Legality and Healthcare Ethnicity

Every community has its own set of norms that it adheres to in order to live a morally pure existence; these are the ethical rules. To avoid penalty, when entering a certain community, one must closely adhere to the rules (Toomey et al., 2014). Nonetheless, there are legal regulations that regulate all individuals and assist people in adhering to a good code of behavior. As a result, the purpose of this article is to summarize a case study and outline some of the ethical and legal issues that arise.

A number of questions arise from the case study that are worth investigating. Firstly, what should be done for Janet and her parents and on which grounds? To my opinion, Janet’s parents should leave her at the hospital so that the doctors can take good care of her while she is pregnant (Buchmueller et al., 2016). This is a decision to make because she is pregnant and it is not fair for her to lose her baby who is just some weeks old.

Secondly, what values underline the statute making a pregnant woman’s healthcare treatment declarations of “no effect” while pregnant? Therefore, the values that underline this statute are the values of life for the unborn baby who needs proper care and Janet who is in need of treatment.

The third question is whether I agree or disagree with this statute, and what ground? I fully agree with the statute and on the ground that, it is better to save the life of the unborn baby rather than lose both of them (Toomey et al., 2014). Taking Janet to the hospice unit is simply the same as accepting to lose them yet everyone should possess their right to live.

The next question is that, what decision would you be making as Janet’s parental surrogate, and why? As her parental surrogate, I would decide that we leave Janet at the hospital due to her pregnancy although her directive was indicating that she be taken to the hospice unit in such a condition. (Farmer et al., 2014)

The last question asks whether Janet’s fetus needs to have a surrogate or not, and the reason. The answer is yes, and the reason is that the fetus is already a person and nobody can neglect it its rights.

Summary, Legal and Ethical Issues

Basing on this case study, there are some legal and ethical aspects that arise from it. Some of the legal aspects are the rights of the woman called Janet and her unborn baby. When Janet gets an accident and her husband dies, they took her to hospital to help save her life (Buchmueller et al., 2016). When the doctors discover that Janet may not easily recover, another issue arises that she is pregnant. Considering the life of the unborn baby, the doctor decides that Janet will remain in hospital so that she can undergo surgery. All these activities take place in order to save life and which is everyone’s legal right. On the other hand, there are also some ethical issues. Janet gives a directive that when her condition worsens in hospital, it will be better take her to a hospice unit (Farmer et al., 2014). Therefore, her parents do not want to go against their daughter and they make a decision that they will do her will. They even spend a night without sleeping, just thinking of the whole issue.

There are many ethical principles in the case study. One of them is autonomy, which is the capacity to allow a patient to make decisions independently concerning their treatment and care. In addition to that, freedom, which is the ability to identify the technique of treatment to use, is another principle that arises from the study (Toomey et al., 2014). Next is beneficence, which is the expectation a patient has that the nurse will do good. Another principle is non-malfeasance, which involves protecting patient from harmful circumstances. Also, veracity, which involves providing truthful information to the patient is a key principle worth to be applied. This principle goes hand in hand with confidentiality, which is the right to privacy. Finally, fidelity as a principle is an expectation that the nurse will remain faithful and apply justice in which the nurses are obliged to treat each patient fairly.

All these principles apply in this case study. First, autonomy applies where Janet gives a directive to her parents on what to do to her when her health worsens and they abide by it. Secondly, she has freedom when she personally decides that the nurses should take her to a hospice unit. Beneficence applies here too, where the nurses treat Janet when she involves herself in an accident. Moreover, the nurses do not want to harm her when they decide to leave her at the hospital rather than taking her to a hospice unit hence practicing non-malfeasance. Another principle that the nurses practice here is veracity (Buchmueller et al., 2016). They accomplish this when they give Janet the true information that her health is not in good condition and when she informs her parents that she is pregnant. The resident physician further becomes confidential when he does not reveal to anyone that Janet is pregnant and later informs the doctor. In addition to that, the nurses remain faithful to Janet and parents when they tell them that they do not need to take their daughter to the hospice unit but instead treat her at the hospital. Finally, the nurses do justice to the patient’s family when decide to treat rather than discharge them (Tarris n.d).

There are several laws that go hand in hand with the situation that Janet is going through. One of them is right to health, which the doctors try to implement by proving their patient with the best medication. We also have the right to life where the nurses and the doctor want to save the lives of both Janet and her unborn baby.

In addition to the above information, the legal and ethical responsibilities of the nurse do not align (Farmer et al., 2014). Taking a legal aspect for example like patients’ rights, it states that every patient should receive proper medication together with respect and dignity. However, when a patient refuses to undergo a surgery then the person will be neglecting the right and the obligation of the nurse to do well.

Recommendation for Problem Resolution

The best thing I will do is to call the hospital team, Janet and her parents together and inform them of the best solution. I will advise Janet to accept medication so that she can save the life of her unborn baby. I will also advise her parents to let their daughter get treatment and finally advice the nurses to take good care of Janet in that situations.

References

Buchmueller, T. C., Levinson, Z. M., Levy, H. G., & Wolfe, B. L. (2016). Effect of the Affordable Care Act on racial and ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage. American journal of public health, 106(8), 1416-1421.

Farmer, J. E., Clark, M. J., Mayfield, W. A., Cheak-Zamora, N., Marvin, A. R., Law, J. K., & Law, P. A. (2014). The relationship between the medical home and unmet needs for children with autism spectrum disorders. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 18(3), 672- 680.

Toomey, R. B., Umaña-Taylor, A. J., Williams, D. R., Harvey-Mendoza, E., Jahromi, L. B., & Updegraff, K. A. (2014). Impact of Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law on utilization of health care and public assistance among Mexican-origin adolescent mothers and their mother figures. American journal of public health, 104(S1), S28-S34.

Tarris Rosell. (n.d). Case Study: Our Pregnant Daughter didn’t deserve this. [Retrieved on September 9, 2017] from: