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Medical Ethics

Introduction

Executive Summary

Medical ethics refers to the obligations that have been accorded to a doctor and the hospital

towards the patient alongside other medical professionals and the community surrounding them.

The health profession is accorded with a set of ethics that are applicable to various groups of

health professionals as well as the institutions of health care (Mentzelopoulos et al.). It is

expected that there should be a mutual relationship and trust between the patients and the doctors

as it is posed as a very important approach in the treatment plan of the patients. However, by far

and wide, the evolution trends within the field of medics has minimal effect on the relationship

between the doctors and the patients. The issues that are mostly addressed in medical ethics often

revolve around the life and death of a patient (Cribb). Very serious health issues are often raised

over the rights that the patients should be accorded, the competence, directives that are advanced,

negligence, confidentiality and informed consent. Ethics, therefore, revolve around ensuring that

the right choices are made with respect to all the necessary circumstances that undertake the

medical ethics to be applied (Mentzelopoulos et al.). Medical ethics additionally deals with the

evaluation between the difference between the situations and actions that are considered to being

right or wrong. It is important to note that medical ethics are considered to be differentiated with

the bridge of what is right and what is wrong. Ethics, however, are not static, and therefore they
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are quite applicable at all times. What has been considered as being good a hundred years ago

may be considered as wrong in the modern days (Gillon). In this case, therefore, it is expected

that the administrators in the hospitals be very aware of the ethical and legal responsibilities

towards the patients and the society that they serve.

Background

The evolution of medical ethics is linked to being paternalistic to the center of the

patient. Emergency and the end of life circumstances are often associated with the inability to be

able to make conversant decisions. Additionally, the medical ethics have been linked with

respect to the advanced directives, and the proxy informed consents that are linked with the

research interventions and do not create an attempt to the orders of resuscitation (Rogers). The

evolution of the term medical ethics has been associated with the concept of beneficence, which

is commonly liked to the quality of achieved life, which is then followed by the emergency

treatments that are offered to the patients. Today, the law and the medical ethics are closely

linked, in the manner that the law obliged in some parts of the society has the capability to affect

the medical ethics that the medics practice within a country (Walton). On the other hand, medical

ethics are more concerned with creating coherent rules and principles by which people are

supposed to live. Ethics binds the society with the uniform consideration that helps the society to

be able to make a decision on exactly what is right and what is wrong. Medical ethics, therefore,

refers to the factor that is associated with the morale in science that concerns the human duties

within the societies.

Analysis and Synthesis

Medical ethics look into examining a specific problem, often a clinical case, with the help

of the available facts, values and facts that are used in deciding the most appropriate course to be
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taken with respect to the situation at hand. Some medical ethical problems are quite

straightforward, such as evaluating right and wrong (Gillon). However, others can be quite

confusing and overwhelming such as making a decision on two rights or even two values that

could be in conflict with each other, additionally, for instance, making a decision between the

various systems of values such as the doctors versus the patient. In most cases, doctors are faced

with the dilemma of perplexing through the ethical calamities even when carrying out a small

medical practice (Rogers). In determining what is right or wrong in regard to medical ethics,

several circumstances are held by differentiated opinions with regard to medical ethics (Walton).

Some of these circumstances may include; upcoding in order to acquire treatment cover,

covering up a mistake done in the medical field, cherry-picking the patients, reporting an

impaired professional colleague, accepting any form of money from any device manufacturers

and taking back or withholding any form of treatment in order to be able to meet the budget of an

organization or even due to the policies placed by insurance.

Key Factors for Deciding the Medical Ethical Issues

In the field of medics, the professionals in ethics often recommend that the four basic principles

and values that are used in deciding ethical issues These principles include;

 Autonomy; The principle of autonomy basically accrues that the patients have the right to

make a decision on their own healthcare services they wish to receive.

 Justice; The medical ethics accrue that there should be distributed benefits as well as

burdens of care across the community.

 Beneficence: The principle advocates that it is important always to do good for the

patient.
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 Nonmalfeasance: The principle takes into account that a medic should not do anything

that can harm the patient.

