Case Study: John is a 17-year old male who is of normal intelligence and emotion
ID: 244288 • Letter: C
Question
Case Study: John is a 17-year old male who is of normal intelligence and emotionally mature for his age. He has been diagnosed with a type of leukemia that is usually fatal within a year. His parents have strongly urged you not to tell John of his poor prognosis. The physician has agreed not to tell John for now but told his parents (and you) that if John asks, he will not withhold that information from him. You, as the nurse caring for John, have an obligation to John but also to the parents. You are alone with John in his hospital room and he ask you, “Am I going to die?”
If you, as his nurse, make the decision to tell John by justifying your decision by saying, “I am honoring the ethical principles and obligations that I have to John as my identified patient,” this decision would reflect which ethical theory?
Deontology
Informed Consent
Naturalism
Utilitarianism
Deontology
Informed Consent
Naturalism
Utilitarianism
Explanation / Answer
Answer is option A
Deontology
Deontology or Deontological Ethics is an approach to Ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions or to the character and habits of the actor.