Prenatal Screening

Type: Essay

Subject: Ethics and Law

Subject area: Nursing

Education Level: College

Length: 3 pages

Referencing style: APA

Preferred English: US English

Spacing Option: Double

Title: Prenatal Screening

Instructions: justice/legal system components (1-2 paragraphs maximum) healthcare involvement (ex: how is healthcare involved or affected by this case?) which healthcare professionals are involved (or can be involved) – what are their roles and how can they apply their roles to influence people involved in this case? how is this case/decisions from the case reflected socially or in other healthcare avenues? discuss healthcare involvement and advocacy in relation to this case, and also how this impacts larger populations and communities that are affected. how your personal christian values influence your perspective of the case/topic cite ethical and legal principles (in addition to your christian values) that support your perspective!) how does this perspective affect your nursing care and approach to patients from a variety of community

Also Read: Best Nursing Essay Writing Help  

Focus: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ct-superior-court/[removed].html please use this case to write the paper.

Prenatal Screening 

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course

Instructor’s Name

Date Due

Prenatal Screening

The issues of ethical, legal, moral dilemmas regarding wrongful abortion are major concerns in healthcare. Negligence is considered the main cause of illegal abortion. Health care inattention could come from the caregivers or patients. Nonetheless, unlawful pregnancy termination infringes the right to life of a fetus. Besides, illegal abortion could put the health of a mother at risk or result in death. Therefore, this is a case study analysis of prenatal screening that led to wrongful abortion due to doctors' negligence. 

The Healthcare Involvement in the Case Study

Healthcare is involved in the case study in different ways. Firstly, the prenatal screening took place in a healthcare facility. The screening was done in Stanford's Hospital laboratory that had technical challenges, hence giving wrong results that indicated chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus. In this case, Stamford Hospital could be directly implicated in the wrongful abortion because of hiring employees who neglected medical care. For example, the technical challenges in the laboratory could have been avoided by ensuring a regular inspection of lab equipment. However, the healthcare did not maintain its laboratory equipment regularly. Besides, healthcare could also be directly involved in the case study since its doctors are the ones who carried out the medical malpractice.  

The Healthcare Professionals Involved in The Case Study

The main healthcare professionals involved in the case study are Dr. Weinstein and Dr. Shovel, and laboratory technicians. The main role of a lab technologist is to conduct accurate screening, testing, and any other medical investigations on the patients. The role of the doctors in the case study was to analyze lab reports and give the best recommendation for any medical condition that would be identified after the prenatal screening. Nonetheless, they opted to do an illegal abortion following misleading results. However, Dr. Weinstein and Dr. Shovel could be held responsible for clinical negligence for carrying out an illegal abortion using preliminary results. The doctors could have considered that introductory results are prone to changes. Consequently, Dr. Weinstein and Dr. Shovell would have avoided the illegal abortion by rejecting the preliminary results and reconsidering a confirmation test. That is redoing another insight analysis test to confirm if the fetus suffered from chromosomal abnormalities. 

On the other hand, laboratory technologists could be blamed for the whole medical malpractice. Illegal abortion would not have happened if there were no technical difficulties in the laboratory. The lab technicians played a key in the process of performing the illegal termination of a 21 weeks pregnancy by providing unreliable results indicating chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus. Besides, the management for Stamford Hospital, especially the engineering department could be implicated in the case because of the technical difficulties experienced in the lab department. 

Case's Societal Reflection

The case study is a reflection of the unethical practices that happen in healthcare. Unlike the case of Anne Meleney-Distassio that got justice, most medical lawsuits never reach a fair legal decision. The case shows how much negligent the healthcare professionals could be. The scenario also reveals how simple medical errors could cause deaths, pain, and emotional distress on the wrong persons in society. 

Healthcare Involvement and Advocacy Regarding the Case Study

According to the case study, Stamford Hospital was directly involved in committing medical malpractice. However, this is contrary to the clinical ethics guidelines. Medical ethics outlines that it is the role of every medical profession to provide high-quality care services to patients. Besides, healthcare professionals are supposed to be advocates of their patients as opposed to conducting medical malpractices such as illegal abortion in the case study. The larger population that could be involved in a similar situation to the case study are pregnant women who would wish for prenatal screening. However, doctors should ensure that they always perform confirmation tests to check the reliability of results from laboratories to avoid cases like that of Meleney-Distassio. 

The Ethical Issues Regarding Illegal Abortion

Abortion is among the most controversial issues surrounding reproductive health. Individuals often consider the law when deciding whether a pregnancy should be terminated or not. However, personal values should also be considered when evaluating whether to perform a pregnancy termination or not. I feel that the abortion performed on Meleney-Distassio was wrong based on the fact that the preliminary results were incorrect. I feel that the doctors lacked high levels of integrity to question the preliminary results. Personally, it would have taken some time to confirm the preliminary results considering that abortion is equated to killing in the Bible. Therefore, my consciousness would only have allowed me to perform an abortion only after exhausting all possible treatment or correction of the fetus. Nonetheless, the case study does not indicate whether Dr. Presnick examined different treatment options that could have been used for the chromosomal abnormalities. It was wrong to expel the fetus without first trying to save its life. 

The illegal abortion of Meleney-Distassio goes against the principles of medical ethics. First, the case study does not indicate how Meleney-Distassio was consulted in the final decision-making to terminate the pregnancy. Therefore, Meleney-Distassio right to autonomy was infringed in the case study since she would have been given a chance to accept or refuse the abortion. The principle of beneficence requires the caregivers to act in the best interests of patients (Ahmed, A., Ali, H. S., & Mahmoud, 2020). The principle of beneficence was not considered because the operation did not act in the best interest of Meleney-Distassio and her fetus. Non-maleficence helps in preventing patients from harm (McDermott-Levy, Leffers, & Mayaka, 2018). Abortion also caused harm, especially psychological suffering as opposed to the principle of non-maleficence that advocates for the promotion of good than any harm among the patients. 

The case study has positively influenced my standpoint regarding the nursing care and patient approach. For example, I have noticed the importance of confirming preliminary results from the laboratory to avoid making wrong decisions. Therefore, I expect that I will have little to no medical errors based since the case study has emphasized the need for conducting evidence-based practices. 

References

Ahmed, A., Ali, H. S., & Mahmoud, M. A. (2020). Prioritizing well-being of patients through consideration of ethical principles in healthcare settings: Concepts and Practices. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(5), 643-648. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2017&q=The+principle+of+beneficence+in+nursing&btnG=&oq=The+principle+of+beneficence#d=gs_cit&u=%2Fscholar%3Fq%3Dinfo%3AV5y5GLZaSkMJ%3Ascholar.google.com%2F%26output%3Dcite%26scirp%3D1%26hl%3Den.

McDermott-Levy, R., Leffers, J., & Mayaka, J. (2018). Ethical principles and guidelines of global health nursing practice. Nursing Outlook, 66(5), 473-481. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0029655418301738.