Ethical Consideration

Ethical Consideration Project

DeVry University

Ethical Consideration Project

The healthcare delivery care delivery system is constantly changing it will continue to impact the kinds of services that are provided by religiously affiliated institutions. The ethical consideration with this issue is whether or not to inform the patient about the morning after pill due to their spiritual beliefs. Ethics are also known as moral philosophy which is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality. Such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice and justice. Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continually argued over for the past few years and probably many years to come. Although abortion is morally and ethically wrong should it be legal for victims of rape or incest who have no other alternative? This is where emergency contraception comes in, the prevention of pregnancy after unprotected vaginal intercourse. Emergency contraception may use drugs related to the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.

The legal consideration of this issue is that the court held the patient' rights superior to painstaking objections. For example, a patient wanted estrogen pregnancy prophylaxis (a "morning-after pill") from a Catholic hospital. The hospital refused to provide any information concerning this treatment. The court ruled that the patient's "right to control her treatment must prevail over respondent's moral and religious convictions." Although state law protected the right to refuse to perform an abortion, the court ruled that this did not apply because the treatment requested constituted pregnancy prevention rather than abortion. Failure to advise the patient as to her options exposed the hospital to medical malpractice damages. However, none were awarded because the plaintiff had sued only to charge the hospital's future behavior.

Similarly, in Matter of Patricia Dubreuil, a patient refused blood transfusions...