Criticisms of orthodox medical ethics, importance ofsupriyawable1
ethics is a very large and complex field of study with many branches .medical ethics is the branch of ethics that deals moral issues in medical practice. principles of medical ethics - autonomy ,beneficence ,confidentiality,do not harm,equity .importance of communication .
Medical Research: conflicts between autonomy and beneficence/non maleficence, euthanasia, informed consent, confidentiality, criticisms of orthodox medical ethics
Criticisms of orthodox medical ethics, importance ofsupriyawable1
ethics is a very large and complex field of study with many branches .medical ethics is the branch of ethics that deals moral issues in medical practice. principles of medical ethics - autonomy ,beneficence ,confidentiality,do not harm,equity .importance of communication .
Medical Research: conflicts between autonomy and beneficence/non maleficence, euthanasia, informed consent, confidentiality, criticisms of orthodox medical ethics
The Declaration of Helsinki is a set of ethical principles and guidelines for conducting medical research involving human subjects. It was adopted by the World Medical Association (WMA) in 1964 and has been revised multiple times since then, with the most recent revision occurring in 2013.
The Declaration of Helsinki outlines several key principles and considerations for researchers and physicians involved in human research, with a focus on protecting the rights, safety, and well-being of research participants. Some of the core principles and points covered in the Declaration of Helsinki include:
Informed Consent: Research participants must provide voluntary, informed, and written consent to participate in a study. They should be fully informed about the nature of the research, its purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives.
Beneficence and Non-Maleficence: Researchers should aim to maximize the benefits of research while minimizing harm to participants. The well-being of the research subjects should be the primary concern.
Research Ethics Committee Review: All research involving human subjects should undergo ethical review by an independent committee. This review ensures that the study meets ethical and scientific standards.
Scientific Validity and Ethical Conduct: Research should be scientifically rigorous and designed to answer important questions. Researchers must conduct their work with integrity and honesty.
Privacy and Confidentiality: Participants' privacy should be protected, and their data should be kept confidential. Personal information should not be disclosed without informed consent.
Equitable Distribution of Benefits and Burdens: Research should benefit society, and the selection of research subjects should be fair, without exploitation or discrimination.
Continuing Review: Ethical review of research should continue throughout the duration of the study, with particular attention to any new information that may affect the research's ethical considerations.
Access to Medical Care: Participants should have access to medical care and treatment, and they should be compensated for any injuries resulting from their participation in research.
Cross over design, Placebo and blinding techniques Dinesh Gangoda
A crossover design is a modified randomized block design in which each block receives more than one treatment at different dosing periods.
A block can be a patient or a group of patients.
Patients in each block receive different sequences of treatments.
A crossover design is called a complete crossover design if each sequence contains all treatments under investigation.
A placebo is a dummy medicine containing no active substance.
This substance has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs.
Latin- ‘ I shall please’
inform consent form before participate in clinical trials.for purpose of understanding the nature of research,risk,benefits,and decision about participation
(I) MEDICAL RESEARCH_ UNIT_III_RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & BIOSTATISTICS.pptxRAHUL PAL
Research Methodology and Biostatistics syllabus:
Medical Research: History, values in medical ethics, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, double effect, conflicts between autonomy.
Medical research has a long and varied history. It has evolved from rudimentary practices to sophisticated, evidence-based methodologies. Some key milestones include the development of the scientific method, the use of randomized controlled trials, the discovery of antibiotics, and the mapping of the human genome. Ethical concerns have also played a significant role in shaping the history of medical research, especially in response to various ethical violations, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Nuremberg Trials.
Resolving conflicts between these principles often requires careful consideration, ethical analysis, and, in some cases, consultation with ethics committees or boards. The specific course of action may vary based on the individual circumstances and ethical frameworks employed by healthcare professionals and researchers. Ethical guidelines and regulations also play a significant role in addressing and preventing these conflicts in medical research.
MEDICAL RESEARCH: UNIT_III_ EUTHANASIA, COI, CONFIDENTIALITY RESEARCH METHODO...RAHUL PAL
Medical research in clinical settings is the study of human health and disease in people. It is the primary way that researchers determine if a new form of treatment or prevention, such as a new drug, diet, or medical device, is safe and effective in people.
