Ethical and Legal Issues

In the course of my duties, I experienced a case that created an ethical dilemma. The case involved an unconscious pregnant woman rushed to hospital by an ambulance in a critical state. After examination, it emerged that the woman was in danger due to pregnancy-related complications, and the expected scenario was her and the babys death or termination of the pregnancy to save her life. The situation became worse since there were no relatives available to help the medical team in making the decision. It prompted the practitioners to terminate the pregnancy after a discussion between themselves; fortunately, by doing this, they saved the mothers life, but the fetus died.
The scenario involved the violation of ethical principles. Firstly, the medical team violated the autonomy of the patient in terms of decision-making. Secondly, by terminating the pregnancy, the team violated the principle of beneficence that implies doing good. Thirdly, termination of pregnancy violated the principle of maleficence that means the avoidance of harm . The legal issue that may apply here is that the patient may sue the hospital for the termination of her pregnancy without her consent but the medical team can use the observations made on the patient in their defense. However, since the team did this to avoid losing both the mother and the fetus, it was hard to avoid harm by terminating the pregnancy.
If I were the leading person in the medical team, I would also have chosen to terminate the pregnancy. The reason is that the mother and the fetus were in danger; the mother was not conscious of deciding the best action for her, and there was no family member around to consult. As such, I would have chosen to save the mother through terminating the pregnancy since it would be all for her benefit.
The NYS Nurse Practice Act mandates a registered nurse to execute corrective measures and therapies in collaboration with licensed physicians in a given specialty . The mandate thus obliges the medical team to execute treatment measures for saving lives. Thus, in this case, the termination of pregnancy is acceptable as it was to save the mothers life.

About author
Linda works as an editor at https://essaysservice.com/discussion-board-tips.html. She has always enjoyed working with a variety of literature and being interested in new facts. In addition, she easily finds common ground with many people. She also received her master's degree from American University Washington