(SOLVED) Medical Law and Ethics

Discipline: Medicine

Type of Paper: Question-Answer

Academic Level: Undergrad. (yrs 3-4)

Paper Format: APA

Pages: 1 Words: 275

Question

 Medical Law and Ethics

Case synopsis:

Person J was an excellent quarterback in his football team. One day he was injured while practicing on the football ground. This incident caused him to suffer from a compound fracture in the fibula bone of his lower leg. Person M (physician) has made a surgical repair to reset the bone and close the skin.

After a few days, Person J was discharged from the hospital. He was requested to come for a checkup once a week for almost six weeks. In the six weeks, Person J was taken back to the hospital for his cast removal. Person M has examined his leg without wearing gloves and the leg was infected with a large abscess due to the negligence of the physician. Later, Person J’s parent sued Person M for the negligence of care.

Step 2 of 3

The analysis made based on the Three-step ethics model is as follows:

Person M (physician) who has treated Person J may or may not be sued for the negligence of care. In this scenario, there are various forms of ethical dilemmas that may arise in the minds of the decision-maker. As a result, in order to analyze the ethical dilemma, the decision-maker can use the three-step ethics model. The three steps that a decision-maker must analyze to evaluate on ethical dilemmas are as follows:

Is the action is legal? In this case, Person M’s action is illegal. This is because the physician not washing his hands or changing his gloves prior to Person J’s check-up is an immoral act. Therefore, the action, in this case, is unethical in nature.

Is the action is balanced? In this case, patients cannot correct the physician’s actions when they do not wear or change the gloves. This is because medical professionals are far superior to patients. Therefore, there is an imbalanced action of both the parties in the case.

How will the particular action make a person feel? In this case, if the physician is aware of the faults caused by him to the patient, then he might feel remorse. However, most medical professionals deny their mistakes if a case is raised against them. As a result, patients must be more cautious in dealing with the medical professionals.

Step 3 of 3

Conclusion:

In the three-step ethics models, if a person’s answer to the first two questions is fair and the answer to the final question is positive as well, then the entire action of the particular person is ethical in nature. In this case, the first two questions are unfair. As a result, Person M has committed an unethical offense in the profession due to the negligence of care. Therefore, Person J’s parents can sue Person M in the court of law.