A clinical trial is designed to learn if a new treatment is more effective or has less harmful side effects than existing treatments.
Clinical trail is basically have 4 phases: Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, Phase IV
Medical Ethics is what every physician and healthcare worker should know. We need to understand Ethics and its application in various cultures, societies and its changes according to norms and values. Once society will be given health education regarding Medical Ethics many issues can be resolved in a decent manner. It ultimately gives a very positive impression of all the actions which a healthcare worker performs otherwise at times seems inappropriate by society. This is not for the sake of healthcare worker or for the patients it is primarily for the whole community.
What are the rights of patient? role of ethical committee and parameters of a physician all need to be addressed properly.
The Declaration of Helsinki is a set of ethical principles and guidelines for conducting medical research involving human subjects. It was adopted by the World Medical Association (WMA) in 1964 and has been revised multiple times since then, with the most recent revision occurring in 2013.
The Declaration of Helsinki outlines several key principles and considerations for researchers and physicians involved in human research, with a focus on protecting the rights, safety, and well-being of research participants. Some of the core principles and points covered in the Declaration of Helsinki include:
Informed Consent: Research participants must provide voluntary, informed, and written consent to participate in a study. They should be fully informed about the nature of the research, its purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives.
Beneficence and Non-Maleficence: Researchers should aim to maximize the benefits of research while minimizing harm to participants. The well-being of the research subjects should be the primary concern.
Research Ethics Committee Review: All research involving human subjects should undergo ethical review by an independent committee. This review ensures that the study meets ethical and scientific standards.
Scientific Validity and Ethical Conduct: Research should be scientifically rigorous and designed to answer important questions. Researchers must conduct their work with integrity and honesty.
Privacy and Confidentiality: Participants' privacy should be protected, and their data should be kept confidential. Personal information should not be disclosed without informed consent.
Equitable Distribution of Benefits and Burdens: Research should benefit society, and the selection of research subjects should be fair, without exploitation or discrimination.
Continuing Review: Ethical review of research should continue throughout the duration of the study, with particular attention to any new information that may affect the research's ethical considerations.
Access to Medical Care: Participants should have access to medical care and treatment, and they should be compensated for any injuries resulting from their participation in research.
Cross over design, Placebo and blinding techniques Dinesh Gangoda
A crossover design is a modified randomized block design in which each block receives more than one treatment at different dosing periods.
A block can be a patient or a group of patients.
Patients in each block receive different sequences of treatments.
A crossover design is called a complete crossover design if each sequence contains all treatments under investigation.
A placebo is a dummy medicine containing no active substance.
This substance has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs.
Latin- ‘ I shall please’
inform consent form before participate in clinical trials.for purpose of understanding the nature of research,risk,benefits,and decision about participation
(I) MEDICAL RESEARCH_ UNIT_III_RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & BIOSTATISTICS.pptxRAHUL PAL
Research Methodology and Biostatistics syllabus:
Medical Research: History, values in medical ethics, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, double effect, conflicts between autonomy.
Medical research has a long and varied history. It has evolved from rudimentary practices to sophisticated, evidence-based methodologies. Some key milestones include the development of the scientific method, the use of randomized controlled trials, the discovery of antibiotics, and the mapping of the human genome. Ethical concerns have also played a significant role in shaping the history of medical research, especially in response to various ethical violations, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Nuremberg Trials.
Resolving conflicts between these principles often requires careful consideration, ethical analysis, and, in some cases, consultation with ethics committees or boards. The specific course of action may vary based on the individual circumstances and ethical frameworks employed by healthcare professionals and researchers. Ethical guidelines and regulations also play a significant role in addressing and preventing these conflicts in medical research.
MEDICAL RESEARCH: UNIT_III_ EUTHANASIA, COI, CONFIDENTIALITY RESEARCH METHODO...RAHUL PAL
Medical research in clinical settings is the study of human health and disease in people. It is the primary way that researchers determine if a new form of treatment or prevention, such as a new drug, diet, or medical device, is safe and effective in people.
