Mrs. Wells Case Summary

Words: 1466
Pages: 6

The Case of Mrs. Wells I first want to take a look at what the doctor’s professional code of ethics talks about. When it comes to the doctors duties to their patients it states: “A doctor must preserve life from conception unless his conscience and national laws allow otherwise. He must offer his patients complete loyalty, and if the patient has a medical need which the doctor cannot treat, he must ask for appropriate professional assistance. He will honor the confidentiality of all patients. He will also assist in an emergency unless anther capable individual offers aid” (Thompson).
Next I want to start looking at different ethical principles like autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence and how doctors look at these principles to make their decisions and then I will also go into ethics of care and why I think it would be the best ethical approach to this case and why I feel that autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence all fit best under the theory of ethics of care.
First let’s look at autonomy which is defined as the freedom to make decisions of oneself without interference from others (Principles). With this dilemma in this case the doctors need to decide whether to respect the patient’s autonomy or ignoring her wishes by giving in the pressures of her daughter. When you want to respect a patient’s autonomy you bring satisfaction for that person and if you don’t you bring them
…show more content…
Their responsibly is Mrs. Wells and no others. They need to keep in mind their code of ethics which talks about autonomy, nonmaleficence, and beneficence. But when you take all of that into consideration again it comes down to what Mrs. Wells wants and the fact that she knows she is dying and knows that if the doctors try and keep her alive it would cause her more pain and suffering than to let her die and the doctors need to abide by her wishes because she is the one being cared-for no one