Ethics and Law Subject: Consent to Treatment - Term Paper Example

 Ethics and Law Subject: Consent to Treatment Ethics are values which are generally accepted in a society. Ethics and ethical practices have continued to generate a lot of fuss in the world. Generally, there are some universally acceptable values which are expected from every person. However, other values differ from person to person, community to community which is as a result of the various beliefs and cultures which people hold. In the broader topic on ethics, there are professional ethics which are expected from individuals practicing in a specific field. So it is in the medical field. Ethics has come to be a major factor to consider in the creation, use and management of patient’s records, valid and informed consent in treatment amongst other medical related support. One of the major issues which have continuously generated a lot of attention in the medical world is function of informed consent and the protection and promotion of individual autonomy. In the medical field, an informed consent is a decision which has been made with full knowledge of all the consequences of the decision made (Pamela & Danda 2005, p. 16). Personal autonomy on the other hand is the respect of an individual’s choice. It is the upholding of an individual’s ‘patient’s’ right and freedom to make a choice (Klipi 2005, p.110). There are numerous ethical challenges which are associated with the provision of medical services to a patient. The following assessment paper will assess the ethical challenges associated with valid and informed consent to treatment and to the creation, use and management of patient records, consent forms, and associated health information to support care and treatment. The first ethical challenge with regards to the topic under assessment is the autonomy. As identified earlier, autonomy is the ability of a patient to make an individual choice. The upholding of autonomy is a prominent thing in the medical sector. Providing a patient with an opportunity to make his/ her choice has been a very contentious issue in healthcare. Taking a look at several past cases, for instance the famous case between Rogers and Whitaker, it can be acknowledge that autonomy has a big role in the medical field. Ethicists point out that an individual should be given freedom to choose what is most appropriate for him or her. However, the ethical challenge in the provision of health care arises when a medical practitioner uses his or her own professional knowledge to make a decision on behalf of a patient (Thomspon, 2003, 110). This was the norm in the yester years when medical practitioners took the responsibility of making decisions for the patient as it was the principle of operation as per the Bolam Principle. However in such a situation, the medical practitioners do not give a patient a chance to decide on which course of medication to take. For this it is important that a medical practitioner provides the patients with detailed information concerning the patient’s state of health, medical alternatives which are available and the consequences of each of the alternatives chosen. This gives rise to the concept of informed consent (Osman, 2001, p.41). An informed consent is a decision which has been reached at after an individual has accessed all the information available, hence after having understood his/ her current health situation and the available medical alternatives, he/ she reaches to a conclusion (NHS, 2007., p.5). The ethical issue which relates an informed consent with medical services delivery is the provision of information by a medical practitioner to a patient. In several cases, doctors fail to give details to a patient convecrning their ailments, possible alternatives to take and the repercussions of taking such medication. In such a case, the right of the patient with regards to autonomy is deprived off. In other cases, the doctor may give partial information to the patient which in a way interferes with the autonomy of the patient. This is because of the fact that the patient does not make an informed decision since he/ she does not have access to all the health and medical information surrounding his/ her specific ailment. With respect to Rogers and Whitaker case, Rogers who was the doctor in the setting failed to give all the information regarding his proposed eye surgery on Whitaker. As a result of this, Whitaker made a decision to undergo the surgery without full knowledge about the possible effects of the treatment. As a result of this, Whitaker became totally blind as the surgery interfered with the sight ability of the other eye which was previously functioning properly. The ruling in the case was in favour of Whitaker since was to pay $800,000 as damage to Whitaker. Taking a deep analysis of the case, it is inevitable to acknowledge the importance of an informed consent in a medical service provision (Krypuy & McCormack, 2009, p.39). As per medical ethical practices, a patient should have full knowledge about his/ her ailments and the treatment procedures which are to be carried out on him or her. No matter how finite or negligible a bit of information is, it is important that it is made known to a patient. With respect to Rogers and Whitaker case, the chances of Whitaker loosing the eyesight in the other eye was 1 out of 14000 cases (Cockayne 2007, p.31). However, this did not justify Rogers to fail to give Whitaker that little bit of information, which explains the ruling that