Legal Aspects of Healthcare Ethics - Essay Example

Running head: Health Care Ethics Health Care Ethics Insert Insert Insert 23 March Health Care Ethics Introduction A legal consent to treatment basically entails doctors giving information regarding a particular test or treatment to a patient and letting him or her make a decision towards such tests and treatment. The patient’s comprehensive understanding of the benefits and risks involved with a particular treatment constitutes their informed consent based on their own moral and legal autonomy. The patients have a legal right to make informed decisions with regards to their own medical conditions and health. The law requires health professionals to uphold the patients’ autonomy in making their own decision with regards to their health. More over, it is ethically right for professionals to respect the patients’ views and decisions with respect to their own health. Health Care Ethics Patients must basically give their voluntary and informed consent to health care services ranging from treatment itself, medical procedures, and tests carried out on their bodies. Health care professionals have the mandate, according to the law, to obtain a legal consent from patients before carrying out any medical procedures. In case health care professionals fail to obtain a legal consent from patients before carrying out any medical procedures, they are liable to some form of assault. However, a variety of patient’s interaction with a doctor constitutes implied consent while more invasive treatment and tests that have significant risks needs to have a written consent. The legal consent is also subject to isolated exceptions such as emergency need of medical attention to prevent irreversible harm to a patient and patient’s incompetence in which they are unable to give a legal consent (Kim, 2010, p.3). Patients have a legal right to be given the freedom to give suggestion and to make a decision as to whether they should consent or refuse treatment. Legal consent that is obtained under compulsion through words or actions of health care practitioners may be repudiated on the basis of baseless freedom to consent. This context explains that health care professionals must clearly keep in mind that there are circumstances in which initiatives to consultations of health care professionals may be of a third party to the patient’s treatment. In case third parties decision and consultation are evidently significant to the professional course of actions, the health care professional must ensure that the patients fully agree to the suggestions. Consents may be expressed or implied and doesn’t necessarily require that an individual produces evidence of a signed contract although consent forms are usually common in case of significant risks (Radford & County, Oakley, 2004, p.207). More over, patients must fully consent to the suggestions to rule out possibilities of coercion and imposition of third party suggestions. Valid consent to treatment also requires that patients must be in a position to understand the anticipated effect and the nature of the medical treatment proposed. This implies that the mental capacity of patients should be convenient to decision making where consequences to both the consented treatment and refusal to treatment are placed at the discretion of the patients with regards to the consequences involved. In case the patient has no sufficient mental capacity to make informed and reasonable decisions, particular attention and considerations must be given to such special circumstances (Caroline & American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2008, p.415). The patient’s age has also been placed into consideration and emphasized upon with respect to the capacity to validly consent treatment. However, the currently health care practice has progressively emphasized on the irrelevance of legal age of consent to treatment among the young patients. The recommendations and considerations of evolutions of law and law reform groups are shifting to maturity concept of patients as opposed to the chronological age where one is fit to give a legal consent to treatment. The minor’s capacity has progressively shifted maturity aspects as determinants to valid consent to treatment with respect to the patient’s mental, emotional and physical status of development. A patient’s maturity with regards to mental, emotional and physical development enables them to appropriately determine whether the consequences and nature of the proposed treatment are favorable to their medical conditions (Adshead & Brown, 2003, p.32: Maclean, 2004, p.74). Most territorial laws require that patients should be given the freedom to consent to treatment by right as long as they are in capacity to reasonably understand the consequences and nature of treatment. Although maturity aspects have been placed into consideration in age to consent, particular law requirements still place specific chronological age as determining factor. In case a child is below a particular age to give a consent, guardians, parents and the court itself are must give and a valid and informed consent to the proposed treatment. However, the court, guardians or parents must be guided by all that entails decisions in the best interest of the minor patient. Health care practitioners generally have the legal are ethical obligation for their patients irrespective to their capability to consent. More to giving patients freedom to consent to treatment, health care professionals have the mandate to ensure that third party consent must be in the patients best interest of the patients with respect to best fit medical options and procedures. Baseless refusal by guardians or parents to consent to reasonable recommended treatment subjects individuals to liability with child authorities who seek to protect minor’s best interests. Professionals are obligated by the law to report such matters to child protection authorities. Health care providers also have ethical responsibilities to themselves, their patients, coworkers and the public in general. Ethical responsibilities to patients would basically encompass caring for their emotional and physical needs depending on the prevailing situation (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 2011, p.95). Although legal consent to treatment constitutes a patient’s capacity and ability to understand the consequences and nature of the proposed treatment, patients with mental incapacity are still considered by the law as having sufficient ability to consent to treatment. Many individuals who were declared mentally infirm by psychiatric institutions have from time and again proved to have mental capacity to understand the consequences and nature of treatment. Right to individuals’ consent to treatment has not been restricted to individuals with perfect mental capacity and encompasses both the normal and those mentally infirm as long as they are able to control and direct their own care reasonably. Health care professionals must carry out a formal capacity assessment before declaring a patient as unable to consent to treatment irrespective of infirm metal status. More so, patients declared as unable to give a valid consent to treatment are given provisions by law requirements to appeal against such declaration (McLean & Mason, 2003, p.219: Lynch, 2011, p.179). However, incase a patient is declared as incapable of giving a valid consent to treatment through a valid formal capacity assessment, a third party must be authorized to give a directive in place of the patient. Otherwise, patients have their own autonomy to give consent to treatment and may only be subject to proxy consent under situations where the law invests other persons with powers to withhold consent with regards to the patient giving out expressed authority. Validity of proxy consent is also supported by the law in cases of children where parents and guardians are invested with such powers. Expressed authority may be with respect to a living will as an advance directive by patient for future care, incase he/she will become incapacitated to consent to treatment. Authorized individuals through the will are responsible for decision making as a substitute in case relevant consent needs are not covered by the will itself. More so, the living will may stand as consent itself with respect to the patients giving explicit instructions to refuse or consent to a particular treatment in the future when he or she will be incapacitated. Laws recognize living will with respect to consent and authorization, although powers of attorneys to personal care may also play a key role (Leino-Kilpi, 2000, p.40: Freeman, Pathare, World Health Organization, 2005, p.56). Conclusion Health care ethics are generally guided by professional codes of conduct that seek to streamline health care in line with legal requirements and what is ethically right to patients. Freedom to decision making over one’s health is generally reasonable to be placed at the discretion of the patients as long as he or she has the capacity to make such decision. The law comes in handy to protect the rights of patients that have no capacity of understanding the consequences and nature of proposed treatment. The law also comes into play in case of health care professionals who fail to recognize the professional codes of conduct to respect patients and individuals. References Adshead, G. & Brown, C. (2003). Ethical Issues in Forensic Mental Health Research. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. (2011). Emergency Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Caroline, N.L. & American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (2008). Nancy Caroline’s Emergency Care in the Streets. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Freeman, M., Pathare, S. & World Health Organization. (2005). WHO Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation. World Health Organization. Kim, S.Y.H. (2010). Evaluation of Capacity to Consent to Treatment and Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc. Lynch, J. (2011). Consent to Treatment. Abingdon: Radcliffe Publishing Ltd. Leino-Kilpi, H. (2000). Patient’s Autonomy, Privacy and Informed Consent. Amsterdam: IOS Press. Maclean, A. (2004). Briefcase on Medical Law. London: Cavendish Publishing Limited. McLean, S. & Mason, J.K. (2003). Legal and Ethical Aspects of Healthcare. London: Greenwich Medical Media Limited. Radford, M., County, B. & Oakley, M. (2004). Advancing Perioperative Practice. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. Read More