The following call comes in to the ethics line:
“Hi. It’s Celine from Oncology. We have a patient here who is in the end stages of lung cancer and is in a lot of pain. The patient and his family are strongly Catholic. The patient’s pain doesn’t seem to be well-controlled. But the family won’t authorize increasing his dose of hydromorphone because they are concerned, based on the physician’s description of possible side effects, that they will be artificially shortening his life. One of the family members accused the team of trying to euthanize the patient. This is causing the team a lot of stress. Can the ethics committee help us out with this?”
- How will you respond to this request?
- Who would you speak to in order to gather the necessary information?
- What are the conflicting values in this situation?
Some Values and Ethics Issues to Consider
- Spirituality/ religious beliefs
- Capacity
- Patient-family relationships
- Respect for patient autonomy
- Substitute decision-making
- Moral distress among health care providers
- Respect for professional integrity
- Professional competence
- Beneficence and non-maleficence
- End-of-life decision-making
