Dimensions of the Ethical Dilemma (Essay Sample)

Ethical Study
Name of the Student
Institutional Affiliation
Ethical Study
Introduction
Ethical issues often arise in the healthcare industry. These issues mostly involve the patients, family members and also the healthcare workers, in general. The healthcare industry is very concerned about the welfare of its clients. When ethical dilemma occurs, the affected health care provider must be in a position to make sound decisions to solve them. The ability to make the right decision involves the understanding of the ethical issues, their dimensions and the guidelines for their solution.
Dimensions of the Ethical Dilemma
Healthcare providers face situations that demand them to make right decision to solve them. The process of figuring out the best solution for these complex situations often poses a challenge. There must be three conditions that qualify a situation to be ranked as an ethical dilemma. When a person is supposed to decide on the best option to choose to solve a dilemma is the first condition. The other condition is that there should be several solutions to the dilemma, but none is favorable to take (Csikai & Bass, 2001). Third, in this situation, whatever option you choose to solve the problem, you risk compromising at least one ethical principle. Finding a satisfactory solution for a dilemma is almost impossible. Hence, it requires one to use critical judgment skills in order to reach at a definitive solution.
In figuring out the composition of an ethical dilemma, it's crucial to differentiate between morals, values, ethics, laws and policies. We define ethics as the accepted code of conduct for a certain profession. Values represent the ideas regarded as worthy. When people value something, it has a meaning that they feel and perceive it as important. They are the ideas that we long to accomplish such as social justice and equality (Munson & Munson, 2004). Morals represent the behavior that people regard as right and wrong and they abide by them. Law and policies, on the other hand, are a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. In our case, the health care team must look into all these dimensions of the ethical dilemma so that they can come up with a definitive solution to the problem.
In the case forwarded by the concerned health care providers, there are many dimensions of the ethical dilemma that should be considered before making a definitive decision. The 96 years old father of the Naturopathic physician was received in ICU with a fatal liver cancer. The patient looked disoriented, confused, skinny and covered with bruises. His daughter insisted that she was going to treat him using natural substances, some which resembled tar and smelt like feces, through the NG-tube. The health care providers note that the patient is in pain after the application of those substances. They feel that the daughter wants to hasten the death of his father.
The counselor should consider all the dimensions of the presented ethical dilemma. He should consider the ethics that govern the healthcare profession. Is euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide accepted in this profession and legalized (Csikai & Bass, 2001)? The values should also be taken into considerations. He should assess the value of allowing the daughter to administer these unknown substances that visible seem to cause pain to the patient. The moral principles should also be considered. The counselor should assess whether it's morally right to subject a patient to suffering due to the application unknown substances that are not scientifically proven to be effective. Though the daughter may have good moral intention of helping her father, she should understand where she can or not be of help.
Ethical Issues
Ethical issues mostly arise from the interaction of the patient and the healthcare workers. Some issues that require the help of ethics for their solution include euthanasia, issues of advanced directives, rejection of medication and disagreements with the medical workers (Munson & Munson, 2004). Other issues include terminating life-supporting medication, guidelines discouraging resuscitation and other situations considered as an ethical dilemma. It, for this reason, necessitates all healthcare workers to be prepared to tackle these ethical issues as they come on their way.
Health ethics demands that medical workers choose the best solution for each ethical issue they face. It also means considering the beliefs of the patients in relation to all part of their well-being. The medical industry cares for the health of their clients (Csikai & Bass, 2001). They are necessitated to choose the best option for the solution of these issues as they emerge. The major ethical issues that they come across on a daily basis include confidentiality, transmission of diseases and aggressive marketing practices. They also include patient welfare, provided information to advertising companies, terminally ill patients, sexual harassment and issues arising from various therapies.
When healthcare providers are faced with these ethical issues, it is significance for them to follow the decision-making model to help them resolve these issues. The first step involves the identification of the problem (Kass, 2001). The person should try to gather as much information as possible about the problem. In the presented ethical issue, understand why the daughter insists on using unknown substances to treat her real father. These substances are not even scientifically proven to be efficient in the presented health problem. Try to understand whether it’s the belief of the daughter to use natural means of treatment. Ask the daughter whether it has ever worked before, and if it has, what was the need of bringing the patient to the hospital. Understanding the problem well will lead to the right decision.
The second step involves reviewing the addressed issue in the code of ethics. The health care worker should review the relevant literature to understand how similar cases were treated there before (Csikai & Bass, 2001). In our case, this seems to be a case of euthanasia where the daughter wants to assist the father to die possibly in a bid to relieve his pain and suffering. If you find an exact issue, you can consider how the issue was tackled and apply it to the current situations. The third step requires one to figure out the nature and dimension of the issue. Put into consideration the moral principles and also consult widely even from your fellow health workers.
The fourth step involves generating potential course of action. In this step, you should generate several solutions of the problem. This step demands employ creativity and put into considerations all the available solutions. You can also seek the assistance of your colleagues to help in the generation of ideas. The fifth step requires a person to put into consideration all the possible consequences of all the choices and figure out the best solution (Munson & Munson, 2004). In the presented case, what would be the consequences of refusing the daughters demand to use natural treatment, and then the father dies. How will the health worker explain this to the daughter? Consider all the gathered information and set priorities and do an assessment and evaluation of each choice. The sixth step involves evaluating the identified solutions, and the last step involves the implementation of the solution.
Application of the Core Ethical Principles
Moral principles form a significant reference guideline of the health ethics. However, guidelines are not in a position to solve all the ethical issues. Referencing these moral principles assist in the solution of particular issues (C...