Ethical decision-making for delivery of care to handicapped children on the medical surgical floor is particularly challenging. Most of the general ethical principles for medical profession are in conflict with individuals and community perception of their responsibility for handicapped children. In particular, the legal obligations of a nurse or any other medical professional to uphold the rights of a handicapped child during delivery of health care sometimes conflicted with the parents and community’s moral perception of a handicapped child (Petrini, 2008) . For instance, whereas the “Equal Protection” clause obligates a nurse to offer non-discriminate care of a handicapped child, a sizable number of parents expressed lesser concern over the welfare of their handicapped child than their attention to physically fit child.
Dealing with the ethical dilemma posed by caring for handicapped children required the delicate balancing of the child’s right and the parent’s right to speak or make decisions on behalf of his/her child. Such delicate balancing entails exclusive accommodation of parent’s opinion or intervention so long as it does not violate the child’s legal right. In circumstances whereby the parent’s opinion or conduct grossly violated the child’s right, the nurse has no other option than to pursue civil authority recourse to enforce the child’s right (The Catholic Bishops' Joint Committee On Bio-Ethical Issues (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales), 1986) . Such interventions include reporting handicapped child abuse to authorities for legal interventions to save the child. Also, the nurse is under obligation to seek civil authority consent to carry out necessary medical procedures or operations when the parents refuse to give such consent on the basis of their moral beliefs.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Ethical consideration in caring for handicapped children on the surgical floor also entailed guarantee of the child’s right for “Equal Protection” even in the face of community discrimination of the child. It meant overlooking some of retrogressive cultural myths about handicapped children and instead offering him/her similar care as a physically fit client.
References
Petrini, C. (2008). A personalist approach to public-health ethics. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 86 (8), 624-629.
The Catholic Bishops' Joint Committee On Bio-Ethical Issues (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales). (1986). Care Of The Handicapped Newborn Parental Responsibility and Medical Responsibility. Retrieved July 24, 2019, from chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/http://www.catholic-bioethics.org.uk/documents/care_of_the_handicapped_newborn.pdf
