Argumentative Paper: Mr. Gentle

Argumentative Paper
Student's Name
University
Argumentative Paper
Case 1: Mr. Gentle
Ethical issues often arise in healthcare when decisions need to be made. Sometimes the options are not ideal, which often results in low quality of patient care. Estranged clinical relationships and moral stress also arise, which involves knowing the right thing to do and yet not doing it. Medical practitioners, in specific, are subjected to ethical issues and moral distress due to their leadership and mentoring roles ("Ethical issues in nursing: Explanations & solutions," 2020). Doctors can look up to other medical practitioners like nurses or nurse managers for making ethical decisions in matters regarding their patients. In the case of Mr. Gentle, ethical questions to be considered include; honesty or withholding information? Science or cultural values? What to do when you witness a lack of integrity as a healthcare practitioner? And the principle of informed consent is also to be considered.
Dr. True is faced with an ethical dilemma on what is the right thing to do concerning his patient's case. The dilemma of practicing honesty or withholding information is what the Dr. experienced. Sometimes family members may require Doctors to hold the information, especially if they believe it might hurt their sick member. However, medical practitioners should at all times tell the truth no matter how hurtful it can be. The Americans Nurses Association, ANA, advocates for honesty when practitioners are faced with such a dilemma. When Dr. True lied to the patient that there is a cure for his condition, he violated the honesty code of conduct for medical practitioners. With his severe condition, Mr. Gentle deserves the truth; he deserves to know his medical condition. The fact that he is only left with a few months to live is a piece of important information that was not to be withheld whatsoever.
Healthcare is based and driven by science. Sometimes, results-driven by science can greatly impede personal and cultural beliefs. Patients and families who hold strict traditional beliefs concentrate on adhering to their traditional beliefs more than medical results or even treatment. The code of conduct for medical practitioners regarding cultural belief states that doctors and nurses should respect the cultural differences between them and the patients, such as lifestyles, values, and even religious belief ("Ethical issues in nursing: Explanations & solutions," 2020).
The medical practitioners should not ever treat the practices and beliefs as acceptable, not even on an individual level. Dr. True has lived in the society for 15 years and seems to be immersed in the cultural ways of the society he serves. By deciding not to mention death, as most people believe that a Doctor should not mention death to a patient, he conflicted with the principle of cultural beliefs regarding healthcare. Dr. True treats the cultural perspective of the society as acceptable and goes against the code of ethics. This is not acceptable even if he has insight into society's values and medical needs. Practicing by the code of conduct is something that should not be compromised by caregivers regardless of the situation.
On the other hand, the patient did not get to participate in decisions concerning his medical conditions. In healthcare, informed consent is important as it allows the patient to fully participate in medical care. It allows patients to make decisions with their doctors and know what kind of treatments or news they want or do not want to receive (Kramer & Parasidis, 2021). The collaboration between doctors and patients provided by informed consent is an ethical and much more a legal obligation of healthcare practitioners. Patients should therefore be involved in all of the steps of their medical care. With this case, the doctor could have collaborated with Mr. Gentle in making him realize how worse his condition has gotten over time and what was left for him. He could explain the condition to him and ask him whether or not he would like to hear the worst news about his condition. If the patient consented that he is ok to hear any news about his medical condition, only then would the doctor mention it to him. Suppose Mr. Gentle could have agreed that he does not want to hear bad news regarding his medical condition, then Dr. True would decide not to inform him.
Furthermore, the doctor did not inform his patient about this "new treatment" to get his consent. He just says there is a new treatment and did not explain it to Mr. Gentle to get his consent on this new treatment. Mr. Gentle is left happy with the news of a new treatment; this shows that he would readily accept the treatment even though he knows nothing about it. This demonstrated how close the Dr violated the code of informed consent; suppose there was indeed a new treatment, he would have gone right into administering it to the patient. The ANA advocates for implementing the informed consent principle, and in this case, there is no slight chance that the doctor practiced the informed consent policy.
On the contrary, Mrs. pearls demonstrated integrity by raising her concerns regarding lying to the patient. She did the ...