Ethics Flashcards
True or false: Once patients sign a statement giving consent, they must continue treatment.
False. Patients may change their minds at any time.
Exceptions to the requirement of informed consent include emergency situations and patients without decision-making capacity.
A 15-year-old pregnant girl requires hospitalization for
preeclampsia. Is parental consent required?
No. Parental consent is not necessary for the medical
treatment of pregnant minors.
A doctor refers a patient for an MRI at a facility he/she
owns.
Conflict of interest.
Involuntary psychiatric hospitalization can be undertaken for which three reasons?
The patient is a danger to self, a danger to others, or gravely disabled (unable to provide for basic needs).
True or false: Withdrawing a nonbeneficial treatment is ethically similar to withholding a nonindicated one.
True.
When can a physician refuse to continue treating a patient on the grounds of futility?
When there is no rationale for treatment, maximal
intervention is failing, a given intervention has already failed, and treatment will not achieve the goals of care.
An eight-year-old child is in a serious accident. She requires emergent transfusion, but her parents are not present.
Treat immediately. Consent is implied in emergency situations.
Conditions in which confidentiality must be overridden.
Real threat of harm to third parties; suicidal intentions; certain contagious diseases; elder and child abuse.
Involuntary commitment or isolation for medical treatment may be undertaken for what reason?
When treatment noncompliance represents a serious danger to public health (e.g., active TB).
A 10-year-old child presents in status epilepticus, but her parents refuse treatment on religious grounds.
Treat because the disease represents an immediate threat to the child’s life. Then seek a court order.
A son asks that his mother not be told about her recently discovered cancer.
What would you do?
A physician can withhold information from the patient only in the rare case of therapeutic privilege or if the patient requests not to be told. A patient’s family cannot require the physician to withhold information from the patient.
