Analysis or Current Ethical Dilemma in Health Care

There are many types of ethical dilemmas that beset the medical field exclusively never is a dilemma more important than when dealing with life and death. In situations such as these, angiotensin-converting enzyme must follow their own example compass. When the case involves an entire hospital going against their religious mandates for the life of a char, the decisiveness becomes that much more difficult. This paper will analyze the situation wiz Phoenix hospital found themselves in and the repercussions it suffered because of it decision. St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona is a hospital internationally recognized for their neurology department. They view treated high profile patients such as Brett Michaels and Muhammad Ali, save incomplete has gained the hospital quite the publicity as a woman want treatment in November 2009. Alongside neurology, St. Josephs Hospital also has a noted obstetrics department and this is where the woman was treate d. In late November 2009, a terminally ill woman came to the obstetrics unit suffering from pulmonic hypertension. She was 11 weeks pregnant.During the course of diagnosis, it was found that the pregnancy was exacerbating her illness by worsening her hypertension to the point of placing the patient in immediate danger of death. Doctors determined the only course of action to but the woman was to stopping point her pregnancy. With St. Josephs being a Catholic hospital, this decision went against their guidelines. The decision was interpreted before an ethics delegacy which fixed to proceed with the procedure. The rationale for the committees choice was that they were seeking specifically to save the womans life, not to end the pregnancy. (Clancy, 2010, p. 1) As a result of performing the procedure, the hospital was stripped of its Catholic status. The line of work identified in this situation bed be posed in one question does the religious connection of a hospital energise the decently to dictate the divvy up of a patient? Had the ethics committee gone the other way and decided not to abort the pregnancy, this would fork over prohibited the womans right to live. One should take into account that the patient sought treatment at a Catholic hospital and she should build been aware of their belief system. nevertheless one doesnt know if the patient came to this specific hospital because of its Catholic mission or whether she had no choice in the matter. In each case, is it not a hospitals first duty to provide the best care possible for their patients? The best care for this patient was to abort her pregnancy but the guidelines of the hospital would rather have seen the patient die trying to save both. My personal value and ethical position in this case tow me to side with the hospital. I have always been a proponent of the pro-life ideal and this instance is no exception.The principles I advocate for the strongest are compliments for the patients autonomy and beneficence. Keeping these principles in mind, the patient made an informed decision about her care and the hospital needed to respect that decision. As farthermost as beneficence, the cost to benefit ratio was analyzed and a closing was reached that benefited the patient most. Utilitarianism is a theory I would apply to this case. Doing the greatest smashing for the greatest amount of people and saving those you can save.Sometimes the end does justify the means. This not to say that religion plays no part in treating patients, but it is my firm belief that if the Catholic guidelines had prohibited the patient to acquire the abortion, two lives would have been lost. When making a serious choice in a case like this, it is important to factor in assemble(a) resolutions. The first alternate resolution is the most obvious and would have had the highest precedence transfer the patient to a facility that has no abortion restrictions.This would have been the best case scenario however the patient was not stable sufficient to be relocated and may have died in transit. Another alternate decision would have been to attempt to wait out the patients specification and treat her medically. Do to patient confidentiality, the specifics of the patients condition are not known. Based on the testimony of doctors at St. Josephs, the woman was in critical condition and had this approach been followed, the consequences would have been fatal to both mother and child. This information makes medical management the lowest in choice priority.When faced with difficult ethical dilemmas, it is best to have a excogitate of action to assist in decision-making. A ill-use by step approach often works best because it allows the decider to breakdown a nerve-wracking choice into workable parts. First one must identify the problem and ask the appropriate questions What? Who? How? The second step is to identify ones own personal values toward the dilemma. The third, fourth and fifth steps admit coming up with reasonable alternative, examining them and so predicting the possible outcomes of those decisions.In the ordinal step, one should prioritize the alternative choices to better identify the most satisfactory one. The seventh step is where the final decision is made based on all the information gathered and a plan is created. The plan is then implemented in the eighth step. The final ninth step is when one evaluates the end result and determines if the decision made was the right thing. In military rating of this particular ethical dilemma, the right thing was done. The decision to forsake the values of Catholicism to save the womans life was the right thing to do.The hospital agrees and therefore lost its Catholic status because they stated that they would have made the same choice again. (Kurtz, 2010) Dealing with ethics can be a tricky thing to navigate which is why it is paramount to have a good sense of ones own moral compass. This is not the last dilemma this hospital will face but following solid ethical values and principles, they should feel confident in their ability to provide the best care to the patients they treat.