Dr. Hendry Case

Introduction

In this ethical case, a patient is asking a surgeon which treatment to choose, as her options are a fork in the road. The surgeon has a specific conflict of interest and motivation to influence her decision. This recommendation asserts that it is unethical for Dr. Hendry to recommend the patient schedule surgery, based on analysis through rule of double effect, respect for autonomy, principles of informed consent, and the Catholic Ethical Religious Directives.

Ethics Case

Ms. Davis is a patient with back pain and right leg paresthesias for the past month. She is meeting with Dr. Hendry, a neurosurgeon. As a new physician in the Catholic neurosurgery practice, Dr. Hendry is not preforming many surgeries yet. He recently had a meeting with his surgical partners about increasing his surgical volume due to financial pressures. They implied he was not growing surgeries as quickly as they had anticipated and that only surgeries were profitable, as opposed to office visits. Dr. Hendry recognizes that Ms. Davis has an equal chance to get better with conservative therapy or surgery. He explains the surgery and alternatives to the patient in detail. Dr. Hendry is confident he could perform the back surgery with minimal risk to the patient. Ms. Davis, a patient with decision making capacity, then asks the surgeon if she should schedule the …show more content…
It is also a complicated process. It begins with information dissemination by the practitioner and allows the patient to make an informed choice about their plan for wellness. This includes “voluntariness (freedom from coercion)” (Derse & Schiedermayer, 2015, p. 18). Essentially, nobody can tell the patient what to do or encourage them to make a decision. As an authority figure, Dr. Hendry’s recommendation for surgery is coercion. Ms. Davis has the information and decision making capacity. Therefore, she is able to make this decision for

Show More

Related Documents: Dr. Hendry Case

Tilikum Research Paper