Unethical Surgeons

Surgery gradually became more prominent in medicine and today it saves many lives while bettering others. Surgeons have many years of experience that allows them to build intellectual, mental, physical and ethical skills that are required for success as a surgeon. However, there are always cases in which unethical issues have occurred due to the drive “to be first,” advancement in surgical technology, and because of MONEY. I will discuss specific examples that involved some unethical doings and portray what it takes to be a surgeon in this assignment. Firstly, it is important to consider the vast skills that surgeons have and should be admired for. In order to be a surgeon, one has to go through the pre-medical and then the medical process.

People strive to be the best. In our society being the best generally entails being successful as in rich, being recognized for your work and being in the top-tier at what you do. For example, basketball player Michael Jordan fits all of the previous descriptions. Surgeons strive to be the best by doing research and experimenting in order to make advancements in the profession, however, when experimenting comes into the equation, unethical problems do as well. Surgeons including Willem Kolff were striving to make breakthroughs in medicine. He invented the first hemodialysis machine, however, his first patient only lived for a couple of days after the procedure. This examples shows that surgeons were rushing to make a breakthrough that they would prioritize fame over actually helping the patient. Kolff must have known about the risks involved in the procedure. Was his machine tested enough to actually use it, yes he made progress towards medical advancement, but a life was lost in the process.2 William Devries tried very hard to implant a heart in Barney Clark, the following quotes describe his intent and thought process during the procedure: “there would be a lot of long faces around here if I backed out now,” “please, please, please work this time!”2 It is apparent that Devries was skeptical of the success of the operation and was doing it mostly to please the world and make a name for himself. Striving “to be the first,” in many cases resulted in going against the important medical principal of doing what is best for the