Carmen Diaz is 30 years old. She has been suffering from serious pelvic pain for 3 months. She finds it hard to work because of the pain and even harder to perform the chores required by daily living. Her physician finally refers her to a surgeon, Dr. Wilson. Carmen gives consent to have exploratory surgery done. During the consent process she was told and also understood that the surgery would be to diagnose what was going on and also gave the surgeon the right to do what was medically necessary if unexpected circumstances arose during surgery. As the surgery progressed, the surgeon found that Carmen had several large, non-cancerous fibroid tumors in her uterus. Dr. Wilson wants to perform a hysterectomythe removal of Carmen's uterus because this was the best way to eliminate Carmen's pain. The anesthesiologist says that he is unwilling to continue since Carmen had not given her consent to have a hysterectomy. We do not know whether Carmen either has children or wishes to have children. Remember that during the surgery Carmen is unconscious. 

1) What is the ethical dilemma? 2) What are the relevant facts? Use bullet points when you list the relevant facts 3) What concept(s) from weeks 3-7 of the course do you need to utilize in order to analyze this situation? 4) Analyze the case using the relevant facts in accordance with the relevant concept(s). 5) What is your decision about how to advise Dr. Wilson in this situation? 6) Why did you decide to do what you did? Be sure that you justify your action using the concepts you utilized in your analysis.

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Ethical Dilemma in Carmens Surgery 1 Ethical Dilemma The ethical dilemma lies in balancing Carmens wellbeing and her autonomy Dr Wilson believes a hysterectomy is the best course to eliminate Carmens ... View the full answer