E
H
into a beginning-of-life or
end-of-life scenario, it is good
to know that medical practi-
tioners are trained and
of medical ethics.
Ethics of Professions survey every
year, except one, since 1999. The
exception year was 2001 when
the poll, taken shortly after the
September 11 attack on the World
Trade Center, awarded premier
honors to firefighters. In 2008,
the award winners, in order,
were nurses, pharmacists, high
school teachers, medical doctors,
policemen, clergy, and funeral
directors -- all are occupations
associated, to some degree, with
physical, spiritual, and emotional
health.
respect for persons, beneficence
and nonmaleficence, and justice.
In practice, these translate into
the patient's right to participate
in his or her treatment decisions,
the maximization of treatment
benefits and the minimization of
potential harm, and fairness to all
persons, including those directly
related to the patient as well as
society in general.
Michigan University, who serves
on the board of Western's Center
for the Study of Ethics in Society
and the ethics committees at
Borgess Medical Center and
Bronson Methodist Hospital,
says treatment decisions among
medical professionals, the patient,
and family require "respect for
each other's carefully thought
out options and being able to
reach consensus." This task is
not always easy, especially when
family members with conflicting
views are involved with life-or-
death decisions.
MD, a partner at Plastic Surgery
of Kalamazoo, advocates
continued treatment and
continued conversation with the
parties involved.
conversation, which includes truly
listening to the opinions of family
members, can save heartbreak
and ill-feelings in the hours, days,
weeks, and months ahead.
families to realize that the death
of a severe trauma-care patient is
the result of an injury or illness,
not the family's decision to replace
aggressive life support treatment
with measures that assure the
patient's comfort.
ethics courses to psychiatry
residents at the Kalamazoo Center
for Medical Studies, uses discus-
sion scenarios to present medical
virtues that go hand in hand with
being a medical professional,
regardless of specialty.
integrity, caring, empathy, mercy,
courage, discernment, altruism,
humility, concern for relation-
ships, concern about potential
conflicts of interest, and respon-
sibility for the welfare of others.
All are necessary, if not critical.
All are potentially easier said than
done, especially in the heat of
stat decisions. And all are a basic
part of medical professionalism,
regardless of circumstances.
pronounced when the trauma
scenario involves a newborn.
Robin Pierucci, MD, of Southwest
Michigan Neonatology PC, a
private medical group based
at Bronson, notes that parents
caught in this situation are often
young. After a difficult pregnancy
and crisis birth, the mother may
be weakened or unable to speak
clearly due to anesthesia, and the
father, if present at all, shaken.
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