Ethical Dilemmas in Respiratory Therapy Paper

/in /by

RESC 4264 Professional Issues

Assignment

Section A

Watch the following webcast located under education on the AARC website:

Webcast: Ethical Dilemmas in Respiratory Therapy

http://www.aarc.org/webcasts/ethical-decision-making-in-respiratory-care-2/

Responses should be at least 4-6 sentences. Responses should be thorough and complete.

1. Explain what autonomy is in respect to human dignity.

2. Explain what informed consent is in respect to human dignity.

3. What is fair treatment? Please explain the three systems explained in the webcast.

4. What is the ethical dilemma in Case 1? What did you select when voting and why did you select that choice?

5. What is the ethical dilemma in Case 2? What did you select when voting and why did you select that choice?

6. What is the ethical dilemma in Case 3? What did you select when voting and why did you select that choice?

7. What is the ethical dilemma in Case 4? What did you select when voting and why did you select that choice?

8. What is the ethical dilemma in Case 5? What did you select when voting and why did you select that choice?

9. What is the ethical dilemma in Case 6A? What did you select when voting and why did you select that choice?

10. What happened in the Angel of Death case?

Section B

You are caring for a 92-year-old male patient following a massive stroke. When the patient arrives to the hospital ER, he is mistakenly intubated and placed on the mechanical ventilator. The patient has an advance directive stating, “he would never want to be placed on a respirator”. The patient’s legal health care decision maker notifies the patients estranged son of his father’s terminal condition. He also explains to the son his father’s wishes and advance directives and tells him he is planning to ask the hospital staff to have the mechanical ventilator removed. The son asked if he could wait until he arrived to say goodbye to his father. The son arrives 9 hours later and demands the hospital do everything that it could to save his dad’s life, saying, “I need to tell him I’m sorry for not having stayed in touch over the past 15 years.”

The health care team explained to the son that there was no chance his father would ever awaken from his coma and recover from this terminal condition. The son threatened to take legal action if the hospital did not do everything it could to keep his dad alive. The team again spoke to the son about his father’s advance directive, but he remained uncooperative. A chaplain was called in to speak to the son but had little success.

You are the respiratory therapist taking care of the patient and are asked by the health care team to plan for a terminal wean despite the son’s wishes. Given the information provided by the patients advance directive and legal health care decision maker- what would you do? As you prepare your statement, keep in mind the information you learned from the webcast Ethical Dilemmas in Respiratory Therapy.

Explain in at least 100 words why you would proceed to terminal extubation or if you would object.