Ethical discussion help required!!!!

mabel u.k · May 31, 2006

Hi Sarah, I would assume that you are doing some sort of course, if you are looking for extra words / padding it may be useful for you to look at the question from a particular ethical perpective such as utilatarianism or deontology these could give you differing theoretical views for presenting a moral argument. I did an ethical module for my masters and looked at how appropraite emergency surgery is for an elderly patient with dementia who was otherwise mobile and well. I looked from the utilitarian perspective and it created some very contraversial arguments for and against which helped me to pad out my argument. I did a google search for moral theories and read Beaucham and Childress "principles of biomedical ethics." If you want any references PM me.

english_nurse · May 31, 2006

Should fat people who eat too much and dont excercise get offered cardiac surgery?

i hope so or im up the creek without the needed paddle

lmao

:monkeydance:

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 31, 2006

Please can you good people help a novice student to be, I have to join in a discussion about: In todays financial climate should people who DO NOT stop smoking be offered cardiac surgery?
I know ethically as nursing staff it is a simple YES we must but that is not a good enough answer for a discussion, please help me i am a new member to this site thanks millions

If you started with refusing smokers, then where would you end up? Refusing people who aren't vegetarians? Who eat beef more than twice a week? Relatives of smokers?

Quite a slippery slope.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · May 31, 2006

I worked in a hospital in Manchester where one surgeon would refuse to do bypass surgery until the pt had given up smoking.

NurseyTonyaLPN · May 31, 2006

I agree with the other posters, there are a LOT of patients I see that have contributed or caused their own diseases, due to smoking, diet, exercise, not controlling their diabetes, bedsores caused by patients refusing to turn after surgeries because they're not comfortable on their sides, etc, etc. All of these are very frustrating, but they do deserve the same care. A great many people contribute to their own disease, all we can do is try to educate them and hope for the best. I can say one thing though, seeing what I've seen in hospitals has made me take better care of myself (never smoked, but I was borderline obese and have made dietary/exercise changes and reduced my weight, also eating better for my general health).

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Jun 1, 2006

I thought we all agreed to take care of people regardless of status, race, etc. Even murderers are given healthcare.

Incidentally, I don't think that calling an addiction a "choice" is necessarily the right word.

I've given up smoking and you have to make the "choice" not to smoke about 10 times a day for a month, then it lessens somewhat. If you let slip up once you're doomed. Two years later and I sometimes still have to make that "choice"

LydiaNN · Jun 1, 2006

Wondering where it would end if we assigned care according to degree of patient culpability (real or perceived, which is another problem with this theory). Shall we also decline to treat accident victims if they were injured, or their injury was made worse, due to their own negligence? Refuse treatment to patients who OD? And are we going to take genetic predisposition into account when we come up with some ridiculous formula by which to provide care? On every level, the answer to this question is a resounding no.