Medical ethics has a long history. Today, it serves as ground for both practical medicine and laws, which are related to it. The word “medical ethics” might be defined as the judgments of what is right and what is wrong, or some particular actions that have implications in the healthcare setting. Human rights form a basis for the medical ethics.
The last century witnessed the heightened notion of individual rights. During the last decade, the world has experienced the growth of empirical studies, philosophical methodologies, and social and legal challenges, which have influenced the healthcare policies and medical ethics. Today, medical ethics is perceived as serious issue, and legal sanction has been given to its principles. The main ethical principles are beneficence, nonmaleficence, and autonomy. Researcher Dziegielewski in his book “The Changing Face of Health Care Social Work: Professional Practice in Managed Behavioural Health Care” (2004) discusses the ethical principles and points out:
“In the health care setting, there are no simple answers or clear guidelines that address ethical dilemmas with regard to decisions that violate client self-determination or confidentiality. Maintaining client self-determination and autonomy is an issue that must be considered, self-determination and autonomy is an issue that must be considered, but the primary stress must be placed on avoiding self-harm when a client is unable to meet his own care needs without assistance” (91).
One should understand that patients come to the healthcare setting in case of illness. There, people want to acquire the diagnosis of their disease, proper treatment, and also respect for autonomy and privacy.
In order to bring the ethical perspective to healthcare setting, the hospital ethics committee was created. This committee aimed at helping to make decisions about ethical healthcare issues, and establishment of policies for the resolution of various ethical dilemmas. However, it should be taken into account that members of ethical committees function as advisors. For the first time, ethical committee was created in 1976. The first ethical committee had to deal with famous Quilan case, where parents wanted to grant permission to remove their daughter from ventilator. The thing was that those people did not want their child to suffer. She had been in coma for ten years, and parents decided to let her die.
One should understand that medical personnel should possess the professional ethics. The provisions of Code of Ethics help the medical employees to perceive the universal principles of ethics. The ethical issues are important for medical workers, because they frequently happen and because they affect the quality of medical care. It should be admitted that nurse-patient relationship presupposes intimate, long-term care. A nurse is always in direct contact with the patient. Nurses see the patients’ sufferings, pain, vulnerability, and sometimes even death. These factors of nursing profession form a basis for ethical approach. Researcher Sullivan discusses the issue of professional ethics in his book “Health Care Food Service Systems Management” (1998) points out:
“Because all health care professionals are individuals with various …