Held at St. Edwards Church, Clifton Park
Present: Cindy Harrington
(Shelters of Saratoga), Mary Rickard, Ben Nichols, Patrick Harrington, Mary
Sala, Ardis Armer , and Connie Weaver
(Saratoga County Office for the Aging), Pam Clark (Herzog Law Firm) Kim Swires
(Choices at St. Peter’s) Rick Amico (St. Edwards Church), Reed Lehan (Saratoga
County DSS), Marie Geizer (Home Instead Senior Care) Kym Hance (Home Helpers),
Robin Peters (Eddy VNA) Dawn Lincoln (SAIL), Linda Tepper (Lifestyle with
Linda), Catherine Tucker (Ameriprise Financial) Leslie Carroll (Vet Help),
Doreen Jones ( Troy Housing), Karl Francis (NYS Disaster Case Management),
Karen Britt (Alzheimer’s Association NENY), Joann Zales ( National Grid), Holly
Pajak (Redesign in Mind), Ann Quinn (Home Health Partners)
Introductions
Cindy Harrington welcomed all attendees and announced that the next meeting will be held on June 12, 2012 at the Malta Community Center. Next month topic is Community Care Transition Program which is a collaboration between Saratoga County Office for the Aging and Saratoga Hospital. It is funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The program focuses on improving the quality of care to Medicare patients with specific chronic conditions. Speakers will be Cindi Liuszzo from Saratoga Hospital and Sandi Cross from Saratoga County Office for the Aging.
Participants introduced themselves.
Announcements
Cindy Harrington announced that Shelters of Saratoga is having an open house on 6/28
Ann Quinn announced that Saratoga Vital Aging Network is having a garage sale on 5/19
Today’s Topic and Presenters:
Bioethics… Where Did this Specialty Come from and Do We Really Need it?
Dr. Joyce Peabody, CMO and VP of Saratoga Hospital
Dr. Peabody was the Chief of Neonatology at Loma Linda Medical University when bioethics started to play a large part in her everyday work. She was even a guest on the Oprah Winfry show discussing bioethics. Dr. Peabody discussed the catalyst of bioethics: medical research, explosion in biotechnical devices, organ donation and conflicts of interest, that have resulted in the entry of “should” into medical debates. The recognition that just because we can doesn’t mean we should and just because we do doesn’t mean that it was right, good, fair or morally sound, just because we could have but didn’t doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have done and just because we didn’t doesn’t mean that our omission was right, good, fair or morally sound.
Some people think that Bioethics is just what about what you “feel”. In reality, Bioethics is a discipline guided by Two Schools and Four Principles deeply rooted in traditional philosophic theory. The Two schools are deontology and consequentialism while the four principles are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice.
The practical application of bioethics is difficult because of five factors.
1. Who gets to decide?
2. What if principles conflict with each other? Which one trumps?
3. The futility of futility arguments
4. The relevance of irrelevant factors
5. Pluralism
Tools of the specialty
1. Informed consent ( respect for autonomy)
2. Healthcare Proxy: Advanced Directive (respect for autonomy even when capacity is not present)
a. Best Interests
b. Substituted judgment
3. Ethics committees (facilitators of conflict resolution)
4. Institutional Review Boards
Future Challenges
Has the Pendulum Swung too far?
From Paternalism to Paralysis
Erosion of Professional Integrity
Treatment Options, chosen from a “Chinese Menu”
First do no harm-ignored
Contradiction of cost/resource control
What if I don’t want to die with dignity?
Prolonging of Life vs Prolonging Dying?
Allocation of Resources..Who decides?
The next meeting will be held at the Malta Community Center on June 12, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment