Category / Case Studies / End of Life Ethics
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Case Study – Could This Happen At Our Hospital?
A 79-year-old white female with advanced ovarian cancer, severe back and abdominal pain, COPD, depression and anxiety disorder, and asthma was admitted to the hospital from Happy Valley Nursing Home through the emergency room.
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Confidentiality in the Age of AIDS: A Case Study in Clinical Ethics
This article presents the case of an HIV-positive patient who presented the treating physician, a psychiatrist, with an ethical dilemma. We provide the details of the case, identify the ethical issues it raises, and examine the ethical principles involved.
In their article, “Confidentiality in the Age of AIDS,” Martin L. Smith and Kevin P. Martin present a complex case in clinical ethics. Their analysis examines a physician’s quandary when treating a mentally incompetent HIV-positive patient: whether to uphold physician-patient confidentiality or to violate this confidentiality by warning a third party.
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Case Study – Clinical Research Involving Children
T.J. is a seven-year-old boy who was diagnosed with asthma at three years of age. T.J. and his parents have been approached about his participation in a clinical study of a new medication for asthma to assess its safety and efficacy in treating children with asthma.
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Case Study – Casey’s Last Inning
How do healthcare providers clearly state what they believe is the right and good and wise action that ought to be taken for the patient?
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Case Study – Barney Says No
With no family, Barney, her longtime friend, has been her unofficial substitute decision maker. Should her treatment plan be moved to comfort care only? Who gets to decide?
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Case Study – Baby K
Do physicians have an obligation to treat in a situation in which they believe treatment is utterly pointless?
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Case Study – Angela C – Maternal Fetal Issues
Treatment wishes – is the response different because of pregnancy?
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Case Study – Alice’s Frail Mother
Do DNR orders matter?
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Case Study – Abortion Rights and/or Wrongs
Kate, an emancipated 17-year-old woman, is unmarried and 8 weeks pregnant. She wants to terminate the pregnancy. The hospital where she has always received medical care is part of a faith-based health care system that rejects elective abortion.
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Case Study – A Sister for Joshua
Is this new child a vehicle to provide a bone marrow transplant for their potential sibling who has Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia? Under what conditions might this case be the subject of an ethics consult?
