Physician-Assisted Suicides, Doctor-Patient Confidentiality, and Patient

Autonomy

Introduction

The healthcare sector is faced with many ethical issues that have to be given at most

considerations when making decisions. Some of the ethical issues include; assisted suicide,

patient-doctor confidentiality, and autonomy. Assisted suicide refers to the help given to a

patient that leads to intentional death. The act is done when the patient is suffering from an

incurable disease. Patient doctor confidentiality refers to protecting the patient's vital

information, while patient's autonomy refers to the patients' right to make medical decisions on

his or her own without being influence by the physician. Therefore, medical professionals should

strictly adhere to ethical, legal values and apply the relevant theories to solve the dilemmas in

their daily lives.

The Case

The case discussed is a situation in a workplace where Janet, a coworker, disturbs the

others with loud gospel music from her phone. Janet does not understand that the workers have

the right to work in a peaceful environment free from any form of pollution, including noise.

Therefore, there is a need to observe ethical values when at the workplace, where one has to

respect the rights and values of the other colleagues.

The Ethical Dilemma

There are ethical issues that arise from the ethical dilemmas discussed in week three. The

dilemmas include;

Patient-Doctor Confidentiality
 The patient is entitled to the right to safeguard the patient's private information as long as

the patient does not permit to expose. For instance, there may be a scenario where the doctor has

to reveal the patient's medical condition to the family members or the other doctors to facilitate

further treatment. In such a case, the doctor is found in a dilemma of deciding whether to abide

by the patient's privacy law or disclose information that will help heal the patient.

Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide raises a lot of ethical issues in the medical profession. For instance, the

main aim of medical practitioners is to protect life. However, the doctor is involved in an ethical

dilemma on whether to adhere to the patient's autonomy or the profession's ethics.

Application of Ethical Theory

Utilitarian

utilitarian insinuates that the action that produces more satisfaction to most people should

be taken(Scarre,2020). However, it is not easy to please everyone, especially when a dilemma

has to be solved. For instance, the decision-maker has to consider the number of people affected

by a given decision. The decision of Janet to use loud music in the workplace undermines the

rights of the other workers. Janet could have considered the feelings and welfare of the other

members instead of considering her pleasure.

Virtues

Virtue theory refers to the judgment given to a person based on the character known by

others. For instance, to judge Janet's behavior, the last character before she bought the phone

could cause the current unacceptable behavior.

Deontology
 Deontology theory explains the choices that are made by different people, especially in

the workplace. For instance, people have to consider moral values that will benefit the whole

society. Thus, the theory helps mold an individual into a responsible person who is ready to

abide by the community's will (Goldsmith and Burton, 2017). the theory was applicable at the

workplace, where a proper decision was to be taken to deal with Janet, who did not seem to care

about the welfare of the other workmates. For instance, refusing to listen to music during

working hours is not unethical, as Janet insinuated.

The Law and the Code of Ethics

The Nelson V. Colorado case is one of the few cases where the law and the code of

conduct breach were witnessed. For instance, the judges should be on the front line to protect the

individuals' rights based on the law. For instance, nelson was convicted for assaulting the four

children. He was imprisoned for 20 years and slapped with a fine of $8,192.50 to cater to the

costs of the case proceedings. It is not lawful for the perpetrator to be responsible for the costs of

the case proceedings. Therefore, it was unethical to fine nelson that sum of money since it meant

his property was misused.

Potential Solutions and Impacts

Ethical and legal issues remain a challenge to many people, especially in workplaces such

as in courts and healthcare facilities (Nittari et al., 2020). The only solutions to the ethical

dilemmas that exist are to consider the right of an individual. Therefore, the law should be

revised to give room for the decision of the patient to be used in solving ethical dilemmas. For

instance, during euthanasia, the patient's will should be respected and used as the framework for

administering medications. However, there could be some patients who may misuse the powers
subjected to them. For example, if a lady wants to abort, the doctors should not abide by the laws

than give the patient autonomy.

Regarding privacy issues in the workplace, the administrator must be granted the right to

monitor the workers. In this case, the manager has to involve technology to help solve the

privacy issues. For instance, the manager can only monitor the workers through online platforms

instead of physically accessing the employee's rooms.

Decision

Assisted death should not only be based on the decision of the patient. For instance, when

patients undergo challenging times, they will eventually get well in the real sense. It is not wise

to base euthanasia decisions on the will of the patients. the patient has no medical knowledge to

determine whether a specific condition will heal or not. As a result, doctors should be given the

right to decide whether euthanasia can be applied or not. In the legal case of Nelson, the court

should not charge the offenders the costs of the case proceedings, but the government should

incur the cost. It does not make sense that sentencing someone while making them pay a huge

fine is unethical. To conclude, ethical and legal issues have to be given priority before making

any legal decisions that have adverse effects on people.

 References

Nittari, G., Khuman, R., Baldoni, S., Pallotta, G., Battineni, G., Sirignano, A., ... & Ricci, G. (2020).

Telemedicine practice: a review of the current ethical and legal challenges. Telemedicine and e-

Health, 26(12), 1427-1437.

Scarre, G. (2020). Utilitarianism. Routledge.

Goldsmith, J., & Burton, E. (2017, February). Why teaching ethics to AI practitioners is essential. In

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 31, No. 1).