A clinical trial is designed to learn if a new treatment is more effective or has less harmful side effects than existing treatments.
Clinical trail is basically have 4 phases: Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, Phase IV
Medical Ethics is what every physician and healthcare worker should know. We need to understand Ethics and its application in various cultures, societies and its changes according to norms and values. Once society will be given health education regarding Medical Ethics many issues can be resolved in a decent manner. It ultimately gives a very positive impression of all the actions which a healthcare worker performs otherwise at times seems inappropriate by society. This is not for the sake of healthcare worker or for the patients it is primarily for the whole community.
What are the rights of patient? role of ethical committee and parameters of a physician all need to be addressed properly.
Resources for Week 2 HLTH440 from M.U.S.E. My Unique Student Expe.docxronak56
Resources for Week 2 HLTH440 from: M.U.S.E. My Unique Student Experience Registered Trademark CEC 2013. All Rights Reserved.
The Basis for Health Care Ethics
What is Ethics?Ethics is what you believe is right or wrong. It is a moral philosophy that seeks to help the individual distinguish between good and bad as defined by one's culture. Ethics guides individuals and groups in their decisions about health care and other matters. Ethics helps the individual and group set boundaries.
Health care ethics is based on the law, professional codes of ethics, standards of care, and institutional policies and practices (corporate law).
Codes of EthicsCodes of ethics or codes of conduct are lists of standards or guides that provide an ethical framework for practice within a profession. Physicians are bound by the Hippocratic oath, but nursing has its own code of ethics. All health professions have a code of ethics.
It is axiomatic that the practice of health care presents moral and ethical dilemmas, because it deals with human beings and life-altering circumstances.
Health care financing presents broader moral dilemmas in the allocation of scarce resources. The conflict exists between the inherent values, duties, and obligations in caring for patients and the availability of resources to treat them.
The depth or content of a code of ethics is dependent on the type of contact that the health care professional has with a patient.
Ethical Theories
A number of ethical frameworks or theories are used to make decisions in health care and, in general, to set boundaries for expected behavior. The theories are used to determine what is fair or unfair. The following are several ethical frameworks:
Normative ethics: The ethical theory that describes how things ought to be.
Teleological theory: Also known as consequentialist theory, which believes that the best action in any situation is the one that promotes the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. In health care financing, this would fall under the rubric of cost containment by calculating the net benefits verses the consequences.
Utilitarianism: This is Mill’s definition of morality, which is the practical ethics of judgment: What is the greatest good that will benefit the greatest number of people? Medicare falls under this rubric.
Deontological theory: What one should or must do based on the obligations and duties of one’s life. This theory focuses on means, whereas teleological theory focuses on ends.
Virtue ethics: This is the ethics of care as a part of virtue ethics; virtue ethics is a form of normative ethics, which emphasizes the character of the interaction between the health care provider and the patient. This is the opposite of the emphasis on rules or consequences in other moral theories. Health care virtues include compassion, conscientiousness, cooperativeness, discernment, honesty, trustworthiness, truth telling, integrity, kindness, respect, and commitment.
Situational ...
The ethics of performance monitoring-private sector perspectiveDavid Quek
Increasingly medical practice is coming under intense scrutiny as to what is appropriate and affordable care, including serious considerations of patient safety issues and protection. Medical professionalism must be consciously adhered to as we try and find the best health care for our patients at the best value and outcomes for our patients themselves, and also for society at large. In view of escalating health care costs, physician autonomy to practice as he or she likes or deems fit has now come under siege with more and more performance monitoring, not just for appropriateness, but also for outcomes, necessity and cost-effectiveness. Physician' vested interests must be tempered with evidence-based benefits or at least be associated with no increase in harm or incur affordability issues. Fraudulent physician malfeasance are now being uncovered via whistle-blowers, or through greater more meticulous audit of various validated performance measures, and those physicians found to have flouted these due to pecuniary self-interests, overuse of tests or procedures have been found guilty and sanctioned with heavy fines, return of reimbursements as well as imprisonment, and erasure from medical registries and the removal of license to practice.
