06-d2-t2 Respect for Autonomy, Happy Health Hospital

Respect for Autonomy
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Respect for Autonomy
Dear ethics committee,
My name is Ed Goodwin. I work at the Happy Health Hospital and today would want to bring to your attention one of the most important aspects of ethical care. Specifically, I would like to discuss the ethical theory of respect for autonomy (Entwistle, Carter, Cribb & McCaffery, 2010). This is tied around the idea of giving the patients and their families the freedom to make health care decisions as they wish. The principle idea as such is that health care professionals should allow patients to make decisions that apply to their lives. Only the patient understands their emotions and have the experiences with the health conditions. They alone can understand what they are going through not even the health care professionals that may have the educational background of the condition (Entwistle, Carter, Cribb & McCaffery, 2010). This is an extension of the principle of beneficence as it gives control back to the patient (Varelius, 2006).
The ethics committee has an important role to play in this matter. This is especially the case when it comes to the policy formulation on the rights that the patients have and what the health care providers should do in the case where the patient has the power to make their own decisions (Rahmani, Ghahramanian & Alahbakhshian, 2010). It is also important to mention at this stage that, the health care providers should ensure that they give the patients and their loved one enough information for them to make informed decisions. It should be clear that the information in question here is one that does not include opinionated anecdotes (Entwistle, Carter, Cribb & McCaffery, 2010). The health care providers should not be biased but rather remain professional pointing out to the patients’ information that they need for the best decision that will enhance the patient outcome and satisfaction (Varelius, 2006).
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