Applying the Normative Method of Ethical Principles to Informed Consent for Decision-Making in Surgery.
Normative approaches to ethical decision-making are integral in healthcare ethics since they establish procedures, rules, and regulations that should be applied to determine informed consent.
Outline
- Introduction
Historical analysis in the health care sector has proved that different methods of moral justification are vital because they set principles, which should be followed especially when handling patients[1]. These methods ensure that health care professionals adhere to rules on how they should conduct their operations because they ensure efficient delivery of services. Patients also receive appropriate treatments since all their needs are handled systematically as high standards of professionalism are observed. Specifically, these methods have gradually evolved to various normative ethical decision-making techniques, which have enhanced healthcare delivery[2]. Normative methods of ethical decision-making are integral in healthcare ethics since they establish procedures, rules, and regulations that should be applicable to determine informed consent.
Thesis
– Normative methods to ethical decision-making are integral in healthcare ethics since they establish procedures, rules, and regulations that should be applied to determine informed consent.
- Normative Principles for Decision-Making in Healthcare.
- a. Autonomy. Patients should have the right to make their own decisions while physicians should provide the right environment for them to do so.
- b. Beneficence & non-maleficence. Beneficence focuses on removing harm in an effort to benefit others while non-maleficence focuses on not doing harm[3].
- c. Professional-Patient Relationship- The relationship is fundamental to the therapeutic process and should be dependent on trust.
- Components of Informed Consent.
- a. Capacity for Autonomous Choice. The ability to make independent judgment pertaining to a medical condition should be pegged on the law and an individual’s capability to understand the ensuing dynamics.
- b. Disclosure. Should be based on the rules of confidentiality and the need to avoid harm on the parties involved[4].
- b. Understanding & Voluntariness. Valuing one’s role as a client/patient or physician leads to an intentional and structured process that acknowledges consent[5].
- Decision-making in Surgery.
- a. Applying HCE Principles to decision-making in surgery. The principles will enhance patient comprehension and autonomy.
- b. Applying Informed Consent to decision-making in surgery. Informed consent serves ethical, administrative and legal roles.
- Conclusion.
- Bibliography of Sources Cited and Endnotes
Bibliography
Albert R. Jonsen. A Short History of Medical Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press,
2008.
Jeremy Sugarman and Daniel P. Sulmasy. Methods in Medical Ethics. Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press, 2010. Chapters 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 17, 18.
Top of Form
Pera, Angelina and Tonder S. Susara. Ethics in Health Care. Lansdowne, South Africa: Juta, 2005.
Bottom of Form
Sade, Robert M. The ethics of surgery: conflicts and controversies. New York, Oxford
University Press, 2015.
[1] Albert R. Jonsen. A Short History of Medical Ethics. (New York: Oxford University Press,
2008).
[2] Jeremy Sugarman and Daniel P. Sulmasy. Methods in Medical Ethics. Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press, 2010. Chapters 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 17, 18.
[3] Pera, Angelina and Tonder S. Susara. Ethics in Health Care. (Lansdowne, South Africa: Juta, 2005) 33.
[4] Pera, Angelina and Tonder S. Susara. Ethics in Health Care. (Lansdowne, South Africa: Juta, 2005) 33.
[5] Sade, Robert M. The ethics of surgery: conflicts and controversies. (New York, Oxford
University Press, 2015) 115.
