Health Ethics Report: The Ethical Dilemmas of the Charlie Gard Case

This report delves into the ethical intricacies of the Charlie Gard case, a highly publicized legal battle involving a 10-month-old infant with a rare genetic disease. The analysis focuses on the ethical considerations within hospital-based decision-making processes, particularly concerning patient rights and end-of-life care. The report examines the breaches of ethical parameters, including autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence, as the hospital authority decided to withdraw life support and deny an experimental therapy proposed by the parents. The case highlights the importance of informed consent, patient and parental involvement in treatment decisions, and the potential for ethical conflicts between healthcare providers and families. References to relevant ethical frameworks and legal precedents are included, emphasizing the critical need for healthcare professionals to be trained on ethical considerations to deliver patient-centered care.

Running Head: Health ethics
Health ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

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Task 1
The ethical complications that are involved in the critical processes that hospital based
decision making with the patients and it is highly important that the rights and the regulations
of the patient are addressed properly in order to increase the patient satisfaction and add to
the satisfaction of the family as well (Bryant and la Velle 2018). The ethical considerations
such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence (Telegraph.co.uk. 2020), integrity and
totality has to be maintained by the heath care staffs in order to deliver a secure patient
centred service to the clients admitted in the hospitals (Scie.org.uk. 2020). It is highly
important that the health care staffs are trained on ethical considerations or ethical parameters
that would better their ethical skills and professional skills in a pertinent way and manner
(Veatch 2016). It is highly important also to understand that the ethical considerations and the
breaching of ethical parameters that are involved in the management of the clinical cases with
right dignity, positive attitude and with the right ways of the clinical service delivery has to
be addressed in a more imperative manner by the stakeholders who are involved in the
medical management of the cases as well (Morales-Gonzalez and Nájera 2018). The patients,
the family of the patient and the various disciplinary professionals who are involved in the
delivery of the clinical service directly in addition to the supportive staffs who help the
clinicians with the major health care procedures ( Medical, nursing and the allied health) has
a very deep and profound connection in the maintenance and regulation of the ethical
parameters that are to be followed to provide and deliver the right respectful and accurate
treatment interventions to the subject (Johnstone and Facn 2019). The health care staffs as
well as the family of the patient play a critical role in the development of the ethical health
service delivery to the patient and his or her family as well (Springer.com 2020). It is to bee
critically considered that the interventions nowadays are more targeted at the patient and to
the family of the patient as well under critical and intensive care unit circumstances (What

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end of life care involves, 2020). It is highly vital that the parents of the child are involved in
the development of the ethical service delivery process in collaboration with the health care
staffs and clinicians who are involved in the treatment of the child. In this case, Charlie Gard
is the child who is a 10 month old affected with infantile onset encephalomyopathy
mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (who is also known as MDDS), a very rare type of
genetically inherited disease and it is critical to understand that the various aspects of the
decisions taken by the hospital authority seemed to be unethical (Campbell 2017). This case
can be thought or considered as a case physician assisted euthanasia with no informed
consent being taken from the subject or in this case, from the parents of the infant. This
makes it a huge ethical concern (Wright 2016).
The subject was born in the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and was born
healthy with the normal weight. Then when the signs and symptoms of the disease began to
show at certain months when the various types of the problem with support and sitting began
to show and the child was admitted back at the hospital where the baby was diagnosed with
brain damage and progressive muscle weakness and the hospital decided to withdraw thee
life support and shift the subject to end of life care and here is where the first thee ethical
parameter was breached (Halle and Sharpe 2020). Beneficence and autonomy are the
parameters in concern to the ethical consideration that was breached by thee health care
authority and the parents of the child were involved in the decision making process when the
infant was shifted to hospice – end of life care where the life support of the infant was
withdrawn (D'Souza 2017). Highly important is fact that should be noted is that the decision
of the health care staffs breached the right to information (GOV.UK. 2020), right to take part
in decision making, right to withdraw from the treatment, willingness to take up a treatment
and in all these areas of ethical implications, the health care staffs at the Great Ormond Street
Hospital (GOSH) showed non-compliance at a very severe degree. Secondly and moving on

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to the various aspects of the various other decision making – when the parents of the infant
opted to go for an experimental therapy (based on nucleoside) as proposed by the other
specialists in United States – in order to save their child, the health care staffs at the Great
Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) decided to still the move the child to the hospice and
withdraw the life support biomedical services saying and giving justification to the parents of
Charlie Gard that the treatment, the experimental treatment proposed by the other specialists
(Hospiceuk.org. 2020) – does not have any positive result or outcome for the child and that
the nucleoside based experimental therapy is not curative at all (Mehlman, M., 2019). This is
completely out of the ethical parameters compliance as the health care staffs at the Great
Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) caring for the child decided to kill thee child in a way
without complying or collaborating with the parents of the child, for an alternative therapy
which could have a positive effect on the health and disease condition of the child, even by an
outside chance (Chumbley and Fagge 2020). While the ethical parameter of beneficence was
broken by thee staffs at the hospital, it is very important to take note that the non-
maleficence principle of bioethics is also breached as the subject, who could have had a
second chance of surviving by a treatment that they were not able to provide but by some
other authority – was also put to waste and denied by the health staffs at the Great Ormond
Street Hospital (GOSH), thus affecting the fact of the child (RCN.ORG 2020). It is highly
important to note and understand that child was put to hospice care for an end of life care
without the permission of the patient’s parent which is a breaching of both right and
willingness to participate in a treatment process as well as pushing the child more towards
death by withdrawing of the life care and life support services is an act of ethical
complication relating to maleficence that in the end, took the life away from the ten month
old child (BBC News 2020). In these cases, it is recommended that the decisions of the parent
are taken into consideration and then with consensus with the parents, the clinical decision

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making has to be taken.
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