The structure of the health care industry is evolving steadily as a result of developments in science and technology. Events in the delivery of health services pose a variety of legal and ethical dilemmas that are of great concern to both doctors and healthcare organizations. Healthcare professionals are committed to the welfare and protection of their patients while complying with legal and ethical standards. The dilemmas in health insurance are unavoidable. Living wills and advance directives are commonly misused in health care. Living wills are the wishes of the patient reflected in the patient’s decision since they were able to decide what to do in the case of an emergency. In this article, I will address a case concerning mistakes in health care surrounding the living will and how I can amend the legislation to support our constitutional values and policy goals.
The case involving a 79-year-old woman, a retired nurse, was relocated from an outpatient hospital for the treatment of esophageal perforation to a tertiary care trauma center. At the outer clinic, the patient underwent resection of the esophageal diverticulum and then endured perforation that was complicated by continuous leakage. Patients were confirmed to be in reasonably good health before their initial elective surgery. She was working and caring for her parents, as she was in the early stages of dementia. On arrival at the new hospital, an esophageal stent was placed to treat perforation. The patient suffered septic shock during this operation, which resulted in many organ failures. No new surgical interventions to help enhance patient status have been deemed necessary.
She had a living intention to withhold or withdraw treatment, which only delays her death, whether she was incurable or fragile in her mental or physical state without a realist expectation of regeneration. She indicated that she did not like cardiac reconstruction, electrical ventilation, or artificial feeding (Advanced directives,n.d.). Advanced Guidance or Living Will are the wishes of the patient expressed in the decision made by the patient because they were able to determine what to do in the event of an emergency.
These are what the patient needs in a case that may involve a patient’s advanced directive or a living will. In the case of the woman, an intention was written and indicated that she did not wish to be alive, although, in her fact, her husband felt that it would not be enforced in the scenario that she would be used it if the advanced directive or live will is questioned. With the issues involved with the relationship and their children, there is a range of legal considerations that could include the ethics committee or risk management.
During this situation, members of the team do not agree, but instead, seek to settle their differences. Consensus on a medically approved and politely called for treatment package is achieved. A traditional policy-making framework, in which the ethical values of equality, compassion, and non-malice are applied. Although no medical-judicial inquiries are currently being conducted, there is no legal duty but to follow suit.
An adult who can make choices will have to live up to the ethical precept of autonomy. Physicians are responsible for evaluating their capacity to make decisions. If skills are lacking, the healthcare practitioner may contact the legally appointed decision-maker to provide advice on the needs of the patient, or, if uncertain, what the patient may want. Autonomy represents the American social ideal of freedom and defines a free will that enables us to accept others’ choices and beliefs. In this case, patients’ honor is not the caregivers’ integrity.
The legal norm instructs healthcare practitioners to consider medical preferences and desires for diagnosis. Informed consent doctors or nurses and their relatives should be aware of the conditions in the case of informed consent before treatment or the drug that may have triggered the condition of the patient who left them to be given. They will also be asked what could happen if it’s not as planned, and whether it goes as scheduled, what to expect. They include the predicted outcomes, any further therapies that need to be pursued, and the chance of medication or care.
The next constitutionally permitted decision-maker will do so where an individual can not give informed consent. The healthcare provider can decide on behalf of the patient on life or death in certain emergencies. In the case of the situation, the doctor advised the patient’s wife that she could not survive in a chronically unconscious state. However, the husband did not withdraw any life support from the informed arrangement except with the details received. In the case of this scenario, the consent of the patient’s wife may have been informed, allowing him to understand what consent the patient was. I may use the patient’s Virtue Approach to find out if this was the condition his wife desired. I may always make a second party coming to determine the case by explaining what was happening with input from the other individual and asking the participant whether they can agree.
Advanced directive or living will use the rights approach with the spouse to discuss the living will with the spouse. The path to justice states that people have the freedom to choose what to do with their lives freely. While the woman was alive, she specifically said that she did not want to be sold if she was all in a state of unconsciousness. In the course of treatment, the doctor advised the spouse and his children that she was in an involuntary state or a terminal illness that she could not survive. In the rights method, I could investigate with the partner that it was not his wife’s wish to stay sold using the documentation given.
Surrogate decision-making Awareness is when a surrogate makes a decision, the husband will undoubtedly make decisions on behalf of his or her partner, but only if his or her wife is alive. In his case, he did not make decisions based on what he felt his wife wanted but based on what her husband thought she wanted. For the life support nurse, he had to realize that she was in a state of the unconscious mind, and in her wishes, she wished to take off life support. I could have an approach to right or justice where we would have to ask him if it was appropriate for him to make the decision which she would not have agreed in the case of an implicit situation.
With any professional or legal problem in the situation, there is a fragile line of action in the event of disputes with the health care provider, the individual, and the families involved. We use a lot of ethics in health care, particularly for family members interested in a treatment that is not in agreement with each other. In this case, knowing that the loved one is dying is a hard pill to swallow, and the decision-maker may not know how to let go and decide that they want to keep the patient alive if they can do so even without viable life activity. Ethically, it would be better to try to convince the husband to make the right choice for his partner, who might not be the best decision for him.
References
- ACHE Code of Ethics. (n.d.). https://www.ache.org/about-ache/our-story/our-commitments/ethics/ache-code-of-ethics
- Advanced directives and surrogate decision-making case. (n.d.). ATS – American Thoracic Society. https://www.thoracic.org/professionals/clinical-resources/critical-care/clinical-education/critical-care-cases/advanced-directives-and-surrogate-decision-making-case.php
- Pozgar, G. D., Santucci, N. M., & Pinnella, J. W. (2016). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning