ETHICAL DILEMMA

Ethical Dilemma



Ethical Dilemma

Introduction

During the course of a career as a Registered Nurse, one often has to face situations where decisions must be made. Often, there is not much time left for research or contemplation. These decisions can impact lives to a different degrees, but more often than not, these decisions and circumstances deal with most valuable and important asset one can have on health and well being of an individual patient. The course of action one takes may influence future outcome of the patient and their family and have an impact on their lives for many years ahead. I realized there were many questions one must ask self, and I decided to explore these questions. The questions I will look into in this paper are: What is the ethical conflict created by the problem? What are the various courses of action? What are the possible outcomes of the suggested actions? Who owns the problem and who should make the decision? What are the obligations of the nurse? And, what is my own personal course of action would be and the ethical principle underlying choice I make. The main role of the nurse in an informed decision making is a role of being a patient advocate. Nurse must support patient in autonomously making own choice and provide support needed.

Body

Mrs. Smith, a 32 year-old Eastern European patient, married to an American, gave a birth to a beautiful healthy male baby. I was told by an attendant to have parent's signature on Information Consent form. I inquired if they wanted to have their son circumcised. I know that consent is valid only where the people (or person) giving consent have the authority to do so and recognize the implications and possibility of negative outcome of the procedure. To my surprise, the couple never thought about this and seemed to have trouble in making a decision. (Rennie, Muula & Westreich, 2007)

Mrs. Smith stated, she wanted to know all reasons for the procedure, and how it is performed, since in her culture, males do not get circumcised and added “I am concerned that when he will grow up, he will be unhappy that this was done to him. How would I explain taking upon myself the right to surgically modify his body without his permission?” Mr. Smith said that it is American Culture that all males do get circumcised. They were told by their Health Care Provider that “everyone gets it done”, but before making decision they wanted to learn more about the procedure and reasons for it. I saw that there was a dilemma in making the decision. The ethical conflict was produced by this situation. It was mother's concern about son's autonomy, an intention to protect his right to make own health care decision which he is unable at this age to make, versus a principle based on moral rule of commitment to benefit the patient and balance benefits against risk and ...