This patient was not treated with the ethical respectany patient should receive when seeking help/treatment. It is very alarming that a physician whose job is to take care of other humans would disregard giving a proper
This led to major breakthroughs in the medical world and allowed scientists to experiment effects of toxins and cures. “If the whole profession is doing it, how can you call it 'unprofessional conduct'?" (Skloot, 134) Skloot wrote this book to unveil the injustices that the Lacks family and many other African-Americans went through. The key passage shows that many medical professionals used the “everyone else is doing it” defense to justify their unethical behavior.
After reading this case I was terribly shocked about the fact that something like this could happen in our medical history. I couldn’t believe how a patient could be neglected so much. Based on the material that we have learned the lack of ethical theory of deontology in Dr. Evan was disturbing. As a doctor Dr. Evan’s role is to care for patients, keep them away from harm and prolong their life. Though in the trial he stated as if he didn’t care.
The patients that were test subjects were of a variety of diseases and disorders, “one person had advanced Parkinson’s and couldn’t talk, others only spoke yiddish, one had ‘multiple sclerosis’ and ‘depressive psychosis’. Regardless, Hyman wrote, ‘I was informed that consent was not necessary… that it was unlikely that Jewish patients would agree to live cancer cell injections” (Skloot 133). This would not be the only time that Jews were
Doctors thought, since patients were receiving quality treatment they thought it was okay to experiment on them in return. The doctors at Hopkins took advantage of their patients because they knew they were uneducated and they wanted to advance their personal
They were to report on patients’ side effects, patients use of the drug, and both patient and physician subjective evaluations. Physicians who were interested in participating in this research would be paid three hundred dollars for ever patient they entered into the study, as well as an additional three hundred for the patients who participated in a one year follow up evaluation. The payment in this case was considered compensation for physician’s time and effort.
Consequently taking away the patients decision and instead giving physicians full control to seemingly “play god”, as the decision is now in their hand. Through this problem within the medical community, society has inadvertently traded off ethics in pursuit for common good (Martinez). Because of this, such practices as benevolent deception in hospitals had room to emerge during the Jim Crow era. As doctors apparently took the decision of the patient in their own hands. Benevolent deception was a widely common practice during the times of Henrietta Lacks.
Upon further research, the antineoplaston treatment did not follow proper protocol for the clinical trials, and the treatment was found to be dangerous in some cases. Because of these omissions, the documentary manipulates the viewer into believing its embellished claims. The real travesty is that Dr. Burzynski was selling false hope in a medicine bottle, and desperate families were willing to blindly take the treatment instead of seeking protection from the
By the mid 1970’s, now Dr. Shipman, had two children and obtained work as a family practitioner in Yorkshire (Harold Shipman, 2014). His first assignment as a doctor was short lived as he became addicted to a drug called Pethidine, which is a very similar drug to the painkiller Morphine (England, 2015). Dr. Shipman was eventually found guilty of forgery, fraud, and self-prescribing himself Pethidine (England, 2015). Dr. Shipman agreed to admit himself into a rehabilitation program, which substantially reduced his punishment (Harold Shipman, 2014).
The films One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and, A Beautiful Mind portray Hollywood images of the treatment. It pictures the dramatic scene of a pleading patient dragged to a treatment room, forcibly administered electric currents as his jaw clenches, his back arches, and his body shakes while being held down by burly attendants or by foot and wrist restraints. The truth is that patients are not covered into treatment. They may be anxious and reluctant, but they come willingly. They have been told why the treatment is recommended, the procedures have been explained, and many have seen videos images of the procedures.
But unfortunately, the experiment was also never clearly explained to them, they had thought it was just the best possible treatment expected to cure the sickness they might have had. Many unethical practices were evident in this study, in this case, the most important one was informed consent, which is a consent given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. None of the participants in the Tuskegee study
Often times those who received these procedures never felt the same and would be classified as acting differently. While this procedure was meant for patient whom were classified as unruly, this was not always the case, in some instances, those who were classified as relatively normal or were at the very least not a problematic patient would still receive the procedure for one reason or another. for some institutions, the patients would be served plain bread, water or milk, and nothing else for breakfast. The average dinner would be a bowl of pea soup, often times the patients would be in restraints. However, there were institutions who had a different ideology on how to properly care for their patients to promote their recuperation.
The doctors failed to use a properly consenting patient, neglected Charlie’s emotional state, and failed to conduct proper research. If Charlie had a caretaker who could give consent on his behalf, similar to a minor, an operation of this sort could be ethical. Moreover, it could be ethical if the doctors’ research and further develop their theory before using a human test subject, and pay close attention to Charlie’s emotional and mental health. However, Charlie’s operation was performed without these precautions and guidelines, and he suffers greatly in the
They were promised free medical care, and told they were being treated for "bad blood" (Kronenwetter, 2023). The scientists lied to their participants and told them they were being treated for a disease they didn’t even have. They manipulated them by telling the participants that they would get free medical care after participating in the study. The participants did not know they will be given the syphilis disease.
According to Michael Klein, “The most prescription drugs that are commonly misused are opioids, tranquillizers, sedatives, and hypnotics.” Unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have quadrupled since 1999 and have outnumbered those involving heroin and cocaine since 2002. (Klein). The reason some people abuse opioids is just to “get high”.
