Week 8

Ethics and
Health Care
Chapter 9
 • Explain the ethical principles that are
important to the health care provider.
Learning
Objectives • Summarize the rights Canadians have
with respect to health care.
 Ethical • Ethical principles provide guidance for decision
Copyright © 2020 by Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Principles
making and form the basis of ethical study.
• Principles that are relevant to health care:

and the
• Beneficence
• Nonmaleficence
• Double effect

Health • Respect
• Autonomy

Care • Truthfulness
• Fidelity
• Justice
Profession
 Patients’
Copyright © 2020 by Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

• Rights in health care are things that can and

should be expected of health care providers and

Rights the health care system.

• Rights may be tangible or intangible.

in
• All Canadians have explicit rights to health care
itself and the right to timely health care.
• Rights within health care include:

Health
• Patients’ right to their own medical records
• The right to confidentiality concerning their
health affairs

Care
• The right to informed consent
Copyright © 2020 by Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

• If a patient has a right within health

Duties care or to health care, for the most
part, the health care professional has
the duty to grant that right.
and • To fulfill one’s duty to honour
patients’ rights, the health care

Rights professional must either act to carry

out a responsibility or refrain from
acting or interfering in a situation.
 • The principle of autonomy serves as the basis
Copyright © 2020 by Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

for the principles involved in informed consent

and self-determination regarding treatment

Autonomy choices.
• Attitudes toward patient autonomy have

and the changed over the years – health care has shifted
from being physician-directed (paternalistic) to
patient-centred.

Patient • This attitude change has resulted in a revised

version of the Hippocratic Oath (see Box 9.1, p.
255, in the textbook).
Copyright © 2020 by Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

• All patients have a right to the

truth, and health care providers
have a duty to provide it.
Truthfulness • The modern, patient-focused
approach to treatment requires
physicians to keep the patient fully
and truthfully informed.
 Parental • When a patient is considered an
Copyright © 2020 by Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

adult, self-determination takes

Rights, precedence over paternalistic

intervention, even when the patient’s
life is at stake.
Ethics, • When children are involved and
parents reject medical intervention,

and the the provincial or territorial courts

almost always obtain legal custody
for the child and allow the

Law recommended treatment.

Week 8 Housekeeping

• Week 8 Discussion
• Video on treating Canada’s health care system
• Quiz 3 (Online, 10 Multiple Choice Questions)