4). Bioethics deals with matters such as informed consent, abortion, research on human subjects, compassionate treatment of the dying, and the right to health care. In the 1980's a process of ethical decision-making was prepared. The basis of this model is moral reasoning "a critical inquiry into the ethical dimensions of health care with the awareness that one may agree or disagree with others during the process. This process has ten steps and includes all of the tiers in the framework of ethical decision-making used today.
Ethical decisions do not just pertain to nursing; everyone makes these decisions on a day-to-day basis. Although moral decisions are made daily, health care morality often carries much more responsibility than commonplace decisions. Consider, for instance, a person who strongly values both family and personal accomplishment will have a difficult one choice between remaining at work to complete an assignment on time and going home to spend time with the family. Either choice would entail some level of guilt, and neither decision avoids wrong to a given party. However, in nursing, ethical dilemmas often have a higher degree of stress associated with obtaining the perfect decision. .
To make an ethical decision, a person must be familiar with the difference between law and ethics. An ethical decision does not need to be addressed if the issue at hand is a legal problem. Although laws are not by definition always necessarily ethical, consequences of disobeying the law can often prove catastrophic. However, the decision-maker in a healthcare situation must be current on all patient rights, code of ethics, the Nuremberg code, and all other ethical documents that outline proper and improper behavior. A nurse is held responsible for upholding these documents even if they are unaware of their existence. After consulting these sources the nurse may begin the process of decision-making.