Ethical Issues in Limiting Life Support

Running head: NURSING ETHICS 1
NURSING ETHICS
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NURSING ETHICS 2
Decision-making is a vital process in healthcare. In the course of undertaking
professional responsibilities, Healthcare providers continuously encounter situations where they
must decide on the best course of treatment for their patients. On the other hand, professional
ethical guide their practice and inform what is morally right and what id not. This paper explores
the ethical issues in limiting life support.
Clinicians have a responsibility to provide the most optimal care for their patients. It is
legally and ethically allowed to give patients end of life support if doing so has the possibility of
improving the condition of a patient. On the other hand, they have a responsibility to adhere to
the wishes of a patient or family members when making decisions regarding end of life care.
Additionally, clinicians have a duty of educating their patients together with their families on the
importance and consequences of various interventions available for patients requiring end of life
support.
In this scenario, the patient, together with his wife has directed that no CPR should be
performed if a need arises. Because their decision regarding end of life support options is
synonymous, it could be argued that the decision was arrived at after consultations. In this
regard, patient autonomy is a critical requirement in healthcare. Healthcare providers are obliged
to allow patients to make decisions on the type of interventions they wish to or not to receive
(Sedig, 2016).For this reason, therefore, the directive by the patient needs to be adhered to.
The patient’s quality of life is an essential consideration in healthcare. Based on the
medical intervention adopted by healthcare providers, the quality of life may significantly be
improved or hampered. Improvising the quality of life entails assisting a patient in leading a
better life in their present medical condition. Based on the information in the case study the
quality of life for the patient would have been improved with the adoption of CPR because an