Bioethics

Addressing bioethics issues (or any issue prone to conflict) can be as simple as clarifying the mutual medical goal of the patient and physician.

It may sound simple to establish, “What does the patient want?”, but as medical treatment becomes more specialized and complicated, firm answers may become difficult to come by. Many times, miscommunication, or lack of timely and honest information, is at the core of questions which seem to have many answers - or no answers at all.

This may be as simple as asking providers for clarification, or asking to speak with the attending physician (the team leader). If a satisfactory answer is not reached, a bioethics consultation may be requested by any person.

Hunt Regional Healthcare seeks to maintain the standards set by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities as outlined in Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation. We are also obligated to the rule of law as established by the Texas state law and Federal mandates. A formal meeting of the Bioethics Committee is available for situations in which resolution cannot be reached by informal consultation.

Question may be directed to Melvin Ray, Bioethicist, at 903-408-5000. Community education, as well as continuing education for health care providers and facilities is available.

Specific bioethics case consultation is available for care facilities and providers.

Additional Bioethics Information

Ethics has been described as a “generic term for various ways of understanding and examining the moral life” and as “systemic and critical reflection on all steps that make up a moral decision, including assessing the facts, clarifying the concepts, and evaluating the force of arguments used to justify a course of action.”

Ethical theory is often used when referring to thoughtful reflection on the nature of right and wrong.

When applied to health care, in which case it is often called bioethics, ethics frequently grapples with negotiating a delicate balance between the rights or values of the individual patient, the family or community, health professionals or organizations, and society as a whole. Bioethics is generally understood to be a subset of Ethics, with medical ethics a subset of bioethics; the terms may be used interchangeably in different contexts by different people.

Bioethics, as it is most commonly defined, is not an exact science, a single academic discipline, nor the purview of physicians, but a tapestry of rich perspectives, which draws on many sources and bodies of knowledge. There is no single method for “doing ethics”.

Hunt Regional Healthcare is committed to build on a conceptual and legal foundation of core ethical principles, such as respect for individual autonomy, as well as an assumption that patients have rights deserving of respect. Health care bioethics consultation is a service provided by an individual or a group to help patients, families, surrogates, health care providers, or other involved parties address uncertainty or conflict regarding values-laden issues that emerge in health care.

Hunt Regional Healthcare seeks to conform to the standards of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, specifically the Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation. A bioethics consultant may be reached by contacting your patient nurse.

Decision-making during the last phase of life gives rise to many questions, and even conflicts. The desire to help negotiate resolution - clarified by conviction that patient autonomy and self-determination should be respected – guides the strategies and initiatives of Hunt Regional Healthcare to fulfill our mission and vision.

We are required to support the rights of individuals and their surrogates to actively participate in decisions about care, including the right to receive accurate information about condition and treatment alternatives – critical elements of informed consent.