Principles of Autonomy and Nonmaleficence and Clinical Ethics

Principles of Autonomy and Nonmaleficence
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Principles of Autonomy and Nonmaleficence
Part One: Principle of Autonomy and Nonmaleficence
In healthcare, autonomy is typically defined as the ability of capable people to make individual choices about their treatment without interference from their practitioner. The patient must remember details, weigh the alternatives, and make an informed choice (Jonsen et al., 2021). It is important to acknowledge some autonomy-related problems. First, the patient's ethical perspective could differ greatly from the healthcare provider's. As a result, practitioners may face ethical dilemmas since their principles and suggestions may conflict.
A doctor owes it to their patients to practice nonmaleficence, which means they must not intentionally do harm or allow someone else to do it. The values and ethical guidelines for physicians uphold this. In this example, the patient appears confused either due to the current respiratory discomfort he is going through or due to a dementia episode. The patient seems unable to make an autonomous decision at this moment because one or both are impairing his cognitive abilities (Morrison, 2019). I can only conclude that the daughter does not have the authority to make decisions regarding her father's health; hence, the doctor is now obligated to the morals of maleficence. This predicament certainly occurs more frequently than we realize. The doctor faces a dilemma that could benefit the patient's physical injuries or jeopardize the patient's wish to forgo surgery.
The patient's feelings regarding the family member must be considered before the doctor can decide. He has the patient's best interests at heart, and giving the best care possible is up to them. The patient's condition is worrying, yet the doctor is morally obliged to look after the patient. The patient can no longer make a well-informed choice at this stage; thus, one must be made with his perspective in mind.
Sometimes, beneficence and nonmaleficence are interchangeable terms. There are many fundamental differences between these two terms. A treatment should not be contemplated if...