Healing and Autonomy

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In as much as the patient is entitled to the rights to make decisions concerning their health care, medical practitioners are obliged to provide the patient with well-informed alternatives before making any decision. However, strict adherence to the principle of beneficence and maleficence may time be considered as disrespect to the patient’s right to autonomy (Johnson et al., 2018). Consequently, there are cases where the patient often lacks medical competence to make appropriate decisions- during such, health providers are anticipated to act in the patient’s best interest regardless of the unpleasant outcome that may arise due to the patient’s decision.

In this case study, the physician respected the patient’s autonomy by allowing Mike to decide to forego James’ dialysis and seek faith in God to heal James. Unfortunately, James’ health deteriorates intensively such that Mike’s family chooses to return James to the hospital and put him on dialysis (Nandifa & Joewana, 2017). As a result of Mike’s prior decision not to put James on dialysis, James’ condition worsened such that he required a permanent solution – kidney transplant. It is evident that had Mike accepted the physician’s suggestion for James’ immediate dialysis, James’ condition would have been better (Kilbride, 2018). In conclusion, the physician should not entrust Mike in any further decision making concerning James’ health but instead, provide adequate medical information concerning the best decision to be made for James’ health improvement.

Every Christian has a different perspective on illness and healing, depending on their denomination of choice. While other Christians view disease as a punishment from God due to their sinful nature, others perceive illness as a test that God allows them to pass through to strengthen their faith in Him. Principally, all Christians ought to believe in God’s full compassion and unconditional love for them as long as their spiritual and physical lives are concerned (Vyas, 2019). According to Christians, God is believed to be the creator of the human body, and as when people are in good health and strength, he rejoices. Nevertheless, occasionally the human body undergoes illness and pain for the reason of infirmities. Biblical instances show that healing can occur instantly when prayed for or based on your strong faith in God, as in the case of Jesus’ miraculous healing in Jerusalem and other cities (Omosor, 2019).

Generally, Christians ought to perceive that it is not wrong to pray to God for instant healing. There are several avenues that God may use to heal people, even those who tend to disregard medical comprehension. The Bible tends to advise Christians to persist in prayers for their hearts’ desires, such as freedom from afflictions and agony. Additionally, Christians ought to note that there is a possibility that healing even fails to occur to the most faithful and righteous ones (Glass, 2017). According to the Bible, Christians should hope that there is always an awaiting eternal reward regardless of whatever they may not receive while on earth.

From the case study, Mike believes that sickness is a test of faith in God, which led him to reject further medical intervention for James. Mike irrationally proceeds to seek additional spiritual healing even after the first attempt to cost his son’s health. Mike should not seize having faith in God and trusting him for healing. Christians need to view medical involvement as a favourable exercise of discharging patient travail and agony since there is no biblical evidence that forbids Christians to pursue medical intervention during their ailments. Moreover, medical treatment is regarded as a gift from God that is aimed at benefiting the people. Several biblical instances have been seen proving that God can use medical means to heal people during illnesses (York, 2019). An example is in Isaiah 38:21, where the prophet Isaiah advises King Hezekiah to take pieces of figs and apply to his boils to be healed.

Thus, Mike should allow further medical treatment as advised by the physician. In as much as the risk and cost involved in James’ kidney transplant surgery may be high and dangerous, Mike should consider taking the risk since if all goes well in the surgery, James’ health will be restored permanently. Finally, Mike should trust in God even during and after James’ surgery that God can still heal and cure.

From the case study, a spiritual needs assessment will aid the physician to help Mike in determining appropriate interventions for his family members and James by enabling the physician to depict their spiritual needs about medical care. The spiritual needs assessment allows patients to recognize spiritual practices, beliefs, and resources that have a likelihood of positively affecting their health (Macdonald G, 2019). Additionally, prayers ought not to be part of a spiritual need assessment, and physicians are advised to be neutral on specific faith issues. When conducting the spiritual needs assessment, physicians ought to evade creating assumptions when enquiring patients on the impact of their particular practices towards their medical care. Generally, many patients with their healthcare providers to be knowledgeable about their spiritual beliefs to develop better understandings as individuals (Hatamipour K et al., 2018). Measures involved in spiritual assessing include supporting the patient’s spiritual idea, contributing to spiritual events, and establishing the relevant resources.

From the case study, a spiritual needs assessment will aid the physician to help Mike in determining appropriate interventions for his family members and James by enabling the physician to depict their spiritual needs about medical care (Astrow et al., 2018). After the spiritual needs assessment, the decision made is established on the physician’s ability to satisfy Mike’s family and church members’ needs. They are referred to a religious leader since the physician’s ultimate role is not to offer spiritual guidance to patients.

Reference

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Glass, B., & Cahn, E. S. (2017). Privacy Ethics in Biblical Literature. Journal of Religion and Business Ethics, 3(2), 6.

Hatamipour, K., Rassouli, M., Yaghmaie, F., Zendedel, K., & Alavi Majd, H. (2018). Development and Psychometrics of a ‘Spiritual Needs Assessment Scale of Patients with Cancer’: A mixed exploratory study. International Journal of Cancer Management, 11(1).

Johnson, S. B., Butow, P. N., Kerridge, I., & Tattersall, M. H. (2018). Patient autonomy and advance care planning: a qualitative study of oncologist and palliative care physicians’ perspectives. Supportive Care in Cancer, 26(2), 565-574.

Kilbride, M. K., & Joffe, S. (2018). The new age of patient autonomy: implications for the patient-physician relationship. Jama, 320(19), 1973-1974.

Macdonald, G. (2019). Spiritual needs assessment: the LOADS SHARED mnemonic. British Journal of General Practice, 69(688), 573-574.

Nandifa, V. N. P., Jena, Y., & Joewana, S. BENEFICENCE IS THE HIGHEST MORAL IMPERATIVE OF A DOCTOR DEALING WITH THE POOR QUALITY OF PATIENT AUTONOMY. Jurnal Pendidikan Kedokteran Indonesia: The Indonesian Journal of Medical Education, 9(1), 44-51.

OMOSOR, F. O. (2019). Christianity and African Traditional Medicine: A Critical Study from Afro-Biblical Perspective. University of Uyo Journal of Humanities, 23(2), 363-384.

Vyas, S. (2019). End of Life Care among Muslims, Hindus, and Christians in Central Texas (Doctoral dissertation).

York, H. (2019). A Biblical Reflection on the Passion of Jesus Christ related to 20 Years of Treatment-Resistant Ministerial Depression. Christian Journal for Global Health, 6(1), 51-58.