Ch.4 Ethical and Legal Issues Key Terms
Cards
"The greatest happiness principle." This principle holds that actions are reight in proportion ,a sthey tend to promote happiness and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
Utilitarianism
Opposed to utilitarianism. Kant argued that it is not the conseuqences or end results that make an action right or wrong; rather it is the principle or motivation on which the action is based that it is the morally decisive factor.
Kantianism
Imperative demands that say to treat others as moral equals and to recognize the equality of other persons by permitting them to act as we do when they occupy a position similar to ours.
Christian ethics
Do good and avoid evil
Natural Law
Espouses that what is right and good is whta is best for the individual making the decision. An individuals's actions are determined by what is to hsis or her own advantage.
Ethical egoism
A situation that requires an individual to make a choice between two equally unfavorable alternatives.
Ethical Dilemmas
Arises from the Kantian duty to respect for persons as rational agents. This viewpoint emphasizes the status of persons as autonomous moral agents whose right to determine their destines should always be respected.
Autonomy
Refers to one's duty to benefit or promote the good of others.
Beneficence
The requirement that health care providers do no harm to their clients, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Nonmaleficence
"Justice as fairness" principle. It is sometimes referred to as distribute justive, and it basic premise lies with the right of individuals to be treated equally regardlesss of race, sex, marital status, medical diagnosis, social standing, economic level or relgious belieg.
Justice
Refers to one's duty to always be truthful.
Veracity
A law that has been enacted by a legislative body, such as a county or city council, state legistlature, or the congress of the united states. ex. nurse practice acts
Statutory
Are derived from decisions made in pervious cases. These laws apply to a body of principles that evolve from court decisions resoliving various controversies.
Common law
Protests the private and property rights of individuals and business.
Civil Law
A violation of a civial law in which an inidividual has been wronged. In a tort action, one party asserts that wrongful conduct ont he part of other has caused harm and seeks conpensation for harm suffered.
Torts
Provides protection from conduct deemed injurious to the public welfare.
Criminal law
The preservation and protection of individual autonomy in determining what will and will not happen to the persons body.
Informed consent
The deliberate and unauthorized confinement of a person within fixed limits by the use of vernal or physical means.
False imprisonment.
The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation; any conduct that fails below the legal standard established to protect others against unreasonable risk of harm, except for conduct that is intentionally, wantonly or willfully disregardful of others' rights.
Negligence
An instance of negligence or incompetnece on teh part of a professional. To suceed in a malpractice clai, a plaintiff must also prove proximate cause and damages.
Malpractice
When shared information is determental to the client's reputation, the person sharing the information.
Defamation of character
When teh information is in writing
Libel
Oral defamation
Slander
An act that results in a person's genuine fear and apprehension that he or she will be touched without consent.
Assault
The touching of another person without consent.
Battery
A moral principle or a set of moral principles that can beused in assesssing what is morally right or morally wrong.
Ethical theory
The science that deals with the rightness and wrongness of actions.
Ethics
The term applied to these principles when they refer to concepts within the scope of medicine, nursing and allied health
Bioethics
Defined as conduct that results from serious cricial thinking abut how individuals ought to treat others. Moral behavior reflects the way a person interprets basic respect for otehr persons, such as the respect for autonomy, freedom, justice, honesty, and confidentiality.
Moral Behavior
Are ideals or concepts that give meaning to the individual's life.
Values
A process of self exploration through which individuals identify and rank their own personal values. This process increases awareness about why individuals behave in ertain ways. Values clarification is important in nrsing to increase understnding abou t why certain choices and decsions are made over others and how values and how values affect nursing outcomes.
Values clarification
Defined as, "a valid legally recognized claim or entilement, encompassing both freedom from government interference or discriminatory treatment and an entitlement to a benefit or service.
Right
When there is no restriction whatsover on the individual's entitlement.
Absolute right
One on which the society has agreed and formalized into law.
A legal right