The dilemma to use drugs for treatment as the standard for care creates problems for drug side effects that cause harm and death of patients.
The problem of the drug side effects and prescription errors kill more patients, according to Lazarus et al (1998), an "estimated of 106,000 deaths occur annually due to adverse drug side effects" for standard of care for "practicing medicine".
In the case of prescription drug, the ethical issue is standard of care for treatment, and is complicated because of adverse drug effect.
The dilemma for standard of care by drugs is the problem for unexpected adverse reaction to drug that harms patients for medical law, ethics, and bioethics.
The standard of care for practicing medicine is a drug for a treatment can never be about ethics between a doctor and a patient.
To think health care coverage for vaccination and immunization is standard of care for introducing virus, bacteria and toxin cause sickness for practicing medicine (use of drugs) for treatment.
There are no medical ethics that said 'to treat patients right by giving advice' instead, the standard of care is prescribing drugs with side effect is practicing medicine "drug" for compliance with treatment that cannot apply to the doctrine "to do no harm".
According "to the ethical guidance in the Era of managed Care" by Higgins & Hackett (2000), an analysis of the American College of Healthcare Executives' (ACHE) Code of ethics suggests, "the managed care revolution undermining the medical ethics and that it does not adequately address several ethical concerns." Bioethics is the study of life, moral and ethical issues for debate as it relates to medical policy and practice that were appropriate for legal standard and standard of care, which can arise from the relationship between biology, technology, medicine, politics, law and philosophy, especially in the application for life and reproduction such as the recent event about plan parenthood.
Without a change to the current system for standard of care of practicing medicine by diagnose diseases to prescribe drugs for treatment for health care coverage, the answer is no.
Physician-assisted suicide refers to the practice where a qualified medical professional, at the request of a terminally ill patient, provides the means or information necessary for the patient to self-administer a lethal dose of medication. This act aims to afford individuals autonomy over their end-of-life decisions, especially when facing unbearable suffering.
2. Medical Ethicsand Bioethics
Medical Ethics is primarily a field of applied ethics,
the study of moral values and judgments as they
apply to medicine.
As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics
encompasses its practical application in clinical
settings as well as work on its history, philosophy,
theology, and sociology.
Medical ethics tends to be understood narrowly as
an applied professional ethics, whereas bioethics
appears to have worked more expansive concerns,
touching upon the philosophy of science and
issues of biotechnology.
3. Medical Ethicsand Bioethics
Still, the two fields often overlap and the
distinction is more a matter of style than
professional consensus.
Medical ethics shares many principles with other
branches of healthcare-ethics, such as nursing
ethics.
5. Historyof Medical Ethics
Historically, Western medical ethics may be traced to
guidelines on the duty of physicians in antiquity, such
as the Hippocratic Oath, and early rabbinic and
Christian teachings.
In the medieval and early modern period, the field is
indebted to Muslim physicians such as Ishaq bin Ali
Rahawi (who wrote the Conduct of a Physician, the
first book dedicated to medical ethics) and
Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (known as Rhazes in
the West), Jewish thinkers such as Maimonides,
Roman Catholic scholastic thinkers such as Thomas
Aquinas, and the case-oriented analysis (casuistry) of
Catholic moral theology.
These intellectual traditions continue in Catholic,
Islamic and Jewish medical ethics.
6. Historyof Medical Ethics
By the 18th and 19th centuries, medical ethics
emerged as a more self-conscious discourse.
For instance, authors such as Thomas Percival
wrote about “medical jurisprudence” and
reportedly coined the phrase “medical ethics.”
Percival’s guidelines related to physician
consultations have been criticized as being
excessively protective of the home physicians
reputation.
7. Historyof Medical Ethics
In 1847, the American Medical Association adopted its
first code of ethics, with this being based in large part
upon Percival’s work.
While the secularized field borrowed largely from
Catholic medical ethics, in the 20th century a distinctly
liberal Protestant approach was articulated by thinkers
such as Joseph Fletcher.
