Medical Ethics: Patient Rights and Diverse Values in Healthcare

Running head: MEDICAL ETHICS
Medical ethics
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1MEDICAL ETHICS
According to the code of health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights the care
provider must inform the consumers about their rights and enable them to exercise. The care
providers must ensure the patients right to be treated with respect, right to freedom from
discrimination, maintain their right to dignity and independence, and right to effective
communication. Before making any decision the medical professionals must take informed
consent from the care users and ensure making informed choice unless the consumer is not
competent. Disrespecting patient rights has its own ethical and legal implications. On the other
hand, growing fetus has moral obligations due to potentiality (Ross et al., 2016). According to
Bustreo et al. (2013) right of fetus is subordinated to the rights of mother. The medical
professionals are also obliged to care for fetus in respect to theory of non-maleficence and
beneficence (Ajah et al., 2017). The rights in this case study is also associated with the right to
liberty or birth control, right to privacy and makes reproductive choices, which are also
recognised in the international human rights documents. Further, the World health organisation
also advocates the reproductive rights while emphasising in women rights (Bustreo et al., 2013).
The learning drawn from the case study and alternating view point is that right to inform decision
making would have positive consequences and better patient outcomes. It will reduce the risk of
ethical and legal implications as concluded from the alternate viewpoints. Educating the patient
on the consequences of the X-ray testing on fetus will help resolve the ethical dilemma (Butts,
2012). If further, the patient demonstrates the non-competence in making decision, and is
reasonable, then the medical professionals may proceed with the protocols that prohibit the use
of radiography on expectant women.
On reflecting on the issue there are other cases where such dilemma occurs. It is related
to value conflicts created by the diverse values of the patients due to multicultural background.