Health Care Ethics Essay (Essay Sample)

Health care ethics
Name
Name of institution
28th, October 2014
Introduction
Across the globe, the health status of every individual highly influences their daily routines as it is the health status that determines what one can carry out. Moreover, most of the crucial decisions are made in regard to this health status. As a result, every individual finds him or herself as being a part of the health care institution whether forced or not. Consequentially, the health care institution is treated as a special body in the society as it has direct or indirect impact towards the daily functionality of the society. As such, the ethics governing the operational of all health care institutions are uniquely from other social goods in the society as this institution deals with people’s lives that are fragile if mishandled. As such, this essay will look into the ethics of healthcare services and most especially in the field of reproductive decision making, clinical study with human body and capacity, consent and confidentiality in health care.
Healthcare ethics mostly known as medical ethics is a set of beliefs, moral values and principles that govern the health care providers and patients on making the right decisions about medical care. With these ethics, every individual is expected to use the sense of wrong and right and compare it with the beliefs and help every individual to determine what is right, just and fair while accessing and offering the health care services (Vermont Ethics Network [VEN], 2011). Importantly, the ethical role in any situation is determined by the nature of the decision to make and the role of the involved individuals in the decision to be made.
To limit the type of the decision to be made, medical ethics has a set of four principles that govern and monitor the medical practice when making healthcare decisions. The first and most important principle is beneficence that stress that the service providers should service to their level best when attending to the patients so as to save a life or to fully satisfy the patients. Despite the functionality of this principle and its associated benefits, it also limits the level unto which the service provider should thrive to offer their best towards the patients as some of the services may seem beneficial though there is a possibility of them causing harm ((Hester & Schonfeld, 2012)). Beneficence works hand in hand with the principle of non-maleficence that implies that the service providers should not do any harm towards the patients (VEN, 2014). This principle restricts the practitioners who offer their best service without first considering the impact of their actions.
Additionally, autonomy is amongst the important principle governing medical ethics. Through this principle, the rights of an individual seeking health care services are given a priority. The principle allows the patient to make knowledgeable decisions without any interruption about their health life. The decision made is respected by and followed withoutany overruling mechanism applied by the respective practitioners. However, not all decisions are autonomous and, therefore, for any decision to be autonomous, the patient must be in right state of mind having the ability to accept, remember and replicate the information with ease (VEN, 2011). Lastly, justice is another principle that rules ethics of health care servicing. The principle relates to the distribution of limited resources in the health care institutions and who and when should get the access of these resources ((Hester & Schonfeld, 2012)). Also, this principle aids the practitioners in making decision on the basis of the fairness and equality without biasness.
From the above-discussed principles, it is easier to set up various and different ethics in healthcare institution that will govern different fields in the medical industry. As such, various ethics have been set up that aid in making the reproductive decisions amongst the patients and the practitioners (LaFollette, 2013). Sex selection is dominant in India and China, where women are forced to abort any female pregnancy in an attempt of reducing female pregnancy. It is advantageous to many people when a son is born in the family through sex selection. However,this is disadvantageous to the women and girls as it lowers down the autonomy as they are not given a chance to choose what they want without being forced. Despite this practice is against ethics of health care there rises a need of stopping this by prohibiting abortion as well as banning of selective sex (Julie, 2007). Although this is done, the autonomy of women and girls in these countries remain low since despite banning of abortion, women still do abort as their families force them to thus making abortion seem like it is illegal. Therefore, it is the function of practitioners carrying out this practice to stop it as it is against the code of ethics governing medical practices.
Besides being the role of practitioners to stop this practice, it still remains hard since some women are willing to abort that forces the practitioners to obey the principle of autonomy that states that the patients decisions must be respected (Julie, 2007). To address this issue, it requires intervention of law and, therefore, some laws must be enforced of laws that forbid this practice. Together with medical ethics sex selection can be reduced in these countries where the law addresses the basis of oppression amongst the female gender while ethics will regulate the principle of autonomy amongst the women seeking abortion. Practitioners will evaluate the main reason making one to seek abortion whereby if it is genuine, the practice will be carried out and if not, it would not.
Importantly, the same principles of ethics are applied when making decisions on how to handle the menopause stage amongst the women. At this stage, women cannot conceive since they do not receive their monthly periods and, therefore, it pauses a big challenge to those women who want children at such stage. Due to the advancement of technology, a replacement therapy can be carried out that will enable these women to have children through external fertilization. As such, it is upon the practitioners to ensure that this practice is carried out efficiently without any complications experienced. According to Madeleine, and Julie (2003), in Australia, a medical care program was set-up for the women at menopause were educated of making informed and right decisions on the matter concerning this therapy. Through this education, women were equipped with the necessary information that guide them on making these decisions. Similarly, this was a way of exercising the principle autonomy that encourage the patients to make informed and the right decisions independently.
Besides being informed of the side effects of menopause, women who are carrying out this practice are held responsible of the any side effects associated with this practice. As such, this moves the interest of menopause from medical situation to other physical conditions. To solve this, discou...