Institutional Affiliation Ethical Dilemma

Running head: ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 1
Ethics and Professional Practice
Name
Institutional Affiliation

ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 2
Ethical dilemma in the film
In the movie, an ethical dilemma arises when two of the principles of healthcare, autonomy,
and beneficence conflicted. Autonomy refers to giving the patient the freedom to make
decisions while beneficence doing and promoting good. This conflict is shown in the scene
when the family is in their beach house for dinner. Alice’s son Tom, a medicine student,
enquires about all of her mother’s prognosis and diagnostic tests that she has undergone. On
the other hand, Ana (her daughter), wants to make all the decisions for her mother like a
child. While their intentions are pure in doing good for their mother (beneficence), they take
away their mother’s freedom to make her own decisions (autonomy). At this stage, her
condition had not severely progressed. Her other daughter Lydia, however, who abandons her
life to take care of her does her best to maximize her independence and decision-making. We
can argue that Tom and Ana were right in the later stages of the movie when Alice had her
personality robbed off by the diagnosis. After visiting a caregiving facility for people with
her condition, the vision that this might be her future prompts her to seek a prescription for
heavy pills and make a video on instructions on how to take them to commit suicide. Her
phone had become an essential tool helping her maintain the person she used to be before
Alzheimer’s. At this point autonomy is not an option because she has become a danger to
herself. Striking a balance between her well-being and safety and her freedom was extremely
difficult at this point (Genova, 2009). This gave rise to ethical dilemma.
Principle of Health Care Ethics presented in the film – Autonomy
In the scene at the beach house, Alice’s two children Tom and Ana are skeptical about letting
her make her own decisions due to her diagnosis. However, her daughter Lydia (a struggling
actress) abandons her life to stand by her mother tries to promote Alice’s independence. Later
on, Alice visits a care-giving facility for people with her condition while she is struggling to
maintain her identity before Alzheimer’s. The facility maximizes autonomy for the patients