It is, however, important to note that medical ethical values are not just limited to these

four principles. There are significant values that should also be considered ethical, including

showing maximum respect to the patients, families, showing respect to the individual values

of the patients, ensuring transparency and telling the truth (Mentzelopoulos et al.). It should

be noted that the concept of medical ethics is not just a mere mental process, as it also

incorporates the use of skills which include gathering sufficient facts that are required in

making the right decision and making a presentation of the decisions in a manner that

everything wins over the parties confidence (Mentzelopoulos et al.). According to the

medics, their medical ethics are often considered as proscriptive activities that tell an

individual the right thing to do and the wrong thing that should not be done. However, in

some other situations, medical ethics can be quite freeing in the affirmation of whether what

is being done is right or wrong.

Listening skills are a significant part of the ethics upheld by the medics. In most cases,

there exist disputes ethically incase all facts are not known or even failing to provide all the

facts to the patient (Weaver). Respect is also an essential factor. For instance, a well-

constructed ethical decision might end up being ignored in case a medic has not yet won the

confidence of the patient.

Implications of Medical Ethics

It should be noted that the physicians that can be able to make a description of the ethical

concerns and be able to use the skills of negotiation are in a better position to make changes

within an organization. In determining the right or wrong within the medical ethics, there are
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some of the reason as to why the ethics in the medical field should be taken with so much

seriousness. Medical ethics considers the following to being right within the field of

professionals in resolving the disputes between families, physicians, patients and the other

parties that may be involved (Mentzelopoulos et al.). It should be noted that in a situation that

may involve emotions, there may be difficulty in making a fair and logical decision. Ethics

often come through in the form of another dimension and aid in making the right decision.

The maintenance of a clear conscience is also important in the field of medics. All doctors

are persuaded to ensure that they do the right thing; therefore, being an ethically fit physician

is more essential as compared to just making money or even attending to as many patients as

possible.

Ethics are normally faced with the concepts of reasoning and values and the usage of

persuasion in order to get the required message across. Morality, on the other hand, takes into

account the adherence to specific beliefs and the codes of conduct. Morality further has a

high reliance on authority, for instance, the bible, in order to provide a justification of a

message. Medical ethics are basically described by the flexible sets of solutions and more

based on the concepts of logic and facts and less of the doctrines of religion In evaluating n

what is right and what is wrong, respect should be maintained between a doctor and a patient

(Weaver). The existence of some ethical missteps could lead to the destruction of the

relationship between a patient and the doctor. Patients often entrust their doctors to providing

the best medical care, but in case the trust is quite breached, sometimes it gets quite hard to

repair.

It is ethically right to ensure that there exists a respectful relationship between doctors

and other clinicians. The colleagues to a clinician could hold defined opinions on what could
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be termed as being ethical and often, factors that are enriched with various codes of ethics. In

most cases, these codes and ethics are created by individuals that tend to practice an ethical

form of decision-making. Maintenance of efficiency is such an ethical concept that should be

taken into consideration (Rogers). Despite the fact that in most cases, the process of making

decision ethically may require the consumption of some extra time, it may also prevent the

often caused disagreements and thus slowing down the process of providing the health care

services. If a physician is basically not ethical, patients and other caregivers could be upset

with your decisions, and thus the work could be impeded.

Medical ethics and values are basically not just set in stone. These ethics revolved

around the attitudes that change the phase of society. What is right or wrong with respect to

medical ethics is basically set on whether the actions being carried out benefit society or not.

Medical values are quite loosely based on what is held to being true by the public. However,

the public is no right to hold ethical decisions (Walton). This is because, in most cases,

individuals tend not to heed to the values that are held by the minority group. There also exist

some unethical behaviors that create an alarm among the medical boards. The definition that

is associated with unprofessional conduct has often associated the abuse of patients and

dishonesty. These two acts revolve around the establishment of exactly what is wrong as far

as medical ethics are concerned (Mentzelopoulos et al.). It is, therefore, right to uphold the

medical principles that are set through medical values and ethics, and it is very wrong to defy

the principles in line of work.

Argument

Determining what is right and what is wrong can be quite troublesome in some situations.

Same way, a number of arguments exist on what is ethically right and what is ethically
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wrong as far as the medical field is concerned. A question like whether being ethical

consumes a lot of time is a very common question. However, in numerous arguments, it

should be noted that making ethical decisions may require the intake of deliberative styles

than the common styles that the physicians are used to and outside of the clinical based

decision-making processes (Cribb). Doctors are required to take information and make an

exploration of the ethical issues, and in some cases, they end up asking numerous questions

than usual. Therefore, in order to take into account some of these actions, it is ethically right

for a physician to schedule their work in order to account for it being efficient in the process

of acquiring any medical data as they pass some other responsibilities to other caregivers. It

is also ethically right for a physician to share the information they hold with their colleagues.

