Health Ethics Essay: Autonomy in American Healthcare System

This essay delves into the realm of health ethics, with a specific focus on the principle of autonomy within the context of American healthcare. The author, raised in a Muslim family, reflects on the availability of healthcare resources and the adherence to ethical principles. The essay highlights the concept of gender stereotyping in healthcare preferences, where female healthcare professionals are often preferred by some community members. The principle of autonomy is emphasized, recognizing individuals' independence in decision-making regarding medical facilities and the choice of healthcare professionals. The essay further discusses the significance of autonomy in the US healthcare system, emphasizing the importance of patient self-governance, candid discussions, and respect for confidential information. The author references various studies to support the claims made in the essay.

Running head: HEALTH ETHICS
Topic: HEALTH ETHICS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1HEALTH ETHICS
Principalism is one of the important ethics involving the four basic healthcare ethics of the
four principles of non-maleficence, autonomy, beneficence and justice. Often these principles
are known by the name of Georgetown Mantra because the philosophers who had developed
these ethics had developed it with the Kennedy Institute of Georgetown University. Ethical
relativism is considered as a claim specifying the ethical theories and principles. Thus
according to the theory of ethical relativism, it can be claimed that no such theory is exactly
perfect for everyone. It is different from the concept of ethnocentrism which is the belief of
being culturally superior to other cultures (Kizilcec et al., 2014).
I have been born and been raised in a Muslim family. There has been no such conflict
regarding availability of sources pertaining to health care in our family. Moreover, most of
the member comply with the broad range of medical facilities available irrespective of the
gender, caste or religion. However, most of the people in our community consider the
concept of gender stereotyping where male practitioners are not preferred. Female health care
professionals are considered for the people preferring a gender centered treatment. Thus there
is conflict only regarding the preference of healthcare professionals based on their gender.
Here, principle of autonomy is mainly followed as each person has the independence of
decision making regarding the availability of medical facilities and the independent choice of
the healthcare professional during the treatment process.
The ethical principle of autonomy has been considered in this essay. Personal autonomy
especially refers to self-rule which is independent for the control of interference by other
people. It also is dependent on other limitations like inadequate understanding which often
requires understanding in order to prevent a meaningful choice. Thus autonomous individuals
would have the capability of acting freely and should have the independence of a self-chosen
plan which is often analogous to kind of way an independent government would manage the
territories or help in the establishment of the policies (Fullan, 2018).

2HEALTH ETHICS
The claims is that autonomy should be considered as the prominence in ethics and
principles among American health care. More, the concept of autonomy is overlapped with
the dependence of availing basic medical resources and should be considered by the health
professional as well as the patients for effective treatment. An evidence of autonomy in the
society is that in some areas of US, the ideal patient is often considered as self-governing
individual who would be willing to cooperate ad engage in candid discussions highlighting
the various problems in medical science regarding decision making (Chen et al., 2014).
Moreover, the respect for confidential information should be include the need for palliative
care and planning for the individuals need during death. The rationale behind one’s own
independence in the choice of methods and procedures is due to the fact that every individual
would have their own choices or decisions especially regarding the treatment procedures and
confidentiality about sharing of personal information (Anderson et al., 2014).

3HEALTH ETHICS
References
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