Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions

Course overview

When the attending physician recommended discontinuing all life-sustaining measures for his mother, who had been placed on a ventilator after a serious stroke, Mr. O'Connor and his sister agreed. After a sleepless night he called the physician with a change of heart regarding the nutrition support. "She fed everyone in town. I don't want her to starve to death." How often do you encounter a situation that has ethical implications? The answer may be fairly often if you're practicing as an RDN in today's complicated healthcare environment. How do dietitians know what the ethical choice is in a complicated dilemma? In caring for patients, ethical decisions need to be made daily, and the rules of conduct for making challenging bioethical decisions require a firm understanding of the appropriate process for ethical situations and the professional code of ethics, especially when life collides with death.