Patient Right to Refuse Medical Treatment

Patients Right to Refuse Medical Treatment

Individuals seek medical treatment everyday to stay healthy, treat an illness, or just to stay alive. We all seek treatment whether it is voluntary or in an emergency basis. Some individuals suffer from severe illnesses in which others could not bear to live with. Some illnesses are so debilitating that patients wish they could just die. Once a patient gets to a certain point they may decide to refuse medical treatment because they do not want to be saved anymore. They are tired of suffering and wish to end their lives. Doctors face at least one ethical issue on a day to day basis and that is to determine if a patient be able to refuse medical treatment.

Teenager refusing medical treatment

Physicians see thousands of patients yearly and a good majority of them are children and teenagers. Children and teenagers receive life-sustaining treatment when they are faced with a terminal illness. When a patient, that is a mature minor, decides not to receive any more life-sustaining treatments most often their wishes are not heard. The final decision is ultimately up to the parent. Although children cannot make the final decision on his or her own behalf the parents should discuss the alternatives with the children so he or she can have a better understanding of what will or may happen to him or her. The child is experiencing the pains and the continuous pokes over his or her body. Parents sometimes have the tendency to be selfish and want their child to be saved even if the patient does not want to be saved. (Derish, 2000)

The perfect example is a teenager has cancer and has chemotherapy for a year. After six months the child relapses and the physician decides the patient’s only chance at life is to have a bone marrow transplant. He explains the complications of the procedure but states if the patient does not have this the patient will only live a year. The parents and the child discuss the options and decide to have the transplant but the patient wants to ask questions concerning what happens if the procedure fails. The patient is told not to think negative thoughts. The parent signs the consent form and the preparation starts. The patient is in more pain now and also becomes scared because they overhear information about other children in the hospital. The patient hears that other children gone to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and never came back. One week after the transplant the patient starts to get sick and cannot breathe. A ventilator is necessary in order to save the patient but that can only be done in the PICU. The patient pleads for them not to send him to the PICU but they do not listen. The patient is sent to the PICU and was put into a comma. The patient could hear what was going on around him but he could not move at all. The patient finally dies in the PICU. (Derish, 2000)

Patient right to refuse treatment taken away

Physicians are trained and take an oath that authorizes them to do what is necessary to save a life or prevent serious deterioration of a patient’s condition, even if the patient is not able to provide consent. But they can only act within certain boundaries. For example, in one case a woman who was under anesthetics was found to have a condition that would make pregnancy very dangerous. The surgeon performed sterilization operation during the surgery I what he determined was the best interest of the patient. He was eventually held liable for this because