Practice of medicine - Essay Example

Cognition and reason has been the focus of study that has attracted scholars of various disciplines to make judgment. This widespread interest in thesynopsis of cognition and reasoning has prompted the proliferation of ideas as well as the experimentation of the human cognitive faculties. Throughout this dissertation, the discipline of medicine will be dissected and analysed in the ethical nature of physicians’ character and mental decision process. We will first discuss the history of medical ethics and its chronicles throughout history. With purity, holiness and beneficence I will pass my life and practice my art. Except for the prudent correction of an imminent danger, I will neither treat any patient nor carry out any research on any human being without the valid informed consent of the subject or the appropriate legal protector thereof, understanding that research must have as its purpose the furtherance of the health of that individual. Into whatever patient setting I enter, I will go for the benefit of the sick and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief or corruption and further from the seduction of any patient. – An excerpt from ‘The Hippocratic Oath’ Multiple studies and researches have been conducted on the bodily reactions of patients after surgical procedures that were performed. These researches are done by professional doctors and physicians who are bound by their oath and are adamant in keeping their clients from experiencing pain or discomfort as well as discovering a viable treatment to alleviate any pain. To extrapolate such a remedy, hypothesis testing as well as research must be done. To perform to these quite rigorous procedures, the physicians must adhere to a code of ethics that will display their professionalism and protect the rights of the patients. Other than aforementioned Hippocratic Oath - which was formulated in approximately 400 B.C. - there was a plethora of ethics and guidelines engendered respective to each culture. The cardinal evidence of this comes from the bible. In the bible contains the first illustrations of edicts concerning the ethics of physicians. Among the essentials of the oath, the premier edict is honouring the pedagogues of the medical discipline. After this important mandate, the rest falls in line: practice for healthy benefit; digress from administering poisonous medicines; abstain from wickedness and malfeasance; and maintain confidentiality with their patients. (Barron, 2003) The Jewish Talmud possesses many references to the behaviour of physicians. Buddhism takes a bold step by indoctrinating the remedies to certain remedies. I.e. Buddhism emphasises that reason for suffering resides within the constructs of one’s mind. This religion, developed in India 2540 years ago, has been in the business of caring for the sick for 2000 years. The Muslim sect has engendered a code of ethics based on the teachings of Qumran. The Chinese has very long history of medical ethics based on the precepts on Confucianism. (Barron, 2003) Albeit a myriad of codes of ethics was proliferated in China, India, Middle East, and other cultures, the present code of ethics took quite some time to be formulated. Sir Thomas Percival introduced the rudimentary level of the code in the 18th century and latter evolved into the establishment of the modern Code of Ethics in 1846 due to Initiatives were taken because physicians began to stray from the original guidelines. (Barron, 2003) The emphasis of honesty, competency, duty to report fraud or deception, continued education, and consideration to advisement from other physicians were in particular influenced physicians to act appropriately. Also, the physicians are instructed to operate under ethical precepts such as rendering service with full respect for human dignity, improving in medical knowledge, safeguarding against those physicians deficient in moral character, and understanding one’s limitations. According to Professor Bryon Good (1994) in Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: Anthropological Perspective, medical students are coerced to interact with the information they acquired (pg. 65). The interaction with the information has stimulated and moulded the minds in a specific way – conducive to the environment that is prepared for them in the future. The discipline of medicine has formative way of transforming the mind to understand complex modalities as well as anatomical structures. It has become a culture where those who enter diligently trained to handle the rigors of the discipline. Good uses an excerpt by Ernst Cassier to illustrate his point on the medical culture potential to influence the mind: ‘In all culture is manifested in the creation of specific worlds, of specific symbolic forms, the aim of philosophy is not to go behind these creations, but rather to understand and elucidate their basic formative principle. It is solely through awareness of this principle that the concept of life acquires its true form’ (Good, 1994, pg. 68) These ‘formative principles’ are at work within the culture of medicine. One of the key aspects that aids in the mental reconstruction of the mind is the practice of these ethical codes, or it can be depicted by experience. However, adhering to ethics and practice does not always aid in the correct diagnosis of any situation. For instance, in a study of ‘Reason and Rationality’, Richard Samuels, Stephen Stich, and Luc Faucher (2004) analysed the possibility and reasons for mere adults and sophisticated professionals making wrong or right decisions. They analyse what influences the judgment of the human being. They use all professions in their study to decipher the reason for their decisions as well as their mistakes. Within their study, they included an experiment carried out in the 1970s and 1980s by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky concerning probabilistic judgment. In this particular case, they illustrate another well-known cluster of studies concerning the way in which people utilise base-rate information in making probabilistic judgments. “According to the familiar Bayesian account, the probability of a hypothesis on a given body of evidence depends, in part, on the prior probability of the hypothesis.” (Faucher, 2004) That means with the use of deductive reasoning, one can use the established details to make sound decisions. However, in a series of experiments, Kahneman and Tversky showed that subjects often seriously underestimate the critical importance of established information and probabilities. They used a test to determine ineptitude of people to rely on established information. If a test to detect a disease whose prevalence is 1/1000 has a false positive rate of 5%, what is the chance that a person found to have a positive result actually has the disease, assuming that you know nothing about the person’s symptoms or signs? (Faucher, 2004) Under the most plausible interpretation of the problem, the correct answer is 2%. But only eighteen percent of the Harvard audience gave an answer close to 2%. Forty-five percent of this distinguished group completely ignored the base-rate information and said that the answer was 95%. Richard Samuels, Stephen Stich, and Luc Faucher insinuated that if individuals feel the established information is not relevant to the question they may ignore that information. Also, overconfidence may play a role in detracting the audience in using the available information. As this analysis has shown, those who aspire to enter the discipline of medicine must adhere to the ethics as well as rules and regulations. As mentioned by Bryon Good, the rigors of the medical field will force one modify his or her mindset to adjust to that environ. Bibliography: Byron J. Good (1994) Cambridge University Press. Medicine, Rationality and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective Samuels, Stich &. Faucher, Reason and Rationality. Niiniluoto, I.; Sintonen, Matti; Wolenski, J. (Eds.) (2004) Handbook of Epistemology - ISBN: 978-1-4020-1985-2 Barron, Bruce J. and Kim Edmund E. (2003) Ethical Dilemmas in Today’s Nuclear Medicine and Radiology Practice Read More