If a person told someone that whatever they told them would not leave the room, would that person be able to keep that secret? What if they told them that an innocent person got put in jail for a crime they did not commit? Chuck Klosterman begins to explain that a patient had headaches and that an innocent person was convicted of a serious crime that the patient had committed. The headaches then resolved after getting the truth out to the doctor. The way the doctor responds to the situation is another way of determining what type of person they are, or what resolution of the situation will best respect the rights of both the doctor and the patient. These are examples of The Virtue Approach and The Rights Approach. In “Should I Protect a Patient …show more content…
The Hippocratic oath is an oath that requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. The Hippocratic oath He explains that this situation is all based off of “doing no harm.” Klosterman asks, “are you doing harm by allowing someone to be penalized for a crime they did not commit?” If the doctor follows The Virtue Approach and resolves the situation with what option helps him act as the sort of person he is, he will still be doing harm. This is because he could help the innocent person get out of trouble and the patient be the person convicted. Or he could keep the secret and let the innocent stranger continue to be charged for something they did not do and let the patient live their life like nothing happened. But, if the doctor chooses The Rights Approach and resolves the situation with what option will best respect all people who have a stake, they are still doing harm. The doctor could keep the secret between him and the patient and that lets the innocent person stay in jail and the patient and doctor are now both living with the guilt of knowing. Or, the doctor could tell authority and get the innocent person out of trouble and let the patient be convicted for the crime they really committed. Whichever approach of ethics the doctor chooses to take will do harm to someone and wont follow the Hippocratic