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Social contracts in healthcare
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An altruistic predisposition is one of the core faculties that inform ethical medical practice. Physicians are held in positions of trust, and are viewed as being socially and ethically contracted to act selflessly in service to persons under their care. Altruism in medicine therefore represents an ideal that is necessary in preserving the fabric of trust between physicians and their patients, as well as their perception of physicians as healers who place their health before any individual self-interest. This social contract is essential to the effective functioning of medicine. An erosion of this trust would represent a degradation of physicians’ ability to act as effective intermediaries between medical science and health. The origin of my
People trust doctors to save lives. Everyday millions of Americans swallow pills prescribed by doctors to alleviate painful symptoms of conditions they may have. Others entrust their lives to doctors, with full trust that the doctors have the patient’s best interests in mind. In cases such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the Crownsville Hospital of the Negro Insane, and Joseph Mengele’s Research, doctors did not take care of the patients but instead focused on their self-interest. Rebecca Skloot, in her contemporary nonfiction novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, uses logos to reveal corruption in the medical field in order to protect individuals in the future.
Sarah Cullen and Margaret Klein, “Respect for Patients, Physicians, and the Truth,” in L. Vaughn, Bioethics: 148-55
When we see patients, we must remember that we are not simply treating a disease. We are caring for people with lives, hobbies, jobs, families, and friends, who are likely in a very vulnerable position. We must ensure that we use the status of physicians to benefit patients first and foremost, and do what we promised to when we entered the profession: provide care and improve quality of life, and hopefully leave the world a little better than it was
Valarie Blake, J. M. (2012, May ). When Is a Patient-Physician Relationship Established? The Virtual Mentor Volume 14, Number 5:, 403-406. Retrieved from The American Medical Association Journal of Ethics.
This principal is based on a maxim. A maxim refers to the reason one does something and the act that has been done. Maxim states that an action is either right or wrong based on the reason for doing it. In relation to the maxim, the doctor’s actions are considered right. The doctors argue that they did so in an attempt to find a cure for cancer and because the patients would not agree to the experiment. In addition, the principle of universalizability disagrees with maxim and sees this as a wrong act (Shafer-Landau 2014). This principle argues that before attempting an action one should ask what would the world be if everyone world acted in a similar manner. The answer would definitely be that the world would be a nightmare and this answer would perceive it as the wrong action.
In this diverse society we are confronted everyday with so many ethical choices in provision of healthcare for individuals. It becomes very difficult to find a guideline that would include a border perspective which might include individual’s beliefs and preference across the world. Due to these controversies, the four principles in biomedical ethic which includes autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice help us understand and explain which medical practices are ethical and acceptable. These principles are not only used to protect the rights of a patient but also the physician from being violated.
Ethics refers to the values and customs of a community at a particular point in time. At present, the term ethics is guided by the moral principles that guide our everyday actions. These moral principles guide the researcher into deciding what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The foundation of medical ethics is governed by two philosophical frameworks that are deontology, and utilitarianism. However ultimately the ethics committees need to balance the risks, and benefits for the participants and the community associated with the particular research proposal. This balance is quite important as the well being of participants is at risk.7
Voluntary participation conflicts with the scientific norm of particularism whereby there are no boundaries to the number of people contributing to a particular body of knowledge. Some participants may not know there are part of a research or know what the research topic is about for them to participate voluntarily.
Though most view hearing the truth from another person an individual’s right and overall kind act, doctors don’t alway look at truth telling as having a positive outcome. The same debate is often had over doctor-patient confidentiality. In general it is more beneficial for doctors to keep that promise, allowing patients to trust their physicians, making them more forthcoming with vital information. However when cases cause physicians to question what is more important, keeping the patient 's secret or breaking trust to create more benefit to all? In search for the right answer, many doctors turn to moral theories like Utilitarianism and Kantianism to help them
Effective interactions between radiologic personnel and patients can make the patient’s visit pleasant and meaningful (Adler & Carlton, 2012). To interact effectively with patients, understanding the patients’ needs and concerns are important. Fields et al. (2011) illustrate that empathy is an important component of professionalism, and is mutually beneficial between medical staff members and patients across all health professions. Sim and Radloff (2009) assert that altruism is an important attribution of professionalism, and that it is the responsibility of the healthcare professional to place patient interest and well-being over monetary gain. Therefore, radiologic professionals acting altruistic and emphatic with patients leads to better patient compliance and fulfillment. As with most medical professionals, radiologic professionals have a great responsibility when interacting with patients. Patients tend to view medical staff as powerful and omniscient (Adler & Carlton, 2012). According to Yielder and Davis (2009), this dominance derives from the extraordinary knowledge, techniques, and skills of the medical staff. As a result, patients rely on professional’s competence to provide high quality healthcare. Professionalism in radiology involves the medical personnel breaking down dominance barriers and working together with patients to
Ethics, though sometimes overlooked, are an integral part in conducting proper research. Though the primary goal of the researcher may be to find answers that support his hypothesis—particularly, positive results that successfully can apply to the general population—maintaining ethical conditions is also just as important, if not more. Some of the most infamous studies that have occurred in the social sciences field throughout the years were ones that raised ethical concerns. One such study is known as the Landis Facial Expression Study that was conducted in 1924 by Carney Landis, who was a graduate student in psychology at the University of Minnesota at the time.
General ethical theories have provided guidance for moral decision making for a few years now. Major theories have been created which emphasize different rules or principles to follow when moral difficulties arise, specifically in the medical context. These major ethical theories like Utilitarianism, Deontology, Natural Law of Ethics, Care Ethics, Virtue Ethics, and the Ethics of Reciprocity, to name a few, stand for different principles which overall formulates the major differences between these theories. However, after deliberating over the man principles and rules of each theory, the ethical theory which resonated most with my own decision making process, is the Ethics of Reciprocity.
Efficiency is highly prized in a culture turned toward productivity. It is therefore cultivated in contemporary business administration theories. It also tends to be prized above all other values in modern society, as society is more and more oriented toward technological advancement. Efficiency is also defined here as the most economic or the shortest or fastest or most simple way of realizing or achieving a goal with the least cost.
Medical ethics refers to the relationship between health professionals and patients. The trust of patients in physicians has been vanishing. Today a lot of health care providers primary concerns seem to be in profit rather than in providing the proper healthcare to the public. Medical ethics consist of several different principles. Nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and autonomy are just a few of the many principals. Nonmaleficence enacts that a health care providers, can never use treatment to injure or wrong their patients. Beneficence claims that health care providers are obligated to help others further their interest. Justice requires health providers treat every patient as equal and provide equal treatment for everyone with the same
Ethics is the study of moral values and the principles we use to evaluate actions. Ethical concerns can sometimes stand as a barrier to the development of the arts and the natural sciences. They hinder the process of scientific research and the production of art, preventing us from arriving at knowledge. This raises the knowledge issues of: To what extent do moral values confine the production of knowledge in the arts, and to what extent are the ways of achieving scientific development limited due to ethical concerns? The two main ways of knowing used to produce ethical judgements are reason, the power of the mind to form judgements logically , and emotion, our instinctive feelings . I will explore their applications in various ethical controversies in science and arts as well as the implications of morals in these two areas of knowledge.