In the 1960s and 1970s, building upon liberal theory
and procedural justice, much of the discourse of
medical ethics went through a dramatic shift and
largely reconfigured itself into bioethics.
8. Historyof Medical Ethics
Since the 1970s, the growing influence of ethics in
contemporary medicine can be seen in the
increasing use of Institutional Review Boards to
evaluate experiments on human subjects, the
establishment of hospital ethics committees, the
expansion of the role of clinician ethicists, and the
integration of ethics into many medical school
curricula.
10. Sixof thevalues thatcommonlyapply to
medical ethicsdiscussionsare:
1. Autonomy (Voluntas aegroti suprema lex.) – The
patient has the right to refuse or choose their
treatment.
2. Beneficence (Salus aegroti suprema lex.) – A
practitioner should act in the best interest of the
patient.
3. Non-maleficence (Primum non nocere) – “First,
do no harm”
11. Sixof thevalues thatcommonlyapply to
medical ethicsdiscussionsare:
1. Justice (Fairness and equality) – Concerns the
distribution of scarce health resources, and the
decision of who gets what treatment.
2. Dignity – The patient (and the person treating
the patient) have the right to dignity.
3. Truthfulness and honesty – The concept of
informed consent has increased in importance
since the historical events of the Doctors’ Trial of
the Nuremburg trials and Tuskegee Syphilis
Study
12. Values in Medical Ethics
Values such as these do not give answers as to how
to handle a particular situation, but provide a
useful framework for understanding conflicts.
When moral values are in conflict, the result may
be an ethical dilemma or crisis.
Sometimes, no good solution to a dilemma in
medical ethics exists, and occasionally, the values
of the medical community (i.e., the hospital and
its staff) conflict with the values of the individual
patient, family, or larger non-medical community.
13. Values in Medical Ethics
Conflicts can also arise between health care
providers, or among family members.
Some argue for example, that the principles of
autonomy and beneficence clash when patients
refuse blood transfusions, considering them life-
saving; and truth-telling was not emphasized to a
large extent before the HIV era.
15. Autonomy
The principle of autonomy recognizes the rights of
individuals to self determination.
This is rooted in society’s respect for individuals’
ability to make informed decisions about personal
matters.
Autonomy has become more important as social
values have shifted to define medical quality in
terms of outcomes that are important to the
patient rather than medical professionals.
16. Autonomy
Autonomy is a general indicator of health.
Many diseases are characterized by loss of
autonomy, in various matters.
This makes autonomy an indicator for both
personal well-being, and for the well-being of the
profession.
17. Autonomy
This has implications for the consideration of
medical ethics:
“is the aim of health care to do good, and benefit
from it?”;
or
“is the aim of health case to do good to others, and
have them, and society, benefit from this?”
18. Autonomy
Ethics – by definition – tries to find a beneficial
balance between the activities of the individual
and its effect on a collective.
By considering Autonomy as a gauge parameter for
(self) health care, the medical and ethical
perspective both benefit from the implied
reference to Health.
20. Beneficence
The term beneficence refers to actions that
promote the wellbeing of others.
In the medical context, this means taking actions
that serve the best interests of patients.
However, uncertainty surrounds the precise
definition of which practices do in fact help
patients.
21. Beneficence
James Childress and Tom Beauchamp in Principle
of Biomedical Ethics (1978) identify beneficence as
one of the core values of health care ethics.
Some scholars, such as Edmund Pellegrino, argue
that beneficence is the only fundamental principle
of medical ethics.
They argue that healing should be the sole purpose
of medicine, and that endeavors like cosmetic
surgery, contraception and Euthanasia fall beyond
its purview.
23. Non-Maleficence
The concept of non-maleficence is embodies by the
phrase, “first, do no harm,” or the Latin, primum non
nocere.
Many consider that should be the main or primary
consideration (hence primum): that it is more
important not to harm your patient, than to do them
good.
This is partly because enthusiastic practitioners are
prone to using treatments that they believe will do
good, without first having evaluate them adequately to
ensure they do no (or only acceptable levels of) harm.
24. Non-Maleficence
Much harm has been done to patients as a result.
