Medical Tourism Case Study

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Ethical Theory and Principles An aspect of medical tourism discussed in this paper demonstrates rights theory, which “a right gives its holder a justified claim to something and a justified claim against another party,” by focusing on patients’ rightful decisions to seek medical tourism for treatments that are necessary to improve their health (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013, p. 368). It is unfortunate that patients are unable to receive treatments in their home countries, not because of the unavailability of the treatments, but simply due to their financial issues. However, other stakeholders such as health insurance companies and hospitals also have their policies and regulations that they abide by, which regulate and determine the costs of …show more content…

Moreover, the host countries that patients visit may practice medical care with paternalism, which may hinder transparent communication between the patients and the health care providers (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013, p. 217). This can create barriers between the patients and the health care providers, and patients may experience uncertainty or dissatisfaction in their treatments. Therefore, it is important to create awareness of the ethical and cultural concerns of medical tourism, so patients who are interested in traveling abroad can be prepared to be socially responsible (Adams, Snyder, Crooks, & Johnston, 2013, p. …show more content…

3). Patients may be attracted to treatments abroad due to low cost and may overlook quality of care the facilities offer and also the risks of the treatment that might outweigh the benefits. Patients may not have received complete information about the health care system of the host countries due to miscommunication caused by language or cultural barriers (Adam et al., 2013, p.3). Patients’ decision to travel abroad to developing countries for medical care can create increased risk of transmission of infectious diseases (Leggat, 2015, p. 17). The patients can carry infectious diseases to home and impact other people in their communities, which may generate new health care cost for people in the communities, as well as for the

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