Ethical Case Study: HIV Positive Diagnosis and the Duty to Inform

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Ethical Case Study
Ethical Case Study
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Ethical Case Study
Introduction
This assignment focuses on the ethical principles and its importance for resolving the ethical
issues that prevail in the surroundings. In these various ethical principles are discussed to support
my judgment with the support of the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, respect,
confidentiality, and autonomy.
Background of the case study
Middle-aged men along with a young woman go into the clinic for testing where young woman
state that they are in the relationship. As per the ID proof, she is 18 years of age. After testing,
the man has tested with the HIV positive e result and woman with a negative result. In this, the
man stated that he is not going to inform about this to the woman as it is a concern with the
matter of private information for him.
In respect to the service, it is essential to provide counselling and treatment to the people who are
tested with the HIV positive result and provide education to the people to the people who are not
tested with positive results. In the given case, the woman not known about the person to whom
she was in a relationship is tested with HIV positive and now it becomes significant to educate
her to prevent the infection spread with this disease. In my view, I strongly support the fact that
the young woman must be informed about the situation so that she remains safe with the
infections of the HIV disease. This support is proven by stating the ethical principles which
support my argument in a stronger way. In this context, there are various ethical principles are
discussed that support my argument in favour to inform the woman about the situation.

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Ethical Case Study
Ethical principles of beneficence
According to these principles, it is essential that the actions of the medical practitioner/ nurses
are for promoting good and do what is best for the patient. This principle states that it is the
responsibility of the nurses to take necessary actions for protecting their patients from any harm
and restrict the worse situations and promoting better things (Spencer, 2017). It focuses on the
long term effect on the patients and doing what is good for the patients by considering their
wants and needs from life. In this context, this principle supports my argument which is the
favour to acknowledge about the situation to the woman as it is an ethical duty to take care of the
patient so as to save her by doing well to the patient and to provide her better life in the long run.
Ethical principles of non-maleficence
The principle of non-maleficence states that act is performing is such a way that it does not cause
harm to others which means that no intentional harm caused to others by preventing the risk that
causes harm (Shaha, et al., 2018). In the medical field, it is vital to primary focus on the things
that cause harm death or disability to the others and impose unreasonable harm on the life of the
others. In the given case, the man does not inform about the HIV positive result intentionally
which is not in favour of the woman. As they are in the relationship, this disease can also cause
to the woman if they further get involved physically. This principle assists in supporting this
argument with an intention to avoid the unwanted harm cause to the woman.
Ethical principles of respect
According to this principle, it allows the principles to provide the moral right to the individuals
for self-determination. These principles abide the people to respect the other persons for their

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Ethical Case Study
decisions that are made by them that concern about their lives, and it is important that these
dealings remain fair and honest (Lolas Stepke, 2015). In support of my argument, the decision
taken by the man for telling about the result of HIV is not fair as it is harmful to the woman
health. Thus for avoiding harm and providing the medical benefit to the patient, it is important
for the woman to know about such a situation.
Ethical principles of confidentiality
This principle states that it is the responsibility to keep the information private from their family,
relatives or friends. In accordance with this principle, the personal information of the patient
remains protected so that it cannot be misuse that causes any loss to the patient. The information
is remaining between the patient and the doctor but in case if the information protects the life of
the other patient by revealing the information and provides benefits to the other patient in a
positive way (Danks & London, 2017). In support of this principle, the argument is supported
and the man hides the information about the result of the HIV positive is wrong as it impacts
over the woman health and the woman can also suffer from the disease.
Ethical principles of autonomy
In accordance with this principle, it obliges the doctors in the medical field to respect the
decisions of the others because they are in the age who possess the rights for making the
decisions. In the autonomous action, the requirement to fulfil the three things includes intention,
understanding and the absence of influence control that assist in determining their actions. It
includes the revealing of the truth with the concern of the patients (Markham & Buchanan,
2012). This principle abides the man to reveal the truth to the woman so as to save her life in the
long run. This principle is to support my argument as it states that the truth can be revealed with

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the consent of the patient. In this context, the information is revealed to the woman with the
consent of the man so as to protect her life.
Conclusion
With the discussions above, it concludes the role of the ethical principles is imperative in
resolving the ethical issues in our surroundings. The above principles strongly support my
arguments for revealing the information related to the HIV positive results of the man to the
woman as it is important to save the woman life and further to prevent any health issues.

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References
Danks, D., & London, A. J. (2017, August). Algorithmic Bias in Autonomous Systems.
In IJCAI (pp. 4691-4697).
Lolas Stepke, F. (2015). Trends and clinical need of ethical principles.
Markham, A., & Buchanan, E. (2012). Ethical decision-making and internet research: Version
2.0. recommendations from the AoIR ethics working committee. Available online: aoir.
org/reports/ethics2. pdf.
Shaha, K. K., Patra, A. P., Chaudhari, V. A., Das, S., & Das, S. K. (2018). A review on
Applications of Principles of Medical Ethics in the Practice of Surgery. South-East
Asian Journal of Medical Education, 12(1).
Spencer, H. (2017). The data of ethics. Routledge.