In her book, Lisa Cahill, a theologian bioethicist does not object the necessity and a patient 's right to self-determination, or autonomy. Echoing the voices of Beauchamp and Childress, who both stress the necessity of informed consent, as an integral part of autonomy, Cahill views it as necessary in the prevention of abuse and unethical practices. She also views the principle of autonomy a means of recognizing the dignity of a human being that is reflected in Christian teachings. Cahill, however, does not want this principle to be the only one valued. She focuses on the unjust distribution of common good such as health care, and this concern becomes a major theme in her writings. She brings the reader 's attention to the fact that our …show more content…
It is the profits rather than the need of the world that drives the market, as Cahill points out. She laments that while in the 1960-1970 's theologic bioethicists influenced the field of bioethics, nowadays the ethical discourse involving Christian narrative gets" thinner and thinner," shifting away toward more secular and liberal views. As theologians are welcomed to partake in the ethical debates, their voices and opinions are rarely considered in policy making. Such situation causes the current trend amongst health care institutions,medical-surgical companies, and research labs, to focus on financial gain rather than ways to deliver health care to those who needed it the most. It is the consumers with the most "buying power" that have at their disposal the latest medical treatment, equipment, technologies, and medications while millions around the world lack the most basics of needs, such as clean water, food, shelter, education as well as the basic health care. Cahill fears that medical companies seeking profits will neglect or stop altogether to produce medications that are bringing low profits. Medications that are necessary to treat prevalent in the third- world countries or if you prefer the developing countries diseases, such as Dysentery, Cholera, Malaria, Rabies, Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, even warms, to name a …show more content…
She also highlights the driving forces such as money and profit oriented market, pointing to the demands of increasingly sophisticated medical technology by the very few with the " most buying power. This need stems from an important to human rights and reflecting the Christian teachings principle of autonomy. As she recognizes it as an important in the recognition of human value principle, she does not want it to be the only one to be valued. She speaks of the importance of affecting our and the world 's policies allowing the preferential option for the poor and fulfilling our Christian obligations to love our neighbor. She also speaks of the common good such as health care, and its just distribution. Taking care of the poor, and the just distribution of the common good are the principles that should be valued. After all, as Mahatma Gandhi once said; "The greatness of a nation is measured by how it cares for its most vulnerable
Alan Goldman argues that medical paternalism is unjustified except in very rare cases. He states that disregarding patient autonomy, forcing patients to undergo procedures, and withholding important information regarding diagnoses and medical procedures is morally wrong. Goldman argues that it is more important to allow patients to have the ability to make autonomous decisions with their health and what treatment options if any they want to pursue. He argues that medical professionals must respect patient autonomy regardless of the results that may or may not be beneficial to a patient’s health. I will both offer an objection and support Goldman’s argument. I will
According to Terrence F. Ackerman, as of the 1980s the American Medical Association had to include the respect for a person’s autonomy as a principle of medical ethics (Ackerman 14, 1982). This includes having the physician provide all the medical information to the patient even if the information could cause negative implication onto the patient. The physician is also expected to withhold all information of the patient from 3rd parties (Ackerman 14, 1982). Although it is seen as standard in today’s world, in
"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system is not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in order to cure their ailments. For instance, they may present symptoms that are perfectly harmless, and lead potential citizens to believe that, because of these symptoms, they are "sick" and in need of medication.
Who is Laura Wingfield you might ask? Without the knowledge of her age one might assume Laura is quite young the little sister. However she is not, Laura is almost 24 and is someone who didn’t want to be treated like a child but just became complacent with her status. Furthermore, Laura is unemployed which creates one of the main conflicts in the play, and her response to this problem highlights Laura’s attempt at ignoring reality by lying to her mother. The entirety of the play takes place in Saint Louis and Laura’s family apartment. Highlighting, why Laura’s has a clear inability to accept change since Laura has lived in Saint Louis, Missouri her whole life. Similarly, Laura has also lived her entire life in the same apartment located in
In Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Values, Peter Singer examines ethical dilemmas that confront us in the twentieth century by identifying inconsistencies between the theory and practice of ethics in medicine. With advancements in medical technology, we focus on the quality of patients’ lives. Singer believes that in this process, we have acknowledged a new set of values that conflicts with the doctrine of the sanctity of life.
This privilege had dramatically driven up the price of medication, making medicines unaffordable to the poor. This problem—also known as health inequality—is now listed as one of the major issues in developing countries. There are many documented cases showing that poor people are losing out as a result of drug companies focusing on the most marketable medicines rather than the most urgently needed. For instance, let us consider the story of the drug eflornithine, which was originally developed in 1980s to treat cancer. The drug turned out to be ineffective as an anticancer agent, but it was found to be effective against sleeping sickness, a disease that accounts for thousands of deaths per year in Africa. However, Hoechst Marion Roussel (now Aventis), the company that developed it, ceased its manufacture in 1999, citing marketing failure (MacDonald,
3Walker, Hugh: Market Power and Price levels in the Ethical Drug Industry; Indiana University Press, 1971, P 25.
