You are a nurse caring for a patient who has been diagnosed with terminal colon
ID: 64524 • Letter: Y
Question
You are a nurse caring for a patient who has been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. His daughter Elizabeth approaches you during your shift and says that she is afraid that she is also at genetic risk for colon cancer because she knows it often runs in families. She wants to have genetic testing done and has read on the internet that the test will be less expensive if she knows the specific mutation carried by her father. The problem is that her father does not know that his colon cancer might be inherited and that his children might be at risk. Elizabeth does not want to tell her father and ask his permission to get the genetic test done. She is afraid that he will feel guilty, and she wants to spare his pain. Elizabeth asks if you would please take a cheek swab from her father so that she could send if off for testing. She is afraid that if she tries to do it herself, she will do it wrong and she knows how important this is.
Explain the ethical dilemma in this case?
Explanation / Answer
As the patient is cautious in this case, the patent’s disease history should not be revealed to any body without patient's concern or can do only under proper legal compulsion. Though it does not do any physical harm to the patient, the health practitioner is not allowed to take patient's sample to analyze his genetic data.
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