Examples Of Discrimination In Healthcare

Discrimination in Healthcare: A universal issue

Introduction

As humans, we will inevitably make a mistake that negatively affects another person. More often than not, this is not intentional and would be taken back if given the chance. So, it is not unreasonable to think that those in charge of managing our health make mistakes, even if they had the best intentions. For example, when you sit down and think about how the elderly should be treated when it comes to healthcare what is your response? The elderly have many systems in their body that do not function like they did in earlier years and new studies are starting to pay attention to this aspect when it comes to treating older generations (Pecci, 2015). Also, we like to think that we live

Judd was an elderly, African-American woman this case could have played a major role in why she did not want to live by artificial means. The Judd family may have distrusted the healthcare system because of historical cases like the Tuskagee Experiment. Therefore, the son may have been so adamant about Alison being allowed to die with dignity and to not be kept alive by artificial means because he did not think all the information was being laid out as to why she was being kept alive. To avoid this, the physician should have talked to both Alison and Frasier to have a course of treatment set up for end-of-life care that everyone felt comfortable

Judd’s case presented a lot of gray areas. The physician wanted to give Alison every chance possible to pull through, even though it meant going against her son’s demands. Although the doctor may have been trying to avoid being accused of racial or age discrimination by keeping Alison alive, he did just the opposite. Frasier will always remember the physician for not abiding by his wishes and may think this was done because of his race. Also, Alison had lived a long life and her last three days were now spent on life support with low quality of life because the physician insisted on keeping her alive by artificial means. If this had been a 20 year old, many would have said to give her every chance there was. However, elderly need to start being treated differently in healthcare (Pecci, 2015) and Alison’s end-of-life care should have been addressed beforehand (Crawley et al., 2002). If these precautions would have been taken, Frasier would have felt more at ease and Ms. Judd’s case would have had less