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Analyzing Ethical Decision

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Submitted By julietop
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Grand Canyon University: NRS-437V Ethical Decision Making in Health Care
10/23/2011

An ethical dilemma occurs when options include conflicting moral claims, health care providers face ethical dilemma on a daily basis. The ethical dilemma presented in this paper is whether to respect a patient’s autonomy not to receive blood and blood products due to her religious belief and compromise standard of care. In the article, An Ethical Dilemma Involving a Dying Patient, the writer addresses ethical issues related to a 20 years old female who is 32 weeks pregnant, involved in an accident and sustained a life threatening injury which required an emergency blood transfusion and surgery in order to save her life and that of her unborn child. Due to her religious faith as a Jehovah witness she and her husband reject blood products and blood transfusion as option.
The ethical dilemma “A conflict can be experienced when there is evidence to indicate that a certain acts is morally right and evidence to indicate that the act is morally wrong, but no evidence is conclusive” (Burkhardt, 2008, p. 118.). The ethical dilemma faced by the health care providers in this case is the patient’s decision to refuse blood transfusion in other to stay true to her religious belief, the end result of her decision was death, if she had hearken to the medical plan of care and received blood transfusion, she would have lived but be faced with the guilt of betraying her religious faith. The main ethical dilemma was that by honoring the patient’s autonomy and religious belief, the health care provider was faced with compromising their moral duty / standard of care.
Analyzing the scenario using decision making model
“We approach ethical decision making with a problem –solving frame of reference and sensitivity to the human story. Ethical decision making is a process that overlays other

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