was made on the case. The giving of valid and conclusive information by doctors is an ethical challenge in the medical field as observed in a research study by Matthew Krypuy and Lena McCormack. As observed in the study, there are still a substantial percentage of medical practitioners who fail to avail all the information regarding health situation to a patient. This is unethical since its leads to an informed consent from a patient and could lead to a situation similar to Whitaker’s. In order to ensure that the ethical challenge of autonomy and informed consent is upheld, there are several measures which have been established. One of the measures is the form of consent. The forms of consent are provided by the medical doctor and are supposed to be signed by the patient after he/ she has evaluated all the information available to him / her. Forms of consent are supposed to give a medical practitioner a legal go ahead to perform a medical operation on a patient. When a patient signs a form of consent, he/she acknowledges that he/ she has understood all the information regarding the medical operation/ treatment to be undertaken and has authorized the doctor to go ahead with it. The forms of consent and other patient’s medical records in addition to the actual treatment operations give rise to the need for confidentiality. Confidentiality is an ethical practice which ensures that the medical and private information of a patient is not accessed by unauthorized persons. Generally, it is the desire of each and every individual to have his/ her private information, with an inclusion of medical records, kept as a private as possible. This ethical aspect gives rise to the need for a confidential system to create, use and manage medical records. It is recommended that the consultation between a medical practitioner and a patient be kept as confidential as possible (Slyter, 2012, p.1). Therefore, consultation rooms are supposed to offer the much needed privacy to the patient. In addition to this, the medical practitioner should make medical records of the patient in private, without availing its contents to unauthorized third parties. So as to ensure that the patient’s medical records are not accessed by unauthorized people, its storage should offer maximum security to the data. The need to uphold privacy in patients records has over the recent past given rise to the need of embracing appropriate record management mechanisms. One of the mechanisms which has been widely adopted is the e-record system which provides for an electronic data entry, storage and retrieval system. This system increases the efficiency of records management in medical institutions in addition to ensuing theta the privacy of the patients information is upheld. In conclusion, it is evident from this assessment paper that the ethical practices are of utmost importance in the medical field. Without ethics, there are high chances of lack of patient satisfaction as witnessed in Rogers versus Whitaker case. There are several ethical challenges which affect the medical services provision field. All the challenges are centralized around the autonomy, informed consent and confidentiality of the patient. The paper has identified that autonomy is the ability of a patent to make an individual choice based on free will. On this point, the assessment has stressed that it is important that medical practioners give the patient a chance to make this individual choice. However, choice is based on an evaluation of the facts surrounding a situation. Medical practitioners are supposed to avail all the facts regarding the ailment of the patient, medication alternatives and possible consequences of the alternatives. With an evaluation of this information, a patient is able to make an informed consent of the treatment and the medication which the doctor / medical practioner seek to undertake. With respect to confidentiality, the medical practioner must ensure that the privacy of the treatment process and the medical records of the patients are ensured. References Cockayne, J.,2007. Rogers V Whitaker: Still Crazy After All These Years?, Health Information Management Journal, Vol. 36, no 1, pp. 30-35 Carmen, M & Joffe, S., 2005. Informed Consent for Medical Treatment and Research: A Review, The Oncologist, Vol. 10. no. 8, 636-641 Krypuy, M., & McCormack, L., 2009. Evaluation Of The Informed Consent Procedures Prior To Patient Bookings At Western District Health Service Health Information Management Journal. Vol. 35, no.2; pp.38-41 Klipi, H. 2005. Patient's Autonomy, Privacy and Informed Consent, pp.110-120 Jones, Bartlett,2010. Chapter 2. Autonomy, Jones & Bartlett Publishers [Online] Retrieved on 10th October 2012 < http://samples.jbpub.com/9780763773274/73274_Morrison_Ch02.pdf > NHS, 2007. Information Governance, < http://www.csip.org.uk/silo/files/nhs-information-governance.pdf> Pamela and Danda, 2005. Informed Consent, Informed Consent, Developing World BioEthics, Vol.5, no.1; pp.15-30 Slyter, H., 2012. Ethical Challenges in Stroke Research, American Heart Association [Online] Retrieved on 10th October 2012 < http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/29/8/1725.full > Osman, H., 2001. History and Development of the Doctrine of Informed Consent, The International Electronic Journal of Health Education, Vol. 4, no.41, pp. 41-47 Thomspon, J., 2003. Ethical Challenges Of Informed Consent In Pre-hospital Research, Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol.2, no. 2; pp.108-114 Read More