Jimmy Chang, a 20-year-old college student, has been admitted to your facility for further chemotherapy. Jimmy was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago and has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy. He is currently in an acute active phase of the disease, despite having been in remission for 14 months prior to this admission. His parents, who accompany him to the hospital, are split on whether additional chemotherapy is beneficial. His mother is adamant about signing the informed consent form for this course of therapy, and his father is equally adamant about refusing to sign the informed consent form because “Jimmy has suffered enough.”
You are his primary caregiver and must help him find a way out of this bind. What are your plans for the informed consent form? Who, and why, signs? Using the MORAL model, determine the best course of action for Jimmy from an ethical rather than a legal standpoint. Did you reach the same conclusion using both an ethical and legal framework?