Conflict between Research and Ethics Paper
This paper will discuss and communicate an opinion on the conflicts that exist amongst the world of medical research and ethics within the issue of patients with mental retardation that have a medical condition such as hepatitis. This paper will discuss patient consent, benefits to patient, society’s role, and medical professionals; therapeutic research on the subject; and research outcomes. Moreover, in this paper we will confer about the possible role of institutional observance and ethics committees, possible responsibilities of the management, and the approach one might have taken if one were in a position of power.
When discussing patient consent there are many different types of consent to consider such as, incapacitated decision-making capacity, surrogate healthcare decision maker, informed consent, expressed consent, and implied consent. Incapacitated consent is a form of consent that means that, the patient is deficient in the ability to make sound medical decisions regarding their health. This form of consent would require a substitute person to be appointed to make choices for the patient. As well in an incapacitated consent, a patient that has been involved in an accident there would be an implied consent. This would mean that the hospital would do whatever they felt necessary to sustain life. Decision-making capacity is a type of consent where the patient is fully aware of what needs to be done and what they want to have done. The patient then signs giving their consent and acknowledging that they know what their options are.
Dealing with mental retarded patient’s medical consent can be somewhat perplexing. Especially concerning the level of retardation and how debilitated the patient is. Adults with histories of mental retardation who have reasoning and adaptive insufficiencies pose a unique ethical challenge for research consent evaluation. Although adults with mental retardation as a whole...