Nursing Law and Ethics

The papers in this section on the legal aspects of nursing can be divided into two parts: (a) the rights and responsibilities of nurses, patients, and the medical system and (b) treatment, with its legal ramifications. How does one decide whether patients'' rights or the health professional''s rights are to be considered more seriously? Is there an absolute "right" or "wrong"? Since legal rights are sanctioned by constantly changing social and political climates, this may, in effect, diminish the possibility of anything absolute. The question of the "equivalency" of legal and moral rights is also addressed. Due to the prevalent vagueness with regard to bioethical issues as they affect hu­ man and legal rights, often we become absorbed in philosophical polemics without being able to arrive at anyone answer. In order to move beyond the ethical/theoret­ ical fonnulations, there is daily confrontation in the nursing profession -the practi­ cal application of theoretics.