Ethical Dilemma in Hospitals and Health Sectors

Running Head: ETHICAL DILEMMA IN HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SECTORS
ETHICAL DILEMMA IN HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SECTORS
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ETHICAL DILEMMA IN HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SECTORS1
An ethical dilemma includes the need to solve the moral issue in the decision-making
process among two or more viable options, which are not entirely acceptable from an ethical
view (Noothigattu et al., 2018). Ethical dilemmas in hospitals involve various types of decision
making in terms of medicals and health care; it can also be challenging. An optimal solution for
these dilemmas is critical but not impossible, and the inability to determine the proper solution
might cause a severe issue (Preshaw., 2016). One of the ethical dilemma faced by the doctors
and nurses is when they are not provided with a proper medical history of the patient and their
relatives are also unable to explain it. As nurses, we also face ethical dilemmas in our day-to-day
clinical practice and as professionals, it is our duty to come out of the dilemma and protect the
interest of the patient. This paper outlines an ethical dilemma that occurred in one of my
experiences as a nurse in the International Concord Hospital related to the intensive care unit. It
talks about the case, where we were forced to decide for the patient which was a tough choice for
us to make and it had put all the medical experts in a dilemma.
A woman was brought to our hospital, who was suffering from respiratory distress and
could not respond verbally. When tests were conducted, it was found that she had bowel cancer
which had increased. I was made in-charge of the patient, where I asked the doctor whether to
put the patient in the ventilation or not as her respiratory organs had failed. Within a day, the
patient’s health deteriorated rapidly and it was time to consult the family members of what step
should be taken. The relatives need to inform about the patients so that appropriate decisions can
be made. The son was contacted and then we came to know that it was the wish of her mother
not to be given treatment for cardiac arrest. However, the daughter wanted the procedure to be
given to her mother. This incident threw us in an ethical dilemma as to respect the last wish of
the patient or treat her as wished by her daughter that was our duty as well. We were left with

ETHICAL DILEMMA IN HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SECTORS2
only two choices that are respecting the wishes of the patient or ignoring her demand and going
ahead with her treatment. Here the ethical dilemma had risen where the patient's autonomy was
ignored by agreeing to the requirements of the daughter. These types of cases are examples of
ethical dilemmas that we face in the healthcare profession. Here we were trapped in two difficult
situations and both were right ethically as well as morally. Our case was backed by the western
normative consequentialist theory, where a moral act is one that will help in producing good
outcomes as well as a consequence (Berreby, Bourgne & Ganascia2017). Our decision too was
right as it would help the patient to ease her pain. Deontology, on the other hand, is rationally
right, even though it is not morally right. In our case, too ignoring the patient’s wishes was
ethically wrong but treating her was logically correct. The two words are used synonymously.
Ethical egoism is a part of the consequentialist theory where consequences mattered rather than
the result. Here our egoism helped to start the treatment of the patient. Utilitarianism too helps
the doctors to rise over their fears where interest precedes the former (Mandal, Ponnambath &
Parija 2016). The non-consequentialist theory also supports our action as here the ethics and
approach focus on the right and wrong depending on the work and does not focus on the
rightness or wrongness of the consequences. Here too our interest in treating the patient and give
her the required medical help was right even though we could not guarantee its outcome. The
categorical imperative is also a part of ethics that was introduced in the 18th century and was
devised by Emmanuel Kant who was also the founder of critical philosophy. His theory of
morality accurately fits into deontological tradition. According to Kant, only categorical
imperatives can be considered as a standard for moral obligation. According to this theory, the
requirement and authority are justified as well as required, that is an end in itself (Westphal,
2017). The categorical imperative soon became a universal law that can be applied to all. Kant