Week Two Online Challenge

Here's an online challenge on a topic we will come back to later in the course. Last week we talked about the 4 box method as a way to work through complicated ethical dilemmas. How long did it take to do one case at our first class? An hour! Will we have that kind of time in the emergency department? Of course not. But our approach right now is important to help with learning the basics. So what's next?

Kenneth Iserson is an emergency physician and bioethicist who has been writing about ethics in the ER for several decades. He has outlined a rubric for making decisions that consists of two questions:

1. Is this dilemma a type of ethical problem for which you have already worked out a rule, or is it at least similar enough that the rule could be reasonably extended to cover the situation? (Yes? --> USE THE RULE! / No? --> Ask question #2)
2. Is there an option which will buy you time for deliberation without excessive risk to the patient? (Yes? --> TAKE THAT OPTION! / No? --> Use a reliable reasoning technique.)

If you haven't already guessed, a primary goal of this class is to start building a set of rules that will allow you to answer "Yes!" to question 1 more often. One thing I think we should all think about, however, is:

What kind of delay tactics might be appropriate in question #2?