A surgeon refused a patient's request to restart a patient's total parenteral nutrition (giving nutrition through the intravenous route)
because he believed that a greater good would be achieved by not using medical resources to prolong the life of a terminally ill patient when the resources could be used for other patients. Which ethical theory best explains the surgeon's rationale?
a. Ethics of care
b. Utilitarianism
c. Deontology
d. Categorical imperative
Question 2
A 60-year-old patient with a treatable form of breast cancer has decided not to pursue radiation or chemotherapy. The nurse believes that the patient should be treated.
She coerces her into receiving treatment by continuing to remind the patient about her responsibilities for raising her children. What type of behavior has the nurse displayed?
a. Nonmaleficence
b. Autonomy
c. Paternalism
d. Beneficence
Feng Mengbo, Long March: Restart.
Total body water (TBW)
A physical therapist helping the patient on parallel bars.
A surgeon holds a pacemaker next to an X-ray of a pacemaker implanted in a patient’s chest.
Nurse administering enteral nutrition through a feeding tube.