The common law provides each individual with legal rights to determine his or her own health-care (The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws [NCC], 2014).
In addition, an individual have the right to refuse treatment that would sustain life (NCC, 2014).
The Model Health-Care Consent Act addressed the issue of consent to treatment, but does not address the problems of a patient who is dying (NCC, 2014).
When a person lacks legal capacity, the issue is unclear and can be complex. The law in many states does not provide clear answers to the question of who may make health-care decisions for adults who lack legal capacity and have no designated guardian (NCC, 2014).
In this scenario, the relevant legal issue at stake is rather Mr. Jones makes his health care decisions or his daughter. Legally, the patient has the right to make his own health care decision if he has the capacity to do so (NCC, 2014).
However, it is stated that Mr. Jones has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and a preliminary capacity assessment shows results consistent with mild dementia. Thus, it is unclear if Mr. Jones has the capacity to make his own health care decisions. Furthermore, Mr. Jones does not have an advance directive of any kind and is not under guardianship. An advance directives is a form of a “living will” or “durable power of attorney” which allow the patient to state in advance the kinds of medical care that s/he considers acceptable or not acceptable (Pozgar, 2014, p. 139).
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Many employees must designate a health plan through their employer. These days, as HMOs (health maintenance organizations) and managed care plans continue to proliferate, that means a choice between bad and worse. As employees line up in the lunch-room for a process called open enrollment, they may be surprised to learn that managed care rates have gone up again. The mirage that managed care is ...
Therefore, the question is whether his daughter can make health-care decisions for her father.
As Pozgar (2014) states, “it is necessary to consider first what rights a competent patients possesses” (p. 126).
It is important that Mr. Jones possesses decisional capacity and can provide informed consent (Duffy, 2010).
The physician and health care providers must determine if Mr. Jones can comprehend, appreciate, and reason the contingencies of treatment or non-treatment (Duffy, 2010).
If he is not able too, it is best to act in the patient’s best interest (Duffy, 2010).
The patient must also be able to communicate his or her choices about their options for treatment or non-treatment. These factors play a role in consenting or validly rejecting medical treatments (Duffy, 2010).
If the patient is determined to lack capacity, there are many alternatives as to who decides on behalf of the patient (NCC, 2014).
The Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act states, “Any adult with capacity or emancipated minor may give an oral or written instruction to a health-care provider, which remains in force even after the individual loses capacity” (NCC, 2014, p.1).
Health care decisions can either be made by an agent that was authorized by the adult via a written power of attorney or if there is a court appointed guardian (NCC, 2014).
A guardian may make health-care decisions on behalf of the patient if there is no agent (NCC, 2014).
If an individual is with legal capacity, s/he may select the surrogate, but if s/he chooses not to select a surrogate, then an individual related to him may step forward and assume the authority, in this case it would be his daughter. His daughter would then be considered a surrogate because she lives with him and is his caregiver (NCC, 2014).
In this case, a social worker comments that the daughter might be afraid of an elder-neglect investigation if her father dies. Thus, in this situation an ethics committee should be involved. When making medical decisions, patients, families, and staff may have difficult choices to make. Therefore, meeting with the ethics committee and discussing the issues at hand can be helpful and reassuring when a difficult decision must be made (Michigan Health System [MHS], 2014).
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... and resubmission of a research proposal.NHS ethics committees are made up of health and care professionals and scientists, who contribute technical ... collected help the professional to make correct decisions about treatment or care to meet the individuals need. The main ... cold have been warned early enough for possible effects.moreso,the patient who had cancer should be inform quickly for possible ...
Ethics committee can help facilitate communication and provide conflict resolution. The ethics committee usually includes both clinicians from medicine, surgery, and psychiatry (University of Washington, 2013).
In addition, a social worker, chaplains, and community representatives tends to be a part of the ethics committee (University of Washington, 2013).
The ethic committee should focus on promoting the rights of patients; promoting shared decision making between patients/surrogates and their physicians; promoting far policies and procedures that maximize the likelihood of achieving good, patient-centered outcomes (University of Washington, 2013).
The goal of the ethics committee is to help everyone decide the right thing to do for the patient. In this case, the committee would review Mr. Jones’ medical situation and treatment options. They will review the concerns and feelings of Mr. Jones, the daughter, and the health care team (MHS, 2014).
Each members of the committee will discuss all the information which has been gathered (MHS, 2014).
Then, suggestions about the best course of action will be made.
References
Duffy, J. (2010).
Practical considerations for determining patient capacity and consent. American Family Physicians, 81(9): 1090-1092. Retrieved from http://www.aafp.org/afp/2010/0501/p1090.html
Michigan Health System. (2014).
Ethics committee. Retrieved from http://www.uofmhealth.org/ethics-committee
Pozgar, G. D. (2014).
Legal and ethical essentials for health professionals (3rd Ed.).
Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. (2014).
Health-care decisions act summary. Retrieved from http://www.uniformlaws.org/ActSummary.aspx?title=Health-Care%20Decisions%20Act
The Term Paper on Ethics Of Goodness Patient Medical Law
The Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution states: No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. One specific case shows the extreme debate over this Amendment and the countless ethical questions that arise from this Amendment. On January 11, 1983 Nancy Cruzan was in a serious car accident and was found face down on the ground. She had suffered ...
University of Washington. (2013).
Ethics in medicine. Retrieved from
https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/ethics.html
