Health care professionals handle various ethical dilemmas in their course of duty. A case study will show the challenges that health care professionals face in their duty. The case study involves a Jehovah Witness patient who is suffering from a life-threatening medical condition. A black Hispanic pregnant lady in her early twenties is involved in an accident, and she is taken to the Emergency Room (ER).
She had signs and effects of interior bleeding and was encouraged to have a blood transfusion and surgery to save her and her baby. She declined both the blood transfusion and surgery. Her refusal of blood transfusion was because of her teachings and religious inclination towards the Bible. The ethical question raised is whether to respect the lady’s independent decision and go against the set standards of care or to ignore and save her and the baby.
Application of the principles of global health ethics to the dilemma
To address the dilemma presented, there has to be the application of the principle of respect, autonomy, non-maleficence, justice, and beneficence. By applying the virtue ethics, the health care professionals concentrated on the independence of the patient and her right to go by what she believed was the best option for her despite the impending outcomes. The lady was old and of sound mind to make a good decision of not accepting the surgery nor the blood transfusion. Using the principles of health care, the professionals went by the wishes of the patient’s independence of believing her religious teachings. The health care professionals followed the principle of beneficence, which advocates the well-being of individual decisions.
The wellbeing of the patient was more of a spiritual than physiological. The practitioners also followed the principle of non-maleficence. They never inflicted pain or harm on the patient intentionally but opted to respect her wishes. If they violated the beliefs the patient held, then that would amount to causing harm.
The principle of trust and respect was also at play when the professionals acted truthfully to the patient and gave her room to make her own independent decision.
Application of the principles in a different country with different ethical values
Different countries have different ways of dealing with ethical dilemmas. Some countries have laid down guidelines that relate to the treatment of people who are believers of Jehovah Witness. Graham (2011) argues that “in Australasia, specific guidelines for treating pregnant women that focus on stabilizing the patient by using traditional and new treatment modalities to meet patient needs, particularly for Jehovah’s Witnesses or other patients who decline blood transfusions” (p. 104).
The approach towards this case could have been different in countries that have risk management laws. The patient signs a declaration that shields the caregivers and hospital from any litigation arising from their decision to treat a patient without her consent. According to Graham (2011), “to support this protocol, the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management maintains a database of hospitals that provide blood-conserving services in the United States as well as in Canada, Chile, Korea, and South Africa”(p. 79).
Contribution of the principles of global health ethics to positive social change
The principle of health ethics promotes social change by ensuring professionals operate in a just society. This involves respecting the rights and decisions of others, like in the case above. This ensures a just co-existence between parties. The principle of non – maleficence contributes to positive social change by ensuring that a particular procedure will not harm the patient. The principle of autonomy is also important in ensuring positive change that can reduce tension.
According to Christine (2012), “this tension takes center stage in some analyses of the ethics of public health, as when public health policies are placed on autonomy-limiting continua and the fourth and fifth justifications dominate the analysis” (p. 68). The principles should be part of the health care curriculum. Health care educators should include this principles to critical thinking decisions to help amateur and experienced practitioners handle cases like above.
References
Christine, S. (2012). Health Inequalities and Global Justice. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Graham, H. (2011). Understanding Health Inequalities. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.