Dilema ethics cases 1. You are a clinic nurse in an small community clinic.

A 45 year old male client has been coming to the clinic for several years for treatment and support of his Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). During recent months he has lost his long term companion to AIDS. In addition, both his parents died many years ago. His clinical condition has deteriorated. His vision is failing, his nutritional status is difficult to maintain and he has been hospitalized 3 times in the past 3 months for pneumonia. He asks for your help in planning his suicide. Discuss your response to his requuest. Begin by an examination of your personal feelings about suicide. Include a discussion about your understanding of AIDS: where does it come from? Who gets the disease? Ehy? What are your feelings and opinions about people with AIDS? Construct your response, keeping in mind the ethical principles of fidelity, autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. Because all of these principles collide in this example, it will be important to identify each and recognize personal responses to the role that each plays in this narrative. Just as important is the role that one imagines they play for the client, especially as they differ from ones own. For the sake of this discussion, it is illegal in your state for nurses to prescribe medicines. What are your possible courses of action? 2. You have been assigned the care of a 98 year old woman who was recently admitted from home with a diagnosis of pneumonia. She has a history of cardiac disease and takes a number of medications. She had been fairly active until the past few days, when her cough worsened and she developed a fever. You note that her pulse has become weak and thready and that her respirations are increasingly labored. The client is now too weak to respond to you. When you mention to the family that you may need to call the physician and even call a code, the son and the daughter become distraught, saying that they do not want their mother to kept aliveon machines. They report thatthey have discussed this situation with theri mother. You find that documenttion of these wishes is not in the chart. The family members have not discussed this situation with theri doctor. What actions would you consider taking at this moment? Take into account the ethical principles of autonomy and beneficence. What are your personal values about interventions at the end of life? Daftar Pustaka Perry, Potter. 2005. Fundamentals of Nursing. Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.