Health professionals are required In following the Michigan model, Dr. Zinker should “reach out to those harmed, be honest, explain where appropriate, disclose [his] mistakes, and learn from [his] experiences” [16]. People are able to donate their organs once they have died. Hence we will examine the general Cartesian view of the body after death that pervades contemporary clinical practice and then take a clinical sociocultural approach in an effort to respect multiple interpretations of the quiddity of a corpse. Legal considerations surrounding the autopsy should be considered and included in autopsy discussions. Autopsy has always been the foundation of medical educational and biomedical research process. From ethical point of view, the acceptability of using autopsy in medical learning process and in medical research is of high complexity due to potential ethical conflict between the necessity and benefit of using autopsy or dissections in the learning process/medical research and the right to physical integrity of a person (even if deceased) whose lifeless body is subjected to post-mortem examination procedures. Unlike clinical pathological autopsies that presuppose the informed consent of a patient’s relative(s) for conduct of the autopsy, certain aspects of forensic autopsies does not. In our case, Dr. Zinker should clarify why he is suggesting the procedure, communicating to the family that he wants to determine whether something he did during Ms. Foster’s surgery could have contributed to her death. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. or its licensors or contributors. Requests for assistance to die; Requests for autopsy. Ethics center issues overview of end-of-life care. Whatever the answer to this question, Cartesian dualism influences medical definitions of death and can also influence a practitioner’s view of the postmortem patient. Accessed June 9, 2016. Furthermore, the availability of DCD, the protocols for DCD, the method of determination of death, the definition of the period of observation after circulatory arrest, and the duration of this observation period for DCD vary around the world. National Patient Safety Foundation’s Lucian Leape Institute. Finally, in this issue’s podcast, Theonia Boyd discusses clinical and ethical reasons for completing an autopsy as well as a few of the ethical issues faced by pathologists in their role as medical expert witness. Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing; 2000:57. It has become apparent that there is an increasing expectation amongst the public for more detailed information concerning autopsy procedures and, in particular, tissue retention. 1968;205(6):85. We will argue that a plurality of beliefs about the body after death call for consent to autopsy in most circumstances. Requests for autopsy. Christian J. Vercler, MD, MA is an assistant professor of surgery and co-director of the Clinical Ethics Program at the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he also co-chairs the adult and pediatric ethics committees and teaches medical ethics at the undergraduate, medical student, and post-graduate levels. this process of sanctioning demonstrates professional _____ to society. Living individuals—for example, family members, physicians, criminal investigators—have competing interests in the dead. Australian Health Ministers adopted a National Code of Ethical Autopsy Practice10 in 2002 to address problems with autopsies in the UK and Australia Neither scenario seems to be applicable in this case, however. Information from an autopsy can be used to gain information about a crime and prevent such crimes from occurring to others in the future. Conclusion: The specific training received in ethical and legal issues of palliative care must be improved in medical and nursing to meet the EAPC levels. He tells the family that final results might not be available for several weeks because academic autopsies often involve microscopic evaluation of tissues, which requires additional histologic processing. EP - 70. JO - Pathology By taking a sociocultural approach, the physician can try to honor the autonomy of the deceased person by allowing the next-of-kin to communicate their perceptions of that person’s wishes and desires and by respecting the deceased’s spiritual and cultural perceptions of death. Coronial work is multi-disciplinary. As an extension of family members’ connections to the patient, the patient’s perceived desires, wishes, and sociocultural beliefs should be incorporated into the family’s decision about whether to perform an autopsy, analogous to surrogate decision making, in which next-of-kin must rely on an incapacitated patient’s past attitudes, actions, and values to make health care decisions. If hospitals or other institutions receive requests for that kind of tissue, legally they should check the requirements in their states. National Patient Safety Foundation’s Lucian Leape Institute, 29. Ethical-Legal Frame Principles Deborah Prior. In our pluralistic society, settling a larger metaphysical question of what happens to the self or identity after death is impossible. As the spectrum of end-of-life issues continues to expand, more and more questions arise for clinicians working with patients, families, and institutions. All that remains of the person is the cadaver, and yet our respect for that person, and for the memory of that person, leads to respect for the person’s remains, a link that is not readily broken [12]. How could each of these ethical and legal issues affect your nursing practice? • Chapter 1 . Discuss the following ethical and legal issues related to a palliative care approach: Decisions regarding advance care directives Conflicts that may occur in relation to personal values and decisions made by or for the person Organ donation Request for autopsy. A 2003 meta-analysis found that the median error rate for clinically undiagnosed conditions “involving a principal underlying disease or primary cause of death” was 23.5 percent [1]. Central Ethical Issues and Considerations. Conclusion: The specific training received in ethical and legal issues of palliative care must be improved in medical and nursing to meet the EAPC levels. Ethical considerations should govern use. People are able to donate their organs once they have died. A seventh ethical issue is the respect for patients’ autonomous wishes to donate their organs which is legally supported by the US Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. Summer 2000;43(4):209-14. doi: 10.1177/003435520004300405. Two forensic genetics research studies using tissue collected from a forensic post-mortem were recently initiated at our institution and were the first of their kind to be conducted in Cape … Accessed June 9, 2016. JAMA. Legal & Ethical Issues that Health Care Professionals Face. Determining Brain Death: No Room for Error, James F. Bartscher, MD and Panayiotis N. Varelas, MD, PhD, Error Disclosure in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine: A Review of the Literature, How to Communicate Clearly about Brain Death and First-Person Consent to Donate, Incorporating Spirituality into Patient Care, The Penetrating Gaze and the Decline of the Autopsy, Improving Pathologists’ Communication Skills, Pathology Image-Sharing on Social Media: Recommendations for Protecting Privacy While Motivating Education, Genevieve M. Crane, MD, PhD and Jerad M. Gardner, MD, Ethical Questions about Platelet Transfusions at the End of Life, John P. Sherbeck, MD and Renee D. Boss, MD, Martin J. Magers, MD and Sandro K. Cinti, MD, Organ transplantation/Definition of death, Patient-clinician relationship/Patient, family-centered care, https://www.acgme.org/Portals/0/PFAssets/ProgramRequirements/300_pathology_2016.pdf, http://www.thaddeuspope.com/images/President_Comm_on_Def_Death_1981.pdf, http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.npsf.org/resource/resmgr/LLI/Shining-a-Light_Transparency.pdf. 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