It is not only more important to do no harm than to do
good; it is also important to know how likely it is that
your treatment will harm a patient.
So a physician should go further than not prescribing
medications they know to be harmful – he or she
should not prescribe medications (or otherwise treat
the patient) unless s/he knows that the treatment is
unlikely to be harmful; or at the very least, that patient
understands the risks and benefits, and that the likely
benefits outweigh the likely risks.
25. Non-Maleficence
In practice, however, many treatments carry some
risk of harm.
In some circumstances, e.g. in desperate situations
where the outcome without treatment will be
grave, risky treatments that stand a high chance of
harming the patient will be justified, as the risk of
not treating is also very likely to do harm.
So the principle of non-maleficence is not absolute,
and must be balanced against the principle of
beneficence (doing good).
26. Double Effect
Some interventions undertaken by physicians can
create a positive outcome while unintentionally
doing foreseeable harm. The combination of these
two circumstances is known as the “double effect”.
A commonly cited example of this phenomenon is
the use of morphine in the dying patient.
Such use of morphine can ease the pain and
suffering of the patient, while simultaneously
hastening the demise of the patient through
suppression of the respiratory system.
27. Euthanasia
Some American physicians interpret the non-
maleficence principle to exclude the practice of
euthanasia, though not all concur.
Probably the most extreme example in recent
history of the violation of the non-maleficence
dictum was Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who was convicted
of second-degree homicide in Michigan in 1998
after demonstrating active euthanasia on the TV
news show, 60 Minutes.
29. Informed Consent
Informed consent in ethics usually refers to the
idea that a person must be fully-informed about
and understand the potential benefits and risks of
their choice of treatment.
An uninformed person is at risk of mistakenly
making a choice not reflective of his or her values
or wishes.
It does not specifically mean the process of
obtaining consent, nor the specific legal
requirements, which vary from place to place, for
capacity to consent.
30. Informed Consent
Patients can elect to make their own medical
decisions, or can delegate decision-making
authority to another party.
If the patient is incapacitated, laws around the
world designate different processes for obtaining
informed consent, typically by having a person
appointed by the patient or their next of kin make
decisions for them.
The value of informed consent is closely related to
the values of autonomy and truth telling.
32. Confidentiality
Confidentiality is commonly applied to
conversations between doctors and patients.
This concept is commonly known as patient-
physician privilege.
Legal protections prevent physicians from
revealing their discussions with patients, even
under oath in court.
Confidentiality is mandated in America by HIPAA
laws, specifically the Privacy Rule, and various
state laws, some more rigorous than HIPAA.
33. Confidentiality
However, numerous exceptions to the rules have
been carved out over the years.
For example, many states require physicians to
report gunshot wounds to the police and impaired
drivers to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Confidentiality is also challenged in cases
involving diagnosis of a sexually transmitted
disease in a patient who refuses to reveal the
diagnosis to a spouse, and in termination of a
pregnancy in an underage patient, without the
knowledge of the patient’s parents.
34. Confidentiality
Traditionally, medical ethics has viewed the duty
of confidentiality as a relatively non-negotiable
tenet of medical practice.
More recently, critics like Jacob Appel have argued
for a more nuanced approach to the duty that
acknowledges the need for flexibility in many
cases.
36. Importanceof Communication
Many so-called “ethical conflicts” in medical ethics
are traceable back to a lack of communication.
Communication breakdowns between patients
and their healthcare team, between family
members, or between members of the medical
community, can all lead to disagreements and
strong feelings.
These breakdowns should be remedied, and many
apparently insurmountable “ethics” problems can
be solved with open lines of communication.
37. Control and Resolution
To ensure that appropriate ethical values are being
applied within hospitals, effective hospital
accreditation requires that ethical considerations
are taken into account, for example with respect to
physician integrity, conflicts of interest, research
ethics and organ transplantation ethics.
38. Guidelines
There are various ethical guidelines.
For example, the Declaration of Helsinki is regarded as
authoritative in human research ethics.
In the United Kingdom, General Medical Council
provides clear overall modern guidance in the form of
its ‘Good Medical Practice’ statement.
