An Ethical Perspective On Abortion Nursing Essay

Women face the decision of whether or not abortion is ethical, they focus on the goals of the individual and how a woman must benefit from their course of actions for the advantage of themselves. According to Esteve-Volart (2004) a woman should decide what she feels will give the best self interest; thus if a woman desires to have an abortion, it is ethical thing to do so.

Through the definition of human rights and self interest, as the pursuit of personal happiness regardless of other’s well being and well being is emphasize. Hughes (2009) describes that one is solely responsible for enhancing and sustaining one’s own life. It is individually up to the person to establish what the necessary values are. Every woman has the right to pursue and uphold her well being foundation and if that requires an abortion to achieve her best interest, than it is only her responsibility to sustain that foundation (Tabrizi, 2003). As every single woman chooses what decisions or values will enhance the quality of her life, she must perform what is best to obtain those values. Choosing the decision of an abortion can be seen as personal virtue, as it determines a woman’s self determination responsibility (Vanneste, and Melotte, 2009).

For the health care practitioner, responsible ethical reasoning for this situation is rational and systematic. It should be based on ethical principles and codes rather than on emotions, intuition, fixed policies, or precedent (Tabrizi, 2003).

A good decision is one that is in the woman’s best interest and at the same time preserves the integrity of all involved. Health care professionals have ethical obligations to their clients, to the agency that employs them, and to physicians. Therefore, they must weigh competing factors when making ethical decisions (Tabrizi, 2003). Although ethical reasoning is principle based and has the client’s well being at center, being involved in ethical problems and dilemmas is stressful for them. They may feel torn between obligations to the client, family, and the employer. What is in the client’s best interest may be contrary to their personal belief system. In settings in which ethical issues arise frequently, nurses should establish support systems such as team conferences and use of counseling professionals to allow expression of their feelings (El-Toukhy and Braude , 2008).

Many health care problems are n of moral problems at all, but simply questions of good nursing practice. An important first step in ethical decision making is to determine whether a moral situation exists (Tabrizi, 2003). The criteria may be used with a difficult choice exists between actions that conflict with the needs of one or more persons. Moral principle or frameworks exist that can be used to provide some justification for the action. The choice is guided by a process of weighing reasons. The decisions must be freely and consciously chosen. The choice is affected by personal feelings and by the particular context of the situations (Bredenoord and Pennings, 2008).

Abortion is highly publicized issue about which many people feel very strongly. Debate continuous, pitting the principle of sanctity of life against the principle of autonomy and the woman’s right to control her own body. This is an especially volatile issue because no public consensus has yet been reached (El-Toukhy and Braude, 2008). In this case, autonomy has been the center of how the decision will be made. It refers to the right to make one’s own decisions. Health care professionals who follow this principle recognize that each client is unique, has the right to be what person is, and has the right to choose personal goals. People have inward autonomy if they have the ability to make choices; they have outward autonomy if their choices are not limited or imposed by others (Tabrizi, 2003).

It’s indeed arguable that a right to have an abortion is a right to control one’s body and the fetus death is an unavoidable consequence of choosing not to pursue a pregnancy. Individuals have some ethical and moral claim to bodily and personal autonomy and must be recognized as fundamental to the conception of any democratic, ethical and free society (Vanneste, and Melotte, 2009). Given that the autonomy really exists as an ethical necessity, the question becomes how far the extension of autonomy is. Not permitting the woman for her choice over being pregnant and reproduction is not compatible with justice system in a democratic state (Hughes, 2009)

Honoring the principle of autonomy means that the health care provider respects a client’s right to make decisions even when those choices seem to them not to be in the client’s best interest. It also means treating others with consideration (Tabrizi, 2003).In a health care setting this principle is violated, for example, when a nurse disregards client’s subjective accounts of their symptoms. Finally respect for autonomy means that people should not be treated as an impersonal source of knowledge or training. This principle comes into play, for example, in the requirement that clients provide informed consent before tests, procedures, research, or being a teaching subject can be carried out (El-Toukhy and Braude , 2008).

The client’s values and decisions are influenced by a variety of factors such as family support, previous experience with health care situations, the meaning of illness to the person and her personal goals (Tabrizi, 2003).

Debates about abortion usually focus on the law and politics. The classical question undermine if abortion should be outlawed and treated like murdering of a human person, or remain it will be remained a legal choice for women? Behind these debates are more ethical and fundamental questions which are not always given the deserved attention. Some people believe that the law should not legislate the morality, but all law must be based upon moral values (Bredenoord and Pennings, 2008).

There are both religious and political dimensions to ethical and moral debates over abortion. Perhaps the most marked error which people do is to confuse the two, acting as though an action on the religious front should have a required decision particularly on the political reasons (Tabrizi, 2003). So long people accept the secular sphere existence where leaders of religious have no authority and doctrines of religions cannot be the basis for law; people must accept that civil law may be contrary to religious belief (El-Toukhy and Braude, 2008).

