The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Medicine
When the nuclei of Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239 undergo nuclear fission, they produce waste as a by-product, which is known as nuclear waste or “fission fragments”. (Leslie Corrice, 2015) This waste contains radioisotopes, which are radioactive isotopes that have long half-lives. This means that the radioisotopes are able to stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of years, which is extremely hazardous to the earth’s environment. Very commonly this waste contaminates water and ruins the quality of both air and soil, which in turn devastates the planet.
• Advantages 1. By using NM, doctors have higher chances of early detection of diseases and heath conditions which increase the percentage of healing (5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Nuclear Medicine, 2016). 2. Images that are produced by this system are detailed and accurate. Even the most sensitive parts are showen in great detail without any surgeries (5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Nuclear Medicine, 2016).
Patient care is based around the individual- their best interest, treatment, and health concerns. Research is based around furthering knowledge within the medical world, by testing on people, and improving lives for future patients. In Henrietta’s case, she went to John Hopkins with the plan of being treated as a patient only, and was used for research, without education or consent. Making only a small effort to relieve her pain through radiation treatment, the physicians removed cells from Henrietta’s cervix to use in later studies. There is another line blurred, as Spigner, a University of Washington professor makes a point, stating, “The life and death of Henrietta Lacks is a cautionary tale that reflects the inherent contradiction between the stated purpose of medical research to provide benefit to humankind and the reality of blatant profiteering in the name of the advancement of science” (12).
Science and ethics have been colliding back and forth for centuries. Science want to discover new technologies to help people and for other selfish reason. People want medical help to save their loved ones. Many times scientists have sacrificed the good of a few for the needs of many. In Rebecca Skloot's modern day investigative biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot uses Pathos to develop the themes of immorality and unethical behavior of medical science.
It is ethical for doctors and other medical professionals to perform experimental surgery. It is ethical because if people never try something, you'll never find out if it works. In the text it states,
Which is the process to use any part of someone’s body. Even though it was something that help a lot of people it was done unethical. In conclusion to the ethical theories, the Utilitarianism and deontology is on two different sides of the fence. While one is applauding the doctor and believe that it is ethical, the other believes following the rules and believes that it is unethical. Based on the story and the time frame, this experiment was ethical and the right thing to
The first major ethical issue that should be considers is informed consent, which is informing the research participants what they are participating and all aspects of the project/ experiment that might cause the patient to not participate. The second issue is withholding treatment for the purpose of research. As doctors and caretakers it is the job to take care and cure rather than
A student from the Michigan University (2007) defines Bioethics as an activity which is a shared, reflective examination of ethical issues in health care, health science, and health policy. These fields have always had ethical standards, of course, handed down within each profession, and often without question. Hence, the discussion of this standards is called Bioethics. This discussions takes place in the media, in the academy, in classrooms, in labs, offices, and hospital wards. The conversation is often sparked by new developments, like the possibility of cloning.
When the first bomb was tested on Bikini Atoll, it was the first time that a nuclear weapon had been used after the 1945 attack on Japan by the U.S. (Eschner). For the testing, the 167 islanders of Bikini Atoll were moved to Rongerik Atoll. After the testing was done, some of the islanders returned to Bikini. Soon after they moved back, it became clear that the radioactivity levels in Bikini were still critically high so they had to be moved back. The U.S. government completed a cleanup project in response to a lawsuit that the Bikini islanders filed but, the radiation levels were still deemed too high to allow people to move back (Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia).
It supposes important progress in the fight against diseases such as diabetes, some cancers and others hereditary diseases. Although they have many advantages, they also pose ethical problems, often motivated by the interests and bad practices of multinational
About one third of hospitals today use nuclear medicine to treat their patients. Nuclear technology uses radiation to improve the
“Disease is a biological process, and nuclear medicine provides images of these biological processes. Most radiotracers interact with a biological process and emit low levels of radiation. Highly sensitive detector systems collect these energy signals, and computer programs reconstruct them into diagnostic images. Because it provides images of a biological process (physiology), nuclear medicine differs from other imaging techniques—such as x-rays, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound—which primarily visualize structure and shape (anatomy)(U.S. Department Converting Energy to Medicine). " Studies done on people with family histories of Huntington’s disease used brain scans to figure out that certain members will have it in the future, years before any of the outward signs have appeared.
Nuclear power comes from using enriched uranium fuel rods for reactions in the reactor core to generate electricity from steam-powered turbines (Endres, 2009). Unfortunately, this produces non-biodegradable waste which emit harmful radiation over their half-lives that can last thousands of years ("Dangers and Effects of Nuclear Waste Disposal",n.d.). Due to its hazardous nature, the only options to handle the waste is to either store it in casks at the plants in the short-term before relocating them to underground repositories for the long-term, or reprocess the waste to gain useful fuel back ("Nuclear Waste",n.d.). Unfortunately, reprocessing adds more waste than useful reclamation, so storage is the only option ("Nuclear Waste",n.d.). Building
Nuclear energy is a fairly complex process, involving many detailed scientific processes Although nuclear energy can be confusing, understanding what nuclear energy is and the basic elements of nuclear energy is vital to understanding nuclear energy’s advantages and disadvantages. Nuclear energy begins with an element: uranium. While the use of other elements such as thorium in nuclear reactors have been hypothesized on, uranium is the main fuel used in the nuclear energy field. Uranium is a metallic element that is solid at room temperature and is naturally radioactive. (Gagnon, “The Element Uranium”)
Medical Research has the potential to advance society and make life better for everyone in it. However, the ends cannot justify the means; the rights of the subjects of research cannot be violated no matter the possible benefit to mankind. Despite this, time and time again, it has been very easy for, at least allegedly well-meaning scientists to violate the rights of their research subjects because they wanted to help society as a whole. Such experiments were not performed in secret by a minority of scientists; they were often done “by respected investigators at leading medical institutions and were published in medical journals (Scandals and Tragedies 3). " It is vital that we understand the circumstances of these experiments and why they happened so
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