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22. Case: Double Effect?
View Case Study: 22. Case: Double Effect?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…
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21. Case: Balancing Concerns
View Case Study: 21. Case: Balancing Concerns“Where’s the door to my bathroom? Can’t a man get some privacy?” “Uh oh, that’s Elias again. We’d better make sure he’s alright.” “How many times are we going to have to go through this with him? Maybe we should just put the bathroom door on again.” “The only problem is that on his ‘bad’…
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18. Case: When the “Truth” is Painful
View Case Study: 18. Case: When the “Truth” is PainfulMrs. Sally Parrot, a 73-year old widow, has mild dementia of a presumed neurovascular type. She resides in her own small apartment in Serenity, a private continuing care community in Bedford, where she receives some assistance with housekeeping, meal preparation and organization of her medications. Sally is actively engaged in Serenity’s structured activities and, in…
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15. Case: Acceptable Judgement?
View Case Study: 15. Case: Acceptable Judgement?Sara Thornton, an unemployed 19-year old woman, lives with her 28 year old sister, Fran, and Fran’s boyfriend, Alan. Both sisters were diagnosed with bipolar I disorder in their mid-adolescence. They are both estranged from their alcoholic mother, the only living parent. Fran has learned to manage her illness reasonably well through lifestyle changes, participation…
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11. Case: Truth-Telling
View Case Study: 11. Case: Truth-TellingThe patient is an 89-year-old gentleman with moderate dementia and a history of COPD, swallowing difficulties, a CVA, and recent aspiration. The investigation of his aspiration uncovered a lesion in his lung- the physicians felt it was likely to be cancerous. Thoracic surgery verified that it was lung cancer and a determination was made that…
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9. Case: Right to Treatment
View Case Study: 9. Case: Right to TreatmentA 54-year-old male patient has been treated for cancer for 2 years, but his illness has not responded to the major lines of treatment. He has been admitted to hospital with worsening nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and failure to thrive. A CT scan showed progression of disease as evidenced by new ascites along with…
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3. Case: Superbugs
View Case Study: 3. Case: SuperbugsJeannette Cutler is an 83-year old woman admitted to hospital after falling and breaking her arm. She reports that she fell because she passed out, and so further investigations are being conducted. She has mild dementia but is otherwise seemingly healthy. Upon admission, she screens positive for MRSA and is subject to strict isolation procedures…
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2. Case: Treatment and/or Termination? Tough Choices
View Case Study: 2. Case: Treatment and/or Termination? Tough ChoicesMelanie is a 21 year old who was recently involuntarily committed after she started a serious fight at a local shelter, thinking that one of the leaders was trying to steal her favourite T-shirt. Melanie has schizophrenia and is well-known to both the police and mental health care providers. She has been living on and…
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1. Case: Sensitive Information
View Case Study: 1. Case: Sensitive InformationJohn is a young man with a traumatic spinal cord injury that has resulted in paraplegia. He is leaving the rehab hospital on a weekend pass and has confided to his chaplain that he intends to kill himself. The chaplain calls the ethics service for assistance. Some Values and Ethics Issues to Consider
Case Repository
Category: Beneficence
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