In addition to the topic Resources, use the chart you completed and questions you answered in the Topic 3 about “Case Study: Healing and Autonomy” as the basis for your responses in this assignment.

Answer the following questions about a patient’s spiritual needs in light of the Christian worldview.

In 200-250 words, respond to the following: Should the physician allow Mike to continue making decisions that seem to him to be irrational and harmful to James, or would that mean a disrespect of a patient’s autonomy? Explain your rationale.
In 400-500 words, respond to the following: How ought the Christian think about sickness and health? How should a Christian think about medical intervention? What should Mike as a Christian do? How should he reason about trusting God and treating James in relation to what is truly honoring the principles of beneficence and nonmal eficence in James’s care?
In 200-250 words, respond to the following: How would a spiritual needs assessment help the physician assist Mike determine appropriate interventions for James and for his family or others involved in his care? Patients Spiritual Needs Case Analysis Essay

Patient’s Spiritual Needs: Case Analysis

The case study to be analysed in this case is that of identical twins James and Samuel whose father Mike is a Christian with strong religious convictions. After falling sick the physician advises Mike that his son James would require undergoing dialysis since he was going into kidney failure. Mike refuses and opts to take James to the Church for prayers. When this does not work and the situation of James deteriorates further, Mike brings him back but now he is in total kidney failure and requires kidney transplant to save his life. The only perfect match is his twin brother Samuel and that is where the real ethical dilemma resides. It is Beauchamp and Childress who came up with the four bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice (Haswell, 2019). The purpose of this paper is to analyse the case above within the context of the above four ethical principles, based on specific questions.

In 200-250 words, respond to the following: Should the physician allow Mike to continue making decisions that seem to him to be irrational and harmful to James, or would that mean a disrespect of a patient’s autonomy? Explain your rationale.

The physician in the above case is caught in an ethical dilemma. The ethical principle of autonomy requires that the patient give informed consent that is part of autonomy (Haswell, 2019). Because James is a minor, this right is exercised on his behalf by his parent (father). At the same time, the physician is also under obligation to respect the ethical principle of nonmaleficence or to do no harm” to the patient (Haswell, 2019; Santhirapala & Moonesinghe, 2016). Allowing the father to continue making decisions that are harmful to James and irrational would mean that the physician abdicates his role as the patient’s advocate and disrespects nonmaleficence.

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In this case, since the patient’s life is in danger the physician would have to give precedence to nonmaleficence over autonomy and overrule the father. Taking actions that would save the life of James against the father’s wish would in this case be justified since the father would be considered to be in an unsound state of mind. The rationale is that any other reasonable person would not place the life of their child in danger by taking irrational decisions on their behalf. Best practice dictates that the physician does the right thing instead of being complicit in endangering the life of the patient in the name of respecting autonomy.

In 400-500 words, respond to the following: How ought the Christian think about sickness and health? How should a Christian think about medical intervention? What should Mike as a Christian do? How should he reason about trusting God and treating James in relation to what is truly honoring the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence in James’s care?

Christian thought about illness and health is that it is a consequence of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After they did what God had forbidden them to do, he told them that they would henceforth toil for everything and suffer to make them remember God. The Christian narrative is therefore that sickness is a punishment for sins committed. This is clearly shown when Mike as the father of the 8 year-old twins wonders whether it is him who has sinned to make his son be punished by sickness. The other part of the Christian thought on health and sickness is that it is part of the fallenness of the world (Dickinson, 2019; Summit Ministries, 2019). This is the fact that diseases and calamities befall humans because God has allowed it to happen. Patients Spiritual Needs Case Analysis Essay

About medical intervention, Christians ought to see it as a way in which God uses his people to reduce the suffering caused by the fallenness of the world. These people are the healthcare workers such as the physician in the case study. They offer their care for the benefit of the sick and this should be seen by Christians as God’s way of manifesting his love and compassion. A Christian like Mike should therefore not be hostile to medical intervention because that is another way through which God can heal is son. He should see Christian faith and medical intervention as two sides of the same coin that are complementary to each other and not antagonistic.

As a Christian, Mike should therefore stop antagonising God’s work. He needs to let God use the physician to bring healing to his son James. He can already see signs that he did not listen to the physician and went ahead to go against his advice with poor outcomes. James is now in total kidney failure because of his decision to refuse dialysis and taking him for prayers instead. As a Christian, Mike must understand that God has a reason and purpose for bringing James and his brother into this world. It is also God that has taken them to the physician. He must stop trying to change God’s plan by refusing the physician’s help. As a matter of fact, he is sinning by refusing medical assistance that can help his son.

How he should reason moving ahead is that he must trust the judgment of the physician and make sure that he cooperates with him fully. This way he would be helping the physician to respect the principle of beneficence. Continuing to refuse the physician’s advice means that more harm will befall James. For instance, if he (Mike) refuses that Samuel donates one of his kidneys to James; then James may die. This would be a violation of the ethical principle of nonmaleficence under the guise of respecting delegated autonomy.

In 200-250 words, respond to the following: How would a spiritual needs assessment help the physician assist Mike determine appropriate interventions for James and for his family or others involved in his care?

Mike and Joanne as the parents of James and Samuel are in a state of spiritual confusion following the events that have befallen their son James. They are even wondering if it is the result of their sins that their son has become so sick. It is therefore the responsibility of the physician as a holistic care provider to conduct a spiritual needs assessment on the parents and the family as a whole. This would help him offer advice clothed in spirituality and make it easier for the parents to accept. For instance, he can state to them that it was God’s own providence that James was born with an identical twin that would be helpful in saving his life at the age of eight years. This would be cultural competence and sensitivity of the highest order. The reason is that the parents are staunch Christians and to get any message accepted by them easily, it has to be packaged in a Christian narrative. Interventions such as the impending kidney transplant and spiritual counseling of the parents and the family as whole (including Samuel) would be easier if this holistic approach is adopted by the physician and his team of nurses.

Conclusion

The bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, justice, and nonmaleficence are applicable in ethical situations in healthcare. The case analysed in this paper aptly represents such situations of ethical dilemma. To be specific, it was about the battle between honoring autonomy or being true to nonmaleficence.

References

Dickinson, T. (May 27, 2019). Christianity’s extraordinary solution to believing in God in a world of evil and pain. The STREAM. https://stream.org/christianitys-extraordinary-solution-to-believing-in-god-in-a-world-of-evil-and-pain/

Haswell, N. (2019). The four ethical principles and their application in aesthetic practice. Journal of Aesthetic Nursing, 8(4), 177-179. https://doi.org/10.12968/joan.2019.8.4.177

Santhirapala, R., & Moonesinghe, R. (2016). Primum non nocere: Is shared decision-making the answer? Perioperative Medicine, 5(16), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13741-016-0042-3

Summit Ministries (2019). Christian worldview. https://www.summit.org/christian-worldview/

Patients Spiritual Needs Case Analysis Essay