Medical Lawand Ethics Essays

Medical Lawand Ethics Essays Medical Lawand Ethics Paper Medical Lawand Ethics Paper In this medical case, it is described how Johnny, a 2-year old boy, has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and needs blood transfusion immediately since his hemoglobin count has dropped to drastically dangerous levels. According to the medical report presented in the case, Johnny could die should his hemoglobin continue to decrease because it is essential in delivering oxygenated blood. The problem and ethical dilemma in the case, however, is that the boy’s parents, Sarah and Tom, are practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is a religion that prohibits any form of blood transfusion among its members. Personally, I believe that having a professional code of ethics played a vital role in actions of the healthcare team in addressing Johnny’s illness. As stated in the case, there are other alternatives to treat Johnny’s condition. The alternatives that the team used are oral/intravenous/intramuscular preparations of iron and Epogen, a colony stimulating factor that can be used to trigger the patient’s bone marrow to produce new blood cells. However, Johnny’s health continued to deteriorate and he required immediate platelet transfusion, which is against the religion of his parents. But a court order ruled that in case of a life-threatening condition, the boy must receive transfusion and so the parents had no choice but to allow it. Upon analyzing this case using the Three-Step Ethics model, three questions must be asked: Is it legal? Is it balanced? And how does it make one feel? Evidently, the answers to all those questions are yes because the healthcare team could’ve ignored the patient’s religion and proceeded immediately with a transfusion. However, the team chose to forego the procedure until it is immediately needed, which showed that they acted in accordance with their professional code of ethics and the laws of the patient’s religion. Moreover, although Sue, the nurse who administered the transfusion, felt guilty with her actions, in the end, the results proved beneficial to all parties. Johnny was able to recover from his illness and has been enabled to live a healthy life again. In short, the actions of the healthcare team was generally ethical because they exercised judgment based on their professional code of ethics,, acted according to the laws of both the state and the patient’s religion, and most of all, saved the ill boy’s life. References McNeil, S. (1997). Johnny’s story: transfusing a Jehovah’s Witness. B. net. Pediatric Nursing. Retrieved July 12, 2009 from http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0FSZ/is_n3_v23/ai_n18607405/? tag=content;col1.