Medical Ethics Flashcards
What are a set of moral standards and code for behavior?
medical ethics
What is what people perceive to be right or good?
morality
What guides individual interactions with others and society?
code for behavior
What are the principles of biomedical ethics?
- autonomy
- beneficence
- nonmaleficence
- justice
What is used to inform, guide, and shade behaviors/decisions?
principles of biomedical ethics
Describe autonomy?
- patients make their own decisions
- must be voluntary and informed
- must be competent
- treat with dignity and respect
What are the responsibilities associated with autonomy?
- patient confidentiality
- honest communication
- informed consent/refusal of treatment
What includes providing adequate information that is comprehendible to a competent patient or patient surrogate such as mutual participation, respect, and shared decision making?
informed consent
What is the ultimate goal of informed consent?
patient understanding, not just agreement with the recommended treatment and not just a signature
What should be conversational, not authoritative?
informed consent
What are the components of informed consent?
- diagnosis/recommendation for treatment
- nature of recommended procedure/treatment
- risks and benefits
- alternatives to recommended procedure
- identity, credentials and experience of those performing the procedure
- cost of procedure
What must be signed, dated, and time-stamped?
informed consent
What are the requirements of informed consent?
- understand relevant information
- appreciate medical condition and consequences
- communicate a choice
- discuss own values in relation to provider’s recommendation
- provider’s judgment
What is the ability to understand the nature and consequences of the procedure or treatment that the patient is being asked to undergo?
competency
What is the practice of overriding or ignoring preferences of patients in order to benefit them or enhance their welfare?
paternalism
What “trumps” autonomy due to it being the best interest of the patient?
Beneficence
What is the promotion of the well-being of others and is the guiding purpose in healthcare (here to help others get better)?
beneficence
What are the moral rules of beneficence?
- protect and defend the rights of others
- prevent harm from occurring to others
- remove conditions that will cause harm to others
- help persons with disabilities
What is non deliberately causing harm to others, “do no harm”?
nonmaleficence
What are the moral rules associated with nonmaleficence?
- do not kill
- do not cause pain or suffering
- do not incapacitate
- do not cause offense
- do not deprive others of the goods of life
What is taking sufficient and appropriate care to avoid causing harm to a patient given what the circumstances would demand of a reasonable and prudent health professional?
due care
What is the absence of due care, intentionally causing harm, or unintentionally, but carelessly imposing risk of harm?
negligence
What is the rule of double effect?
distinction between intended effects and merely foreseen effects
-single act: 1 good effect and 1 bad effect
What are the conditions that must be met for the rule of double effect?
- nature of the act must be good
- the agent’s intention must be only the good effect
- the distinction between means and effects (bad effect must not be a means to the good effect)
- proportionality between the good and bad effect (good must outweigh the bad)
What is associated with the fair and equitable distribution of benefits and burdens and treating others equally?
justice