different people in the class and how everyone thinks about things. My discussion skills

have definitely improved after taking this class. Even though this class was online, it gave me

more knowledge about topics I can discuss with others I interact with at work. I think my

favorite thing to learn about this class was the euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. I didn’t

know much about it before the unit and was excited to watch the movies. I loved seeing all of

the patients and hearing all of their stories and perspectives. I liked that the movie wasn’t just

one perspective trying to persuade you to one opinion about euthanasia. I learned a lot from this

class and I am very glad that I took it!

The link to my ePortfolio where I have posted my paper:  https://alliehechtle.weebly.com/hs-

2050.html