Compassion and Ethics in Healthcare
Do you agree with Mark's decision not to tell Annie about the seriousness of her illness?
Often, families tend to ask physicians to withhold a serious or terminal prognosis or diagnosis from the patient. In this case, Mark's motive is laudable; he wants to spare Annie the possibly harmful experience of hearing the painful or difficult facts. However, this fear seems to be unfounded. For instance, the physician's thoughtful discussion with Mark, reassuring him that the disclosure will be conducted in a sensitive manner, could help allay this concern (Ozawa-De et al. 146). Nevertheless, in this scenario, Mark has revealed to the physician that disclosure of the diagnosis might cause real and predictable harm; hence withholding is appropriate.
Should the physician have spoken to Annie as to the seriousness of her illness?
I believe that the physician has the right to withhold information about the seriousness of Annie's illness. In many cases, experts have proven that disclosing such sensitive information is dangerous and harmful to the patient. From this perspective, all physicians have sworn in the Hippocratic Oath of keeping the health of their patients as their primary consideration. Here, the principles of non-maleficence and autonomy come into...
Autonomy refers to the patient's right to make informed decisions independently while non-maleficence refers to the physician's duty to do no harm. In Annie's situation, there is a conflict between these two predominant medical principles. As such, the principle of non-maleficence is viewed as predominant. The physician is expected to assess Annie and decide whether autonomy weights much greatly or if the non-maleficence principle weighs heavily. It must be noted that the Hippocratic Oath holds that even if there is a possibility to do harm to Annie (the patient) then it ought to be avoided at all costs. This includes psychological trauma due to diagnosis disclosure (Wendy 159).
The physician has the right to withhold the information because the society has ascribed the role to medics of deciding the importance of autonomy and competency. Competency is the capacity to reason, weigh and make reasonable decisions regarding the benefits and risks of treatment. Annie's case is a perfect case example in which diagnosis information should be withheld.
Describe the ethical dilemmas in this case?
Most people would react negatively to this nondisclosure. Nevertheless, in many nations, the expectation that patients have the right to information has never been the norm and still, it is…