Abortion is really a difficult issue – no one approaches it very lightly or makes a decision about whether to select an abortion lightly (El-Toukhy and Braude, 2008). Abortion also covers upon an important number of fundamental ethical questions: the nature of human rights, the nature of parenthood, personal autonomy, human relationships, and the extent of state authority over women’s personal and bodily decisions. This issue is very important that health care provider should take abortion seriously as an ethical issue – seriously enough to determine the different components and take them with as little prejudices as possible (Bredenoord and Pennings, 2008).

Being health care practitioner, patient’s bill of rights and welfare must be addressed. Patient’s bill of rights states that all patients should be treated with respect and courtesy. Health care provider must give the patient safe, considerate, ethical and cost effective medical care regardless of her cultural, psychological and spiritual needs respected. Personal dignity must be maintained (El-Toukhy and Braude, 2008). Supporting the client’s welfare and rights is very essential. Possession of knowledge and advocacy for patients in performing medical interventions is important in practicing the profession. It involves a combination of many disciplines, including aspects of multidisciplinary sciences to promote the restoration and maintenance of integrity and health in our clients (Vanneste, and Melotte, 2009).

Much debate about the abortion legality involves legal status debating about the fetus. If the fetus is a person, anti-choice activists argue that the act of abortion is considered murder and should be illegal. Even if the fetus is a person, abortion may be justified as necessary to women’s personal and bodily autonomy – but that would not mean that abortion is automatically ethical (Tabrizi, 2003). The state cannot force the woman to carry her pregnancy to term, but it could argue that this choice it is the most ethical. Whether the fetus is a person or not, the state should take a position on abortion and a woman has ethical obligation to the fetus (Vanneste, and Melotte, 2009).

Moreover, getting health information about new knowledge is a critical case or situation, but we have to look at how to make the system on healthcare execute its purpose better for certain facility, so that the provided care is more efficient, ethical, accessible and effective (Tabrizi, 2003). What we’re looking to is facilitating of healthcare practice and programs available for everybody in from a system where individuals are treated equally and morally when they get into these situations (El-Toukhy and Braude, 2008). In this kind of development, it is that a health care provider that provides primary care gain the support they need to intervene and manage their clients’ situation or conditions for the best possible results. In reality, the care cost which is chronic in nature is one reason why the healthcare ethical issue is going up in this nation. So we need to give fund as support systems for knowledge development in health care system that will help women under this kind of ethical consequences whenever there is a possibility (El-Toukhy and Braude , 2008).

Improving the level of knowledge and availability of health facilities and resources in any health care settings helps obtain the optimum functioning and ethical lifestyle. It must be one of the initial actions by health care professionals (Vanneste, and Melotte, 2009). Health care practitioners can support the welfare of their patient in health facility through the provision of a healthy & safe environment and providing ways to improve life process through self-determination and awareness- to improve the ethical decision making capabilities and enhances independence that will help client or family in facing reality and improve their healthy lifestyle and physical, emotional and mental capability (Tabrizi, 2003). Encouraging them to seek these resources towards self and others aids in achieving the best possible level of ethically and morally well being while promoting therapeutic relationships (Bredenoord and Pennings, 2008).

If health care professionals approach the debates openly and with a willing heart to learn from others with various perspectives, then it might be possible for them to possess a positive impact on their patients. This issue may allow the debate to move forward and for progression and development to be made.

It is also useful to have and possess general skills needed to be ethically competent in health facility. The ability to have excellent ethical and decision making skills help in improving the patient’s welfare and advances knowledge to perform their responsibilities and duties through exhibiting clinical skills and professional abilities which is really important (Tabrizi, 2003). Health care practitioners must also support the possession of good assessment skills and have good insight and judgment skills in order to anticipate or interpret the needs of the client in health care practice (Esteve-Volart, 2004).

Conclusions

Health care provider should promote the development through initiation of health institutions to development of a program for the protection and welfare of patient for an effective clinical practice. This development must increase the knowledge, skills and competency of all health professionals and allow them to understand the importance of their roles in ethical decision making. This can help fellow health professionals in transition into their role by assisting them in understanding effective methods of learning and achieving ethical skills in the clinical setting. It can stress the importance of utilizing the treatment process in the care of individuals, families, and community by assessing the client health care status, planning with client or significant others the action based on identified ethical needs and problems, implementing appropriate interventions wholly compensatory, supportive and educative, modifying interventions and evaluating the results of ethical interventions accordingly based on criteria established. These criteria will help health care provider to produce competent decisions to sustain the demand for moral well being.