The constitution of the World Health Organization states that “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition” (Koh and Nowinski 2010 pp 949). One would hope that this sentiment would also include the low income women of our society, however it has become a harsh reality amongst poverty stricken women that fair and affordable health care is difficult to provide for themselves and for their families. Women with an income below the federal poverty level are at a higher risk of being uninsured or under insured than the general population (Legerski, 2012). The inability to acquire adequate health insurance both privately offered and state funded, in particular can be a serious barrier to low income women's ability to seek health care (Magge, 2013). Furthermore poverty can cause some women to engage in dangerous “street involvement” causing health care providers to act with unjust prejudice in regard to their health care (Bungay, 2013). This paper will attempt to further address and justify these broad statements regarding low income women and their relationship to health care. It makes the argument that if we must see the highest attainable standard of health care as a fundamental human right than by not safeguarding our society’s impoverished women from these trials and tribulations are we not, as a country making a concession that low income women are less worthy or these rights?
“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti live with everyday, why every person has the right to healthcare no matter what, and how cost effectiveness should not determine whether or not these people get to live or die. Two texts that also argue this idea are Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right,” and Darshak Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” Leach’s article is an interview with Benjamin Crème that illustrates why food, shelter, education, and healthcare are human rights that have to be available to everyone. He shares many of the same views on health care as Farmer, and the two also share similar solutions to this ongoing problem. Leach also talks about the rapidly growing aids epidemic, and how it must be stopped. Like farmer, he also argues that it is easier to prevent these diseases then to cure them. Furthermore, Sanghavi’s article represents many of the questions that people would ask about cost effectiveness. Yet similar to Farmer’s views, Sanghavi argues that letting the poor d...
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.
The just delivery of health care falls into a pattern of rights. Medicaid and the US political view aside, the right to health care is a basic human right whose only requirement is that someone be a human being regardless of their gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class. That is, the right is a non-relational right that every human needs irrespective of differences in individual goals (Lomasky, 1981). As a positive right, it is the obligation of others to provide for one’s health needs, within limits. In satisfying the right to health care, society contributes toward the fulfillment of the right for the individual. In Medicaid for example, the right is supported through taxation, among other mechanisms and delivered by a
I emphasize the “doctor and patient” example because it is a common issue I frequently read, happening in those Countries that do not offer free access to cares. Italy grants open access to medical care, both Emergency and General Practitioner and of course we are lucky. In the contrary, it is a source of public debate because of its huge costs in the National expense balance. To cut straight to the point, there are endless polemics about the definition of “basic cares”, so that this diatribe obfuscates essential ethics. Again, Kant's theories start to help us, since humankind is not a mean, and money is not an universal end. I know the Italian reality and our system ought to focus on its organization, rather than the reduction of its care assistance. Evidence of this is the following organizational chart of the Italian health care system; it looks complex, do you agree? To the other side, even if there are some things to fix, it demonstrates that it can be achieved (cit. Commonwealth
The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses has five elements that pertain to the Principle of Autonomy. Each individual element applies to “respect individual persons” (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett T, M., Garrett R. M., 2013, p.33). In Chapter 2 of the Health Care ethics: Principles and problems text, it discusses thouroghly the consent of an individual to make their own decisions regarding their health and future requests of care. As a nurse or within all heath care professions, we must treat each individual patient with care, respect, and to remain mindful to the patient regarding any aspect of their lives. In the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses, it explains ways of maintaining the empathy required in the health field. It further discusses that the respect for human dignity must be a priority, relationships to patients must remain neutral, the severity of the situation, the right to self-rule, and the professionalism that must be upheld by the nurse and their associates.
In today’s society, medicine faces several issues. A major issue is healthcare insurances. Healthcare Insurance is getting more expensive, which mean less people have access to it. The purpose of medicine is to provide a better life to the people; however, insurance companies stands in the way of this goal. For example, poor people who do not have access to healthcare insurance cannot afford treatment to their sickness. Also, insurance companies decide the type of medicine to be provided for the patients. As a result, insurance companies have the say in deciding who will live and who will die. Medicine should be a right, not an option. People’s wealth should not determine their health status.
Resources have always been inadequate for food, economics and healthcare and all scarce resources are rationed in one way or another. Healthcare resources can be in the forms of medicine, machinery, expensive treatment and organ transplantation. For decades, allocation of healthcare resources in an equitable manner has always been the subject of debate, concern and analysis, yet the issue has persistently resisted resolution. Scarcity of resources for healthcare and issue of allocation is permanent and inescapable (Harris, “Deciding between Patients”). Scarcity can be defined in general, in emergency and in crises as well as shortage of certain kind of treatment, medicine or organs. As a result of scarcity of resources, and some people may be left untreated or die when certain patients are prioritized and intention of is that everyone will ultimately be treated (Harris, 2009: 335). Allocation of limited resources is an ethical issue since it is vital to address the question of justice and making fair decisions. Ethical judgments and concerns are part of daily choice in allocation of health resources and also to ensure these resources are allocated in a fair and just way. This paper will explore how QALYs, ageism and responsibility in particular influence the allocation of healthcare resources in general through the lens of justice, equity, social worth, fairness, and deservingness.