What Are The Ethical Issues In The Medical Field
Jermey Lindsey
English 101-1009
November 10, 2012
Diane Wilkins
Medical Ethics Ethics in the medical field have many issues that doctors and medical professionals face everyday like, does the good of a treatment outweigh the bad of the treatment. In most people’s eye ethics are the medical professional’s opinion but that is not the case in today’s society. Physicians face accountability, privacy/confidentiality, and inform consent. These are very good areas that medical professionals should follow no matter what the situation may be for them and the patients’ safety and well-being. To help these professionals in making good choices and doing these things in the correct way and to decipher what is good and bad for a patient based upon the patients needs and wants while in a medical facility, a board of medical professionals created a modern code of ethics that outlines what medical …show more content…
personnel should do based on situations and patient needs. Even with these basic codes in place to help ease ethical issues, doctors often find themselves having to break some codes to use other codes, which makes the doctors job on using the right ethical code a very difficult job. Ethics have been in the medical field since ancient times, they have wonder what the right thing was to do versus what shouldn’t be done to help people that needed medical attention. In historical ethics doctors basically had one ethic code to follow and that was to do what ever the patient needed done to help them to recover from their injury and/or disease. This code was not well accepted until the Middle Ages when Christian beliefs were tied to medical ethics. Giving the ethics a better name for itself in saying that it is what would do with a Christian belief. Modern Ages the codes began to change especially with the creation of American Medical Association (AMA). Part of the changing of the codes was that doctors not only had the patients well being in their hands but also what would best for humanity based on what the patient has wrong with them. Like if a patient had a life threatening disease that could be transmitted to others easily would have to quarantine away from others and not allowed to be around the general public to keep from having a possible outbreak of disease. Another change was the patient being given more rights as a patient in the say what they want done to them top help them overcome what ever illness or injury they had. Another change was patient/doctor confidentiality, in that the doctor was not allowed to disclose any information that the patient releases to the doctor for medical purposes only. The last change that was introduced was Nuremburg Code that stop the experimental research being done to patients that was not helping said patient but was being done to help better understand a disease (Medical Ethics). Physician’s accountability is a major player in ethics, saying that the physician should be accountable for what ethical code they may break and/or use to help treat a patient. On average medical errors that could have been avoided that resulted in patient death is 98,000 deaths a year (Physician Accountability ). With this happening many doctors carry malpractice insurance that leads to higher healthcare for patients, because of the possible high amount of money that a patient or patient family may sue for in a malpractice suit against them or the medical facility. Some of the major areas where physicians accountability to the test are abortion, assisted suicide, and organ transplants. These are typically areas where the patient is having something done that is not viewed as ethical but cannot be refused because it is what the patient wants to receive. Abortion is a major ethical debate because most doctors are unwilling to do this in that they feel it is wrong to take the life of a fetus. Assisted suicide is a major conflict in that it is the doctors position to keep a patient alive and try and find a cure but when a patient is facing a certain death and is in severe pain, should it be the doctors choice to help this person or the individuals relatives for the patient to be taken off life saving equipment and let the patient die. Organ transplant is a major ethical dilemma as well in that determining who gets to receive an organ versus who shouldn’t or should have to wait longer to receive a transplant that they desperately need to help save their life. All of those questions are up to medical professionals to decide but in peoples opinions who are they to make those kinds of decisions to save lives and let others die.
Privacy and Confidentiality of the patient are stricter today than it was just sixty years ago. In the past the doctor was to report anything that may be good for knowledge of society or medical officials, they had to release information such as gunshot wound to a patient to the local police officials. But now a days doctors are not to release any information to anyone without the patients permission to let such information be released to the public unless under extreme situations. A patient may also see their medical records whenever they want (Patient Confidentailty ). In doing this physicians can’t withhold any information from the patient that the patient may want to know about the medical problems they may not be aware of.