Other organizations, such as the Medical Protection
Society and a number of university departments, are
often consulted by British doctors regarding issues
relating to ethics.
39. Ethics Committees
Often, simple communication is not enough to
resolve a conflict, and a hospital ethics committee
must convene to decide a complex matter.
These bodies are composed primarily of health
care professionals, but may also include
philosophers, lay people, and clergy – indeed, in
many parts of the world their presence is
considered mandatory in order to provide balance.
40. Ethics Committees
U.S. recommendations suggest that Research and
Ethical Boards (REBs) should have five or more
members, including at least one scientist, one non-
scientist, and one person not affiliated with the
institution.
The REB should include people knowledgeable in
the law and standards of practice and professional
conduct.
Special memberships are advocated for
handicapped or disabled concerns, if required by
the protocol under review.
41. Cultural Concerns
Culture differences can create difficult medical
ethics problems.
Some cultures have spirited or magical theories
about the origins of disease, for example, and
reconciling these beliefs with the tenets of
Western medicine can be difficult.
42. Truth-Telling
Some cultures do not place a great emphasis on
informing the patient of the diagnosis, especially
when cancer is the diagnosis.
Even American culture did not emphasize truth-
telling in a cancer case, up until the 1970s.
In American medicine, the principle of informed
consent takes precedence over ethical values, and
patients are usually at least asked whether they
want to know the diagnosis.
44. Conflictsof Interest
Physicians should not allow a conflict of interest to
influence medical judgment.
In some cases, conflicts are hard to avoid, and
doctors have a responsibility to avoid entering
such situations.
Unfortunately, research has shown that conflicts of
interests are very common among both academic
physicians and physicians in practice.
45. Referral
For example, doctors who receive income from
referring patients for medical tests have been
shown to refer more patients for medical tests.
This practice is proscribed by the American
College of Physicians Ethics Manual.
Fee splitting and the payments of commissions to
attract referrals of patients is considered unethical
and unacceptable in most parts of the world.
46. Vendor Relationships
Studies show that doctors can be influenced by
drug company inducements, including gifts and
food.
Industry-sponsored Continuing Medical
Education (CME) programs influence prescribing
patterns.
Many patients surveyed in one study agreed that
physician gifts from drug companies influence
prescribing practices.
47. Sexual Relationships
Sexual relationships between doctors and patients
can create ethical conflicts, since sexual consent
may conflict with the fiduciary responsibility of
the physician.
Doctors who enter into sexual relationships with
patients face the threats of deregistration and
prosecution.
In the early 1990s it was estimated that 2 ~ 9 % of
doctors had violated this rule.
49. Futility
The concept of medical futility has been an
important topic in discussions of medical ethics.
What should be done if there is no chance that a
patient will survive but the family members insist
on advanced care?
Previously, some articles defined futility as the
patient having less that a one percent chance of
surviving.
Some of these cases wind up in the courts.
50. Futility
Advanced directives include living wills and
durable powers of attorney for health care.
(See also Do Not Resuscitate and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation)
In many cases, the “expressed wishes” of the
patient are documented in these directives, and
this provides a framework to guide family
members and health care professionals in the
decision making process when the patient is
incapacitated.
51. Futility
“Substituted judgment is the concept that a family
member can give consent for treatment if the
patient is unable (or unwilling) to give consent
himself.
The key question for the decision making
surrogate is not, “What would you like to do?”, but
instead, “What do you think the patient would
want in this situation?”.
52. Futility
Courts have supported family’s arbitrary
definitions of futility to include simple biological
survival, as in the baby K case.
(in which the courts ordered a child born with only
a brain stem instead of a complete brain to be kept
on a ventilator based on the religious belief that all
life must be preserved)
In some hospitals, medical futility is referred to as
“non-beneficial care.”
53. Futility
Baby Doe Laws establish state protection for a
disabled child’s right to life, ensuring that this
right is protected even over the wishes of parents
or guardians in cases where they want to withhold
treatment.
Critics claim that this is how the State, and
perhaps the Church, through its adherents in the
executive and the judiciary, interferes in order to
further its own agenda at the expense of the
patients.