Once one has worked through ethical issues, it is always easy to deal with it once it

approaches the next possible time (Rogers). Acquiring important ethical conclusions about a

certain problem indicates the initial points of finding the solid values that the majority of the

people accept. Some of these ethical concepts include telling the truth to the patients and

providing them with choices on the medical experiments that are to be given. Some of these

values that are commonly termed as basic are often not in dispute.

It is common that some other values are widely accepted, which include the autonomy of

the patient. The same values apply to the concept of being fair to the patients, indicating that

all patients should be treated in a similar manner in regard to the decisions that were made

through the critical healthcare situations. However, it is not always as easy as it sounds to

upload medical ethics and evaluate right and wrong in regard to ethics (Gillon). It is argued

that there exists quite widely accepted values that commonly differ from each other. Taking

for instance, in case a patient declines to take treatment that is meant to assist them, the
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physician faces conflicts on the matter of whether they are supposed to respect the autonomy

of the patient or are they supposed to do the very best for the patient so that they can acquire

the best medical services (Weaver).

Other medical ethics dilemmas may arise from the closure of the practice of the

physician. The physician is often fully justified in not being in a position to accept each and

every patient that enters through the door. Making acceptance of each patient may and

sometimes may not be a good decision in business. However, in other situations, in some

situations, if a physician rejects a patient, then it indicates that the patient was not in need of

medical attention. On working through such a dilemma, one may still need to make a

decision on whether they are supposed to close off their practice. However, one may require

to think through their decisions quite well (Gillon). It should be well understood that the

individuals one is turning their backs on still require a doctor, and in some cases, there are

some physicians who may be forced to help the patients without overworking themselves.

Medical ethics, on the other hand, have a huge difference in meaning with the concepts of

morality. Ethics are normally faced with the concepts of reasoning and values and the usage

of persuasion in order to get the required message across. Morality, on the other hand, takes

into account the adherence to specific beliefs and the codes of conduct. Morality further has a

high reliance on authority, for instance, the bible, in order to provide a justification of a

message. Medical ethics are basically described by the flexible sets of solutions and more

based on the concepts of logic and facts and less of the doctrines of religion(Mentzelopoulos

et al.). It is argued that one may have political ideas and faith in religions, but it is required of

then to be able to set aside the ideals and ideas during the process of offering and formation

of the opinions in medical ethics. Some individuals view medicine as a new religion. As
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people come to the doctors with terms like "save me, redeem me and prepare me." Medical

ethical decisions, therefore, should provide respect to the attitudes and the values that are

upheld by the patients. For instance, in case a patient makes an opposition to the blood

transfusion or even vaccination for their offspring, then their decisions should be highly

respected by all, but as per the medical ethics, their opinions will not be taken into account.

Works Cited

Cribb, A. "Translational Ethics? The Theory-Practice Gap In Medical Ethics". Journal Of

Medical Ethics, vol 36, no. 4, 2010, pp. 207-210. BMJ,

doi:10.1136/jme.2009.029785.

Gillon, R. "Nursing Ethics And Medical Ethics.". Journal Of Medical Ethics, vol 12, no. 3,

2016, pp. 115-122. BMJ, doi:10.1136/jme.12.3.115.

Mentzelopoulos, Spyros D. et al. "Evolution Of Medical Ethics In Resuscitation And End Of

Life." Trends In Anaesthesia And Critical Care, vol 10, 2016, pp. 7-14. Elsevier BV,

doi:10.1016/j.tacc.2016.08.001. Accessed 27 Oct 2020.

Rogers, W A. "Confidentiality And The Ethics Of Medical Ethics." Journal Of Medical

Ethics, vol 29, no. 4, 2017, pp. 220-224. BMJ, doi:10.1136/jme.29.4.220.

Walton, J. "The General Medical Cosuncil's Medical Ethics Education Conference." Journal

Of Medical Ethics, vol 11, no. 1, 2004, pp. 5-5. BMJ, doi:10.1136/jme.11.1.5.

Weaver, Gary R. "Does Ethics Code Design Matter? Effects Of Ethics Code Rationales And

Sanctions On Recipients' Justice Perceptions And Content Recall". Journal Of

Medical Ethics, vol 14, no. 5, 2015, pp. 367-385. Springer Science And Business

Media LLC, doi:10.1007/bf00872099.