Quiz 2: Ethics and decision making

Please choose the one, most correct answer to each question or statement.

What are morals?
- Rules laid down by external sources such as the bible and other religious books
- Laws made by the state or other authorities
- An individual’s own principles regarding what is right or wrong based on personal beliefs
- Orders given by the police or a magistrate
What are ethics?
- Rules provided by an external source that guides conduct within a workplace or profession.
- An internal sense of what is right or wrong
- The same as morals
- An ever-changing set of rules depending on the latest theories
What are children’s rights?
- Rules made by countries according to their religion and customs that help provide culturally acceptable ways of caring for children
- The same as adult rights
- The human rights of children, recognising that they need more protection than adults do because they are vulnerable
- A set of rules developed by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to protect children
What is an ethical dilemma?
- A situation where the hospital has to decide whether to charge the parents for the medical care their child is receiving
- An instruction given by a judge to the palliative care team
- A situation where a difficult choice has to be made between two possible courses of action to decide which is better for the child and family
- A situation where an ethics team must be involved
When making a morally acceptable, ‘good’ decision:
- Only important role-players such as the nurses and doctors need to be involved
- A priest should be invited to decide on the best choice of care
- The decision needs to take into account the feelings of all of those involved
- The parent’s views must be given priority as they have to pay for the health services
Children aged 12 years or above:
- Cannot make any decisions for themselves about treatment as they are too young to understand
- Can make decisions about medical treatment if competent but need to be assisted by a parent or caregiver to make decisions about surgery
- Can only make decisions about surgery but not medical treatment
- Can only make decisions about medical treatment when their parents are not available
The burden of decision making should be balanced by:
- Letting the doctors make decisions as they know what’s best
- Letting the parents decide as it is their child and they have the right to decide
- Asking the parents how much of the responsibility they would like to take
- Always sharing the decision making equally between the treating professionals and the family
When it comes to involving children in medical decision making:
- Ideally, we should shield the child from it as it may cause them too much distress
- We should not involve them as they do not understand what has to be decided
- We should only involve them if they can speak the same language as us
- We should always involve them in a manner appropriate to their age as they have a right to participate in decision making regarding their health
How do we make sure you have no ulterior motives in the decision making?
- Ask whether you are doing it for yourself or the child
- Ask an ethics committee
- Ask a lawyer
- Ask a religious leader
What is an ethical framework?
- A special table where judges sit to decide what is wrong or right
- A guide that can be used to check a decision against important ethics concepts or principles
- Not useful as all cases are so different and decisions need to be individualised
- Is only used in developing countries that do not have laws to protect children
What is autonomy?
- Allowing all children to make their own decisions
- Not allowing individuals to make a decision if they have not consulted others about their decision
- Respecting the uniqueness of an individual and giving them the right and freedom to make their own decisions
- Automatically agreeing with health professionals
What is beneficence?
- Considering the benefactors, such as the hospital which will be paid, when making a decision
- Doing good and acting in the best interests of the person concerned
- Not doing any harm
- Finding benefit in the treatment that is being given
What is non-maleficence?
- Doing no harm
- Not being a bad person
- Feminism
- Avoiding evil
What is individual justice?
- Getting your own way
- Being fair to the individual
- Seeking revenge
- Internal laws that determine whether an individual can sue the hospital if they do not agree with the treatment
What is distributive justice?
- Being fair to society as a whole
- Distributing resources only to those who can pay for care
- How a judge decides who should inherit what after someone has died
- The way in which a decision is made within a community
What is truth telling?
- Only telling part of the story
- A form of therapy to help patients accept the true diagnosis
- Always giving the patient all the detailed information that you have
- Always telling the truth even if it is difficult
It is ethically possible to consider withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatment when:
- The treatment is too expensive
- The patient’s life is limited in quality or quantity or where the competent patient refuses treatment
- The parents want treatment to be withdrawn
- The doctor feels the hospital bed is needed for another patient
Competent refusal of treatment:
- Is when adult patients or competent children say that they don’t want treatment
- Is when a health professional says treatment must stop
- Is when a judge says treatment must stop
- Is when a religious leader says treatment must stop
In withdrawing or withholding treatment:
- Ethically there is no difference between not starting and stopping treatment
- Withdrawing is worse
- Withholding is worse
- Euthanasia is being practiced.
What are life-sustaining treatments?
- Bandages, cotton wool, tourniquets and scissors
- Analgesics, anticonvulsants and multivitamins
- Ventilation, dialysis and antibiotics
- Defibrillators and intra-osseous needles