Legal and Ethical Decision Making in Personal Centered Care

If there was such a guideline, it would be acceptable among the people of different cultures with some of the religious and others not religious. Thus, it is hard to develop a complete moral guide that nurses can refer to whenever they are confronted with ethical issues that require ethical decisions to be made. In the nursing field, there are many principles that have been developed but they cannot be termed to be absolute by themselves, but they only serve as action guide to the clinical officers. Some of this principles have been in use for long, and they have developed a long time ago. An example of a principle that was developed years ago is “to help to do no harm” principle that was developed by Hippocrates in the 4th century BC.

Application of fairness is that the patient with similar kind of condition and similar kind of circumstances might get a chance to be treated fairly which is an important concept in the light of scares resources such as organs. The four major principles that are generally accepted as derived from the work by Beauchamp and Childress are as follows; Principle of respect for autonomy, the principle of nonmaleficence, the principle of beneficence and the principle of justice (Morton et al. The four principles do not bear any hierarchy as no one principle is deemed to be superior to another principle. However, in practice, medical officers are supposed to endeavor to uphold each of this principles by balancing the demands of this principles and determining which ones carry most weight to the situation that is at hand.

Therefore there is a need to develop fact and information about the case at hand before taking any decision (Standing, 2017). Earlier before she got into the condition she is in, she had expressed her desire not be merely existing as she never wanted to suffer. She had rejected the idea of just being plugged into a machine to exist. The family and the nurse have to make tough ethical decisions as to whether to respect her wish and terminate her life or to prolong her life by keeping her comfortable as is the desire of Jones. The nurse is at a dilemma since Dawn is not in apposition where she can make her informed of the consequences of her decision. But having Dawn made her decision and expressed her willingness to terminate her at a time when she was in a reasonable capacity to do so, the nurse has no other option other than to let the family know the implication of her decision to seek them to grant her with as is the opinion of Daryl and Bronwyn.

This will only be granted through the termination of her life. The family too seem not to agree which is the best way through which they can be able to treat and guarantee their mother the best way of life. Children are for granting her the wish to terminate her life while the father and the husband are against making such kind of a decision. Principle of Nonmaleficence According to this principle, the physicians are expected to cause no harm or injury to their patients intentionally either if it through acts and errors of commission or the acts of omission (Neighbour, 2017). In the day to day world, it is considered as negligence when a person poses a risk of harm to another person.

She also The Principle of Justice In the provision of health care, justice is viewed as some form of fairness. The general application of this principle is that people who are equal in the society should be able to receive the same kind of treatment. No preferential treatment should be given to some patients where all patients being treated are equal to each other (Gillion, 2015). The nurse in line with the principle of justice has been fair to the family by bringing to the table to the harsh reality of the situation of Dawn. She has an ethical dilemma facing her to ensure that other patients who are suffering from such a case are able to receive similar kind of treatment.