Ethical Issues With an Aging Population: End-of-Life Decisions

Ethical Issues with an Aging Population
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Ethical Issues with an Aging Population
Ethics revolve around all professions in the society, and nursing the elderly have been discovered to be an area that has been overlooked regarding enforcing ethical standards. The ethics that should be accorded to the elderly regarding resources involve the capacity to do as the dying person’s End-Of-Life (EOL) wishes and the ability to stick to their lifestyle decisions. The other ethical standard that may aid in resource allocation includes the capacity of nursing staff to be immune to stereotyping and biases. For example, cultural biases may influence a health care provider to withhold an informed consent or a treatment earlier made for the elderly (Ensign, 2014). Therefore, the code of ethics should dispel stereotyping and bias regarding the provision of resources for the elderly, such as advanced directives, engagement of EOL decisions with patients and their relatives, disclosing diagnosis and informed decision (Ensign, 2014). The EOL and other resource allocation should be based on a common standard. For example, resource allocation regarding EOL should be based on the ethics surrounding t...