Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.

The Doctrine of Double Effect has been described as often used in medicine and surgery but is seldom described outside the palliative medicine context. This paper presents a possible clinically focussed illustration of the doctrine of double effect used in an acute urological setting. The authors de...

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Main Authors: Papanikitas, A, Papanikitas, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2009
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author Papanikitas, A
Papanikitas, J
author_facet Papanikitas, A
Papanikitas, J
author_sort Papanikitas, A
collection OXFORD
description The Doctrine of Double Effect has been described as often used in medicine and surgery but is seldom described outside the palliative medicine context. This paper presents a possible clinically focussed illustration of the doctrine of double effect used in an acute urological setting. The authors describe the case of an elderly patient with significant dementia and haematuria who required anticoagulation. Implicit double effect reasoning may have helped the surgical team reach their initial decision with regard to a treatment plan, reconciling a duty to beneficence with a duty not to cause harm. This short case is offered as a stimulus for further discussion over the role of duty-based ethical reasoning in the acute surgical setting. It also highlights a possible need for more detailed case-analysis in identifying areas of interest in surgical ethics.
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spelling oxford-uuid:77f0c9ba-95f6-4153-b6d7-7375de367f612022-03-26T20:27:31ZAcute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:77f0c9ba-95f6-4153-b6d7-7375de367f61EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2009Papanikitas, APapanikitas, JThe Doctrine of Double Effect has been described as often used in medicine and surgery but is seldom described outside the palliative medicine context. This paper presents a possible clinically focussed illustration of the doctrine of double effect used in an acute urological setting. The authors describe the case of an elderly patient with significant dementia and haematuria who required anticoagulation. Implicit double effect reasoning may have helped the surgical team reach their initial decision with regard to a treatment plan, reconciling a duty to beneficence with a duty not to cause harm. This short case is offered as a stimulus for further discussion over the role of duty-based ethical reasoning in the acute surgical setting. It also highlights a possible need for more detailed case-analysis in identifying areas of interest in surgical ethics.
spellingShingle Papanikitas, A
Papanikitas, J
Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.
title Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.
title_full Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.
title_fullStr Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.
title_full_unstemmed Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.
title_short Acute ethics: risk assessment and the Doctrine of Double Effect in a referral to on-call urology.
title_sort acute ethics risk assessment and the doctrine of double effect in a referral to on call urology
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