This article will examine some of the ethical and legal issues correctional nurses must address in their practice. Summer 2000;43(4):209-14. doi: 10.1177/003435520004300405. The clinician should discuss the patient’s and family’s views and values in a consent process to autopsy, similar to all other aspects of clinical care of the patient. We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content and ads. Conclusion: The specific training received in ethical and legal issues of palliative care must be improved in medical and nursing to meet the EAPC levels. Case studies are included in Chapter 3 to highlight the complex ethical issues involved in decision-making about transplantation and the way in which the ethical principles and guidance can assist decision-making. For example, medical examiner laws authorize the autopsy of deceased persons for unexplained deaths without requiring consent or permission by the deceased person’s family. Should he admit that there might have been a surgical error? Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing; 2000:57. Prospective study of effect of clinical audit on rate of requests. Coronial work is multi-disciplinary. Despite these supports, Ms. Foster died. All that remains of the person is the cadaver, and yet our respect for that person, and for the memory of that person, leads to respect for the person’s remains, a link that is not readily broken [12]. Dr. Zinker, a cardiac surgeon, is surprised by the rapid and unexpected death of his patient, Ms. Foster, whose postsurgery recovery had appeared complication-free. We tend to project our own varied perspectives of death and our desires for knowledge onto the acts of requesting and consenting to an autopsy. Information from an autopsy can be used to gain information about a crime and prevent such crimes from occurring to others in the future. The benefits gained by performing an autopsy are not so great as to immediately trump potentially competing values held by a deceased patient’s family members. this process of sanctioning demonstrates professional _____ to society. Dictionary.com. We live in a pluralistic society with many views and rituals of death, and imposing one view in which the body is an object that can be used for information without consent can potentially harm patients and families whose beliefs differ. In the case, Dr. Zinker wants to ask a pathologist to perform an autopsy to learn from his possible mistakes and to improve his practice. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 1981. http://www.thaddeuspope.com/images/President_Comm_on_Def_Death_1981.pdf. Ethical issues concerning autopsy focus on respect for the dead body, retaining tissues from the body for study, and the applicability autopsy information has when examining the quality of care provided by a medical institution. Both Drayton and Jones suggest that a person’s body holds unique value beyond that of a lifeless object. If the dead body is an object, we would not expect this object to have any independent wishes, thoughts, or desires, and, presumably, there would be no autonomy to respect within a consent process. National Patient Safety Foundation’s Lucian Leape Institute, 29. Limitations to dualism. JO - Pathology Neither scenario seems to be applicable in this case, however. Megan Lane is a third-year medical student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the Ethics Path of Excellence. However, even without written documents, a conversation between the patient, family, and health care practitioners about the best course of care gives substantial guidance for care decisions later, when the patient is unable to make such decisions, and is much better than not discussing the issues … EP - 70. Together, these legal tools help direct and manage property and health care decisions in accordance with a person’s wishes when the person no longer has the ability (capacity) to make decisions. This approach acknowledges that the value of a dead human body can transcend that of an object, and that the dead person’s identity can be preserved and respected through family members. He is a practicing craniofacial surgeon and has master’s degrees in both theology and bioethics. Legal issues. They may order medical medical examinations, request police officers to conduct enquiries, require production of documents, request expert reports, issue orders enabling police officers to search premises for evidence relating to deaths, subpoena witnesses and hold public court hearings. People are able to donate their organs once they have died. An example of this conceptual accommodation occurs in the cooperation between New Zealand forensic pathologists and Māori patients and family members. For practice to be considered ‘ethical’ it must respect all four of these principles. We then consider how physicians might approach families of deceased patients to request an autopsy in light of this perspective. 1968;205(6):85. This article attempts to review the legal and ethical issues with respect to postmortem examination in Australia and to contemplate potential offences and penalties should such obligations be breached. In the case presented, it would fall to Dr. Zinker to obtain consent from Ms. Foster’s husband and daughter and try to understand their sociocultural background to best accommodate Ms. Foster’s perceived wishes. Requests for autopsy. The authors speculate that the patient affairs officer had a higher comfort level in requesting autopsies and better communication skills than the junior physicians [17]. The term “autopsy” comes from the Greek term autopsia, meaning “a seeing with one’s own eyes” [18]. While you receive medical care here, information gained from studying your condition will help us to better understand your illness and to develop or improve treatments or methods of prevention. Although the autopsy is a critical component of medical education and clinical development, performing autopsies can conflict with the wishes of stakeholders. 1, p. 1-10 : Abstract Recommendations and laws do not always contain specific and clear provisions on the use of cadaveric material in research, and even more rarely do they address explicitly the ethical issues related to research on material obtained during forensic autopsy. 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