Doctors are also now forced to achieve an informed consent from the patient or the patients care giver, on what medications and/or operations can be performed or offered to the patient. With this information a physician can then decide what treatments and operations that can be preformed on said patient without causing known harm to them. Patients often only reveal certain parts of their medical history because of the patient being embarrassment of something in their past and in doing this they put the physician in a very dangerous situation in not knowing what they need to do for the patient. For example; a wealth of research shows that access to confidential reproductive health care benefits teenage patients. Although many minors voluntarily consult adult family members on questions about sexual health, others do not feel comfortable, or fear, doing so (Brownson, 2011). It is also difficult in that a doctor may know what the patient needs but if the patient doesn’t wish to receive what the medical professional is offering it can’t be administered to the patient.
Margaret Somerville stated that, "Ethical issues arise when not all values can be respected. The values in conflict must then be prioritized and the essence of 'doing ethics' is to justify breaching the values that are not respected." With all that said there are many occasions where physicians break these codes and do what they believe to be the right thing although a medical board has deemed them as the wrong thing to do. Like abortion is very a controversial there are times like rape where that could be understood as a time to be able to allow abortion to happen if the woman involved does not want the child. Another example would be a patient has an incurable disease, is in excoriating pain, and is facing death a physician may feel that they need to help this patient go ahead and end their life because there is no for seen way of ever overcoming the certain death. With the informed consent a physician may feel like if there is something wrong with patient that should involve the police and tell their local authorities about said problem and give up patient information although it is frowned upon by the medical board.
Medical professionals have always and will always face accountability, privacy/confidentiality, and informed consent problems while in the medical field.
As long as the physicians follow these rules although they may not agree with them it keeps everyone in the safest position to overcome whatever the situation at hand is.
Works Citied
"Medical Ethics." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
“Physician Accountability.” Public Citizen. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=1248
“Patient Confidentiality.” American Medical Association. 1995-2012 Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/legal-topics/patient-physician-relationship-topics/patient-confidentiality.page
"Between You and Me." New York Times 19 July 2011: D4(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
“Basic Ethical Principals.” University of Ottawa Hospital. 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Ethics_e.htm
English 101-1009
November 10, 2012
Diane Wilkins
Medical Ethics Ethics in the medical field have many issues that doctors and medical professionals face everyday like, does the good of a treatment outweigh the bad of the treatment. In most people’s eye ethics are the medical professional’s opinion but that is not the case in today’s society. Physicians face accountability, privacy/confidentiality, and inform consent. These are very good areas that medical professionals should follow no matter what the situation may be for them and the patients’ safety and well-being. To help these professionals in making good choices and doing these things in the correct way and to decipher what is good and bad for a patient based upon the patients needs and wants while in a medical facility, a board of medical professionals created a modern code of ethics that outlines what medical …show more content…
personnel should do based on situations and patient needs. Even with these basic codes in place to help ease ethical issues, doctors often find themselves having to break some codes to use other codes, which makes the doctors job on using the right ethical code a very difficult job. Ethics have been in the medical field since ancient times, they have wonder what the right thing was to do versus what shouldn’t be done to help people that needed medical attention. In historical ethics doctors basically had one ethic code to follow and that was to do what ever the patient needed done to help them to recover from their injury and/or disease. This code was not well accepted until the Middle Ages when Christian beliefs were tied to medical ethics. Giving the ethics a better name for itself in saying that it is what would do with a Christian belief. Modern Ages the codes began to change especially with the creation of American Medical Association (AMA). Part of the changing of the codes was that doctors not only had the patients well being in their hands but also what would best for humanity based on what the patient has wrong with them. Like if a patient had a life threatening disease that could be transmitted to others easily would have to quarantine away from others and not allowed to be around the general public to keep from having a possible outbreak of disease. Another change was the patient being given more rights as a patient in the say what they want done to them top help them overcome what ever illness or injury they had. Another change was patient/doctor confidentiality, in that the doctor was not allowed to disclose any information that the patient releases to the doctor for medical purposes only. The last change that was introduced was