LAWS GOVERNING NURSING
on medical ethics, which they believed prohibited taking an action
A. FUNCTIONS OF LAW
1) Nature of Law
(a) Normative: obligatory on human conduct
(b) Institutionalized
(c) Coercive
(d) General application
(2) Functions of Law
(a) Law as preservation of order
-public order law, criminal law
(b) Law as platform for human co-operation
-law of contract
(c) Law as medium of dispute resolution
-law of tort
(d) Law as tool of domination
-counter-revolutionary offences
(e) Law as mechanism for social engineering
-land registration
(f) Law as bulwark of morality
-decriminalizing homosexual acts between
consenting adults
(g) Law as regulation of governmental powers
-constitutional law, administrative law
(h) Law as protection of individual freedom
-bill of rights, anti-discrimination legislation
(i) Law as attainment of justice
-rules of natural justice, bill of rights, social security
law
(3) Limits of Law
(a) What law could not achieve
-e.g. love
(b) What law should not interfere with:
-private life
B. RELATIONSHIPS OF ETHICS AND LAW
According to Lon Fuller an American Legal Philosopher:
Ethics tells people what they should do and embodies the ideals
they should strive to attain.
Unethical behaviour leads to punishments that are related to how
an individual is perceived, both by himself or herself and others.
Law, on the other hand, provides boundaries of actions, set by
society, beyond which a person may go only by risking external
sanctions, such as incarceration or loss of a medical license.
This may explain why ethical codes usually involve generalities,
while laws tend to be more specific.
EXAMPLE:
The landmark case of Karen Ann Quinlan. Her parents requested
that physicians remove the mechanical ventilator in order to let their
daughter die a natural death. The doctors refused, relying primarily
LAWS GOVERNING NURSING | Error! No text of specified style in document.
that might lead to the death of the patient. The lawyers of Quinlan
family argued that what was at stake was not medical ethics but
the legal rights of the individual patient to refuse medical treatment
that was highly invasive and offered no chance for a cure.
The court agreed that patients have the legal right to
refuse medical treatment, determined that honouring such a refusal
was consistent with medical ethics, and decided that the parents of
Karen Ann Quinlan could exercise her right to refuse treatment on
her behalf. In order to reassure the physicians involved, however,
the court also decreed that if a hospital’s ethics committee agreed
with the prognosis of permanent coma, the removal of the ventilator
could take place and all parties involved would have legal immunity
from civil or criminal prosecution.
Karen Ann Quinlan’s ventilator was removed, although
she continued to breathe on her own. She survived in a coma until
she died ofpneumonia almost 10 years later.
C. SOURCES OF LAW
1. Constitution- is fundamental laws or
principles that govern a nation, society,
and corporation.
•
The purpose is to establish basic governing
system.
2. Statutes- laws that govern.
• Enacted by the legislative body and compile
into codes, collections of statutes and
ordinances.
3. Administrative agencies- third source of law.
• Bodies to manage crises, redress serious
social problems, or oversee complex
matters of governmental concern beyond
the expertise of legislators.
• Example: National Youth Commission (NYC),
Professional Regulation Commission, Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Health,
Department of Interior and Local Government,
Department of Justice, Department of Labor and
Employment
4. Court Decision- interprets legal issues that are in
dispute.
Types of Law and Court
http://law.hku.hk/lawgovtsociety/nature.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/372
261/health-law/35626/Relationship-of-law-and-
ethics
http://legal-
dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Administrative
+Agency
http://www.lawphil.net/administ/administ.html
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