Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs

Ethical and Legal Implications
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Introduction
Ethical and legal standards are both parts of the societal structure. Ethical standards are mainly based on determining a right or a wrong. On the other hand, legal standards provide the rules that people need to work with on a professional level and are hinged upon the dictations of the law. The case in question provides a situation that often occurs in the medical field. Unresponsive patients usually pose a serious ethical and legal dilemma to all the stakeholders, including the family and caregivers. To a certain extent, it even pits family members against each other because of the difference in opinion.
Ethical and Legal Implications
Medical practitioners are usually held accountable for the well-being of the patients. Both the patient and the family will place their trust in the medical practitioner, trusting that they will improve the patient's health in one way or another. The challenge comes when the patient seems to be unresponsive to all the treatment being administered. With this trust, the medic is given the ethical responsibility not to cause any sort of harm to the patient (Sabatino et al., 2017). The ethical and legal implications revolve around euthanasia and palliative care. Euthanasia is often quite a complex process that involves considering so many things and weighing many factors.
For example, it is usually a decision that the patient himself should commission. He should either have indicated it before or be in a position to allow it. Unfortunately, in the current situation, he is unconscious and can therefore not make such a decision. The suggestion by the wife that the patient would have preferred it is based on heresy and guesswork and not a tangible thing that can be proven as to have been suggested by the patient. In other terms, the legal implications of such a decision would be hinged on the patient's approval. The decision that would be taken about either comes with its implications. From a legal perspective, unsafe medication usage or medical errors can result in poor patient outcomes and possible legal issues.
Strategies to Address Disclosure and Nondisclosure
Medical errors are a normal part of the medical profession. There are measures put in place to deal with medical errors and proper procedures. In most states, the medical practitioner is supposed to work with the physicians in the process of disclosing medical errors (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2021). There is a need for a high level of professionalism to prevent the fear of job loss after reporting the error. Nurses should not fear disclosure of such errors since, in the end, the goal is to ensure the best patient outcomes. Disclosure saves the ...