Ethical Issues in the Medical Industry - Example

Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES Ethical Issues in the Medical Industry In APA style Abstract Medicines have become a part and parcel of our day to day lives, there is no denying this fact that medicines have made our lives better and one can hardly imagine a world where there are no medicines. Globalization has brought in many a change and one among those changes is the change in morals and ethics of the people. The pharmaceutical industry is a multi billion dollar industry; lot of money is being spent day in and day out to invent new medicines to cure new diseases, the main motive behind spending big money in inventing new medicines is earning big money in return and in doing so a lot of ethical values are being ignored. Introduction Ethics means a lot more then commonly perceived by the people. It is a branch of Philosophy. The term basically means encompassing right conduct and good life. The term is commonly perceived as analyzing right and wrong. But when looking at the central aspect of the term Ethics it is basically about "the good life". In the sense that a life that is worth living or a life that is extremely satisfying, this is also held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct. Ethics and morals go hand in hand, ethics is simply the thoughts where as morals are giving practical shape to those thoughts. There are many branches of ethics; and one among those is applied ethics, under which medical ethics is primarily classified. Medical ethics is basically “the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology.” (Wikipedia. n.a.) When these medical ethics are applied by a practioner, he should bare in mind that he must try his level best to make the patient benefit from his knowledge and skill in this field. This is very rarely seen these days, every thing in the field of medical ethics has changed over a period of time atleast in some asian countries. The hospitals and the doctors make sure that they extract as much money as possible from the patient as they can. Even if a patient shows symptoms of viral fever, the right picture is never presented in front of the patient and his family members, the doctors advice the family memebers to keep the patient in the hospital atleast for a couple of days, at the end of which he is made to pay lengthy bills, which in reality are nothing but fake, this has become more of an organised crime than a profession these days, people have to choose very wisely who they soluld go to and whom they should not. Some hospitals take the value of medical ethics to another level, they inform the family members that the patient is responding to the treatment in the ICU asking them to pay more money but in reality the patient has died long back. This is experienced in some hospitals and even to claim the dead body there are a lot of people involved who hope to make good money out of all this. The family members are the people who suffer the most in this whole process, the medical ethics clearly state that the practioner in no way should harm the patient but all this has been forgetten by the practioners. In turn they not only harm the patient, they also leave him devastated. Many kidney rackets have been exposed by the media in some countries, the doctors have become ruthless and have forgotten all the medical ethics, these ethics are the most important for any doctor but sadly no preference is given to these ethics. The root cause of all this is the large amount of money spent by the doctors to complete their studies, after they complete their studies a lot of expectations lie upon their shoulders of their so called near and dear ones, so under tremendous pressure of making a quick buck they forget all the medical ethics and start making a fool out of a patient. Another major breach of these medical ethics which is being carried out by the doctors is the “double effect”, which is nothing but doing good to a patient but by imposing certain side effects which turn out to be bad for the patient in the long run. “The most applicable example of this phenomenon is the use of morphine in the dying patient. Such use of morphine can ease the pain and suffering of the patient, while simultaneously hastening the demise of the patient through suppression of the respiratory drive”. (Wikipedia. n.a.). Earlier there was a myth that under no conditions the doctors will be cruel to the patients but this myth was shattered by a group of nazi doctors who tested how long would people tolerate hypoxia by keeping them into low pressure tanks, people were made to made to stand out naked for 9-14 hours to see the efficiency of rewarming techniques in their bodies, al this came to be known as the Nuremberg trails, these trails were conducted on mentally ill prisoners and seven doctors involved in this were executed. (Law. Umkc.n.a.). People have started to lose faith in the doctors, who were once called the life savers, all that has changed now, there is a need to reinstate the very same confidence which the people had in doctors. This profession is a very noble profession and to turn a noble profession into a money making profession is highly unacceptable, changes should be brought in by the government of the countries where such things are happening, before the people lose all their confidence in doctors. “The problem before us is not so much the articulation of ethical codes of behavior in different sectors of biomedical research and practice, even though that itself requires a lot of balancing of competing interests.” (Menon Madhava 2007.) Another major right of a patient is to be informed about any unintentional harm done by the doctor to the patient, which is very rarely seen these days, many a time doctors leave scissors and what not after operating a patient, after making such a big mistake they should be good enough to acknowledge it and to convey the same to the patient and in such cases the focus again comes on the family members who feel guilty of taking the patient to that doctor, this is really a very bad situation for any one to handle. One more thing which occurs in this case is isolation, the hospital staff some intentionally and some otherwise start avoiding the patient, this results in the patient being left completely isolated, which should never happen. A lot of troubles arise for the people who are not exposed to good medical facilities, in areas where there are only handful doctors, the patients have no where to go but to the very same doctors who follow no medical ethics simply because the patients have no other better option, this in turn gives those ruthless doctors encouragement to go on the way they have been going on. “Medical practice is a big business now and healthcare is a purchasable commodity. And for every unnecessary diagnostic lab test, the “temptation” of receiving monetary benefits (“percentage” or “cut-money”) is there. To be and to remain ethical is no easy job. In academic medicine it is not easy to bluntly hang up the telephone when you are asked to “take care” of a few examinees related to colleagues and VVIPs of all kinds.” (Chattopadhyay Subrata 2007.) Being blessed with good health is a birth right of every human being, and when things are not going right in the sense of health of an individual it is the responsibility of a doctor to make sure that the same order of good health is restored, and there is high need to do the same, every doctor should set an example in front of the other, so that each and every doctor tries his level best to provide the patient with good medical services, drastic steps have to be taken in this regard by the government of various countries where medical ethics are not being followed and the situation is chaotic. It is the right of every patient to be well treated and to be taken good care of, and the hospital staff and most importantly the doctors have to understand and follow this. This profession should be a non – profit profession, doctors should not be allowed to make money out of this profession, because ultimately it is the money that drives a person crazy, the doctors themselves should understand this and take actions towards the prosperity of the patients and their family members. A recent trend has also been observed in which doctors refer patients to undergo a test or a scan, the patients are referred to a laboratory which has a tie up with the doctor who refers the patients and later on shares a part of the profit with the doctor, in this case the doctor, in order to earn more money intentionally refers people who need not undergo any tests or scans, but are forcefully made to undergo such scans by the doctors. Another area which requires immediate attention is the sexual relation of the doctors with the patients, which is a classic example of the medical ethics getting breached, Doctors who enter into sexual relationships with patients face the threats of deregistration and prosecution. In the early 1990s it was estimated that 2-9% of doctors had violated this rule. (Wikipedia. n.a.) Conclusion It is high time that the doctors start understanding the true value of medical ethics and start setting examples for the other doctors to follow. Only in such a case can the lost reputation of the doctors be regained. The most important thought which sould never cross a doctor’s mind is using his profession to make maximum money out of it, if all the doctors follow this then the this planet would surely become a better place to live in. References Mamdani Bashir. ( 2007). When a doctor makes a mistake. Indian Journal, 356: 2713-9. N.A. (2007). Nuremberg Trials. Retrieved June 14, 2008, from http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergDoctorTrial.html#Verdicts. Menon Madhava. (2007). Medicine, ethics and the law. Indian Journal, n.a. Chattopadhyay Subrata. (2007). Black money in white coats. Indian Journal, n.a. Medical Ethics. (2008). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 14, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ethics#Values_in_medical_ethics. Read More