Governance and Ethics in Healthcare Autonomy: Issues, Solutions, and Pros and Cons

Student’s Name
8/11/2018

GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS 1
Contents
Policy Memo....................................................................................................................................2
Issues in Patient Right.....................................................................................................................3
Solutions provided to remove ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare Autonomy....................................6
Issues with the provided Solutions..................................................................................................7
Pros and Cons of solutions..............................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS 2
Policy Memo
Governance and Ethics are the two factors that regulated the lives of human being. This
subject provides the morals and values to the individuals. In different sectors and areas of life,
some defined values are there which provides a guide to the people thereof on the topic “How to
conduct?” In the area of nursing also, some guides and rules have provided. In the context this is
to be stated that the parties in healthcare issues i.e. patient and medical practitioner, both are
required to follow a certain level of ethics, however, this has noted that many of the times there
is a clash between the opinion of these two parties (Ethics in Medicine, 2018). The reason behind
this is that in area of healthcare, patient has given some rights and due to that many of the times,
conflict is reported. One of the provided right to patient is autonomy.
What is Autonomy? This is a question that one needs to understand before going ahead.
This is a concept where a patient has a right to decide whether to take further treatment or not?
Whether to continue the efforts to save his/her life or not? And at last to take an informed
decision (Medicinenet.com, 2017). For the application of this right, following are the pre-
requisites:
1. Patient must be an adult.
2. Patient must not be mentally incapable (Owen, Freyenhagen, Richardson & Hotopf,
2009).
3. Patient must be informed of every fact related to his/her health so he/she can take a
proper decision.
4. The consent of the patient must be an informed one.
5. The condition of the patient must be free of any kind of coercion (Quizlet, 2018).

GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS 3
Under this right, a patient can refuse taking treatment and can finish his/her life in lack of
proper medical treatment. However, being a doctor, a medical practitioner knows that what is
good or not for the patient. Paternalism is another right, which is available with healthcare
professionals. According to this right, a healthcare professional can take the decision on behalf of
his/her patient and can continue the necessary treatment even after the refusal of the patient (The
Free dictionary, 2018). This is the reason that there is always a conflict between these two rights.
This conflict brings the ethical related issues. Ethic is a subject that teaches what is moral
or what is immoral (The Telegraph, 2018). In this context, whether Autonomy is the moral or
Paternalism is an ethical issue to debate. Different policy makers and Law makers have provided
their different opinions on this topic. This is necessary to understand the nature of the
relationship between a healthcare professional and patient. A trustworthy relationship always
exists in between the patient and his/her doctor. In additional to ethical issues, some legal issues
are also there in this sector that is elucidated below.
Issues in Patient Right
As mentioned earlier that due to two different concepts there is always a conflict between
patient and healthcare professional, this conflict brings many of the issues. A patient is the one
who suffers from the pain; no one can understand the actual pain that a person feels being a
patient. On the other side, the practitioner who is giving treatment to a patient is a professional
person who knows what is better for the patient. The conflict is all about the choice. Causes of
this conflict, many of the issues are raised on the topic that is mentioned as below:-
1. Respect of Patient Autonomy: - The right of a patient to take decisions related to his/her
life is termed as “Autonomy.” According to this right, a patient has all the rights to decide