Nuremburg Code that stop the experimental research being done to patients that was not helping said patient but was being done to help better understand a disease (Medical Ethics). Physician’s accountability is a major player in ethics, saying that the physician should be accountable for what ethical code they may break and/or use to help treat a patient. On average medical errors that could have been avoided that resulted in patient death is 98,000 deaths a year (Physician Accountability ). With this happening many doctors carry malpractice insurance that leads to higher healthcare for patients, because of the possible high amount of money that a patient or patient family may sue for in a malpractice suit against them or the medical facility. Some of the major areas where physicians accountability to the test are abortion, assisted suicide, and organ transplants. These are typically areas where the patient is having something done that is not viewed as ethical but cannot be refused because it is what the patient wants to receive. Abortion is a major ethical debate because most doctors are unwilling to do this in that they feel it is wrong to take the life of a fetus. Assisted suicide is a major conflict in that it is the doctors position to keep a patient alive and try and find a cure but when a patient is facing a certain death and is in severe pain, should it be the doctors choice to help this person or the individuals relatives for the patient to be taken off life saving equipment and let the patient die. Organ transplant is a major ethical dilemma as well in that determining who gets to receive an organ versus who shouldn’t or should have to wait longer to receive a transplant that they desperately need to help save their life. All of those questions are up to medical professionals to decide but in peoples opinions who are they to make those kinds of decisions to save lives and let others die.
Privacy and Confidentiality of the patient are stricter today than it was just sixty years ago. In the past the doctor was to report anything that may be good for knowledge of society or medical officials, they had to release information such as gunshot wound to a patient to the local police officials. But now a days doctors are not to release any information to anyone without the patients permission to let such information be released to the public unless under extreme situations. A patient may also see their medical records whenever they want (Patient Confidentailty ). In doing this physicians can’t withhold any information from the patient that the patient may want to know about the medical problems they may not be aware of.
Doctors are also now forced to achieve an informed consent from the patient or the patients care giver, on what medications and/or operations can be performed or offered to the patient. With this information a physician can then decide what treatments and operations that can be preformed on said patient without causing known harm to them. Patients often only reveal certain parts of their medical history because of the patient being embarrassment of something in their past and in doing this they put the physician in a very dangerous situation in not knowing what they need to do for the patient. For example; a wealth of research shows that access to confidential reproductive health care benefits teenage patients. Although many minors voluntarily consult adult family members on questions about sexual health, others do not feel comfortable, or fear, doing so (Brownson, 2011). It is also difficult in that a doctor may know what the patient needs but if the patient doesn’t wish to receive what the medical professional is offering it can’t be administered to the patient.
Margaret Somerville stated that, "Ethical issues arise when not all values can be respected. The values in conflict must then be prioritized and the essence of 'doing ethics' is to justify breaching the values that are not respected." With all that said there are many occasions where physicians break these codes and do what they believe to be the right thing although a medical board has deemed them as the wrong thing to do. Like abortion is very a controversial there are times like rape where that could be understood as a time to be able to allow abortion to happen if the woman involved does not want the child. Another example would be a patient has an incurable disease, is in excoriating pain, and is facing death a physician may feel that they need to help this patient go ahead and end their life because there is no for seen way of ever overcoming the certain death. With the informed consent a physician may feel like if there is something wrong with patient that should involve the police and tell their local authorities about said problem and give up patient information although it is frowned upon by the medical board.
Medical professionals have always and will always face accountability, privacy/confidentiality, and informed consent problems while in the medical field.
As long as the physicians follow these rules although they may not agree with them it keeps everyone in the safest position to overcome whatever the situation at hand is.
Works Citied
"Medical Ethics." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
“Physician Accountability.” Public Citizen. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=1248
“Patient Confidentiality.” American Medical Association. 1995-2012 Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/legal-topics/patient-physician-relationship-topics/patient-confidentiality.page
"Between You and Me." New York Times 19 July 2011: D4(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
“Basic Ethical Principals.” University of Ottawa Hospital. 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Ethics_e.htm