Ethical issues related to the nurse's role in fertility treatment and counseling for patients with AIDS.
Issues relating to treatment of clients with AIDS or HIV infections are not easy to resolve. It is important, however, to understand both sides of the issue prior to determining what actions or policies one might make. The ethical concerns presented here reflected issues related to the principles of autonomy, beneficence, justice, nonmaleficence, and fidelity. However, they are only a few of the possible ethical discussions concerning this debate. Most of the arguments centered on either providing fertility treatment and counseling or denying such treatment to clients with AIDS or who are HIV positive. Both sides of the issue used the principles of beneficence and fidelity as the ethical basis for justification of an action. Autonomy, or the violation thereof, also appeared on both sides of this controversial discussion. It is not known whether the scenario presented could ever occur in reality, but with the anticipated increase in the number of AIDS clients who are heterosexuals, the potential for nurses to face such dilemmas also increases. Nurses need to begin to discuss how they might handle such dilemmas and the reasons why they might respond in a particular manner. One hopes that nurses will continue to base their actions on a sensitive reflection of their moral and ethical values as they attempt to care for clients with AIDS.
Rooks
C A
CA
School of Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore.
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000451:nursing*; D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000451:nursing; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy*