Professionalism Flashcards
4 reasons why ethical reasoning is important
Understand and evaluate moral arguments
Know when to challenge
Make the right decision
Explain and justify the decision
What is a moral argument?
An argument which provides reasons to support a moral claim
When are moral arguments sound and when are they valid?
Sound: When the conclusion follows logically from the premises and all the premises are true
Valid: When the conclusion follows logically from the premises (they don’t need to be true)
What are the 2 stages of evaluating an argument?
- Understanding the logical form
(e. g. deceiving causes upset and an act is morally wrong if it upsets so the act of deceiving is morally wrong) - Evaluating if the argument is valid AND sound
Can something be morally allowed without being morally valid?
Yes
Explain the 4 logical fallacies
Ab hominens: Criticising an argument due to the person putting it forward
Appealing to emotion: Making arguments seem more appealing
Begging the question: Conclusion of the argument in the claim
Straw man fallacy: Misrepresent an argument so it’s easy to reject
Define reproductive ethics
Issues relating to the beginning and end of life
Define assisted reproductive technology
Treatment/procedure involving in vitro handling of human gametes for the purpose of achieving pregnancy
3 arguments for assisted reproductive technology
Procreative autonomy - parents right to have children
Welfare of future/existing children (disability)
Reduced burden on state (disability)
3 arguments against assisted reproductive technology
Embryo destruction
Unnatural
Harmful (multiple risk)
How many ICF cycles do NICE recommend on the NHS?
3
Explain the 2 limits of when IVF can be offered and the problems with them
Interest of future child: If being conceived results in physical/psychological harm to the child (hard unless screened)
Right to an open future: Children should enjoy the widest range of opportunities (e.g. not allowing disabled children - what is disabled?)
What does the Human Fertilisation and Embryology act state?
When and why was it changed?
Treatment only provided if the child will have good welfare
2008 change to ‘supportive parenting’ over ‘need for a father’
What is PGD?
When it is okay and not okay?
Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis
Okay to avoid genetic disease, not okay for designer babies and saviour siblings
What are the 6 requirements for abortion
2 medical practitioners agree that:
- pregnancy is under 24 weeks
- continuing would cause more harm than terminating
- termination needed to prevent mental/physical injury to the mother
- continence would increase risk to mothers life
- if the child is born it would be profoundly handicaped
Is the pro life argument valid or sound?
Valid argument
Not sound
(foetus same moral status as a human and wrong to end life of something with a moral status of a person)
2 examples of why children are vulnerable
Cannot defend rights
Need help making decisions
When can parental autonomy be overruled?
If they are not acting in the child’s best interest and if the child’s welfare is at stake
Define research
A structured activity intended to produce new knowledge which is generalisable and intended for wider dissemination
5 principals of research ethics
Usefulness (likely to provide new evidence?) Necessity (is it needed?) Risks (outweighed by benefit?) Participant consent and confidentiality Research ethics approval
Define consent
Getting permission before involving a person
Need to be informed and voluntary
What is the purpose of participant information sheets?
Allow the patients to make an informed decision
When is the medical research council involved?
When there is use of human tissue
Consent for storage and use of tissue from the patient
Define confidentiality
Not sharing information about a patient without the expressed consent of that person
3 reasons for confidentiality
Patient autonomy
Aids trust
Info not shared with people who may cause harm
What are the 5 points of the mental capacity act?
- Presumed capacity unless proven otherwise
- Supported and given all help to make own decisions
- Right to make eccentric/unwise decisions
- Anything done for the patient must be in their best interest and based on past/family values and wishes
- Always give the least restrictive intervention
Define mental capacity
Making a decision about whether a person is able to make their own decisions regarding their care AT THE TIME THE DECISION NEEDS TO BE MADE or if someone else should
2 ways that capacity can vary
Task-dependent: Relevant to the situation
Vary over time: e.g. fluctuating condition
4 things a patient must be unable to do in order to lack capacity
Unable to understand the information
Unable to retain it
Unable to use their values to evaluate the information
Unable to communicate a decision
2 things advanced decisions/directives must be in order to be legally binding
Valid and applicable to the patients circumstances
3 arguments for advanced directives
- Respects patients choice and autonomy
- Legal right to refuse treatments
- Reduces anxiety over losing consciousness
3 arguments against advanced directives
- Patients opinion can change
- Patient may have not seen these circumstances
- Possibility of coercion
Explain the difference between the experimental and critical mind
Experimental mind: in the moment
Critical: evaluation across time
If a patient is happy despite their loss of capacity should an AD refusing life saving treatment be applied?
Who knows bro
If a person who undergoes a severe personality change as a result of dementia the same person who wrote the AD?
No
AD only legally binding if the person writing it is the same person
They are not as their psychologies radically differ (not sound - have 2 personalities but be the same person?)
So AD is not legally binding for people with dementia
