The Discovery of Cancer and Its Causes - Essay Example

Virtue Ethics Virtue ethics is a broad term and cannot be given a standard definition but it is generally emphasizes the character of a person and the virtues that come along with the character. This is for the purpose of evaluating or determining ethical behavior. There are three main advances to normative ethics and virtue ethics is one of them. A common belief relating to virtue ethics is that it does not tell us what action we should take. This belief is brought about by the assumption that virtue ethics is more ‘agent-centered’ than ‘act-centered and is therefore concerned with one side of things (Hursthouse, 645). This raises the question of the sort of person one should be rather than what they should do. Due to the assumption, virtue ethics is not considered as a normative rival in relation to utilitarian and deontological ethics. However, its revival serves as a reminder to moral philosophers that a full account of our moral life may not be given due to the normative theory elaboration. The grounds one might have for believing that a choice of action cannot be given by virtue ethics is based on the claim that it is concerned with character rather than action, meaning it is not able to provide concrete ethical guidance (Mukherjee, 223). The above claim highlights the contrast that is there between virtue ethics and the other two approaches. While virtue ethics is agent-centered the other two are said to be act-centered. The conflict problem comes about with supporting the general claim that virtue ethics does not give a course of action. Different virtues have different requirements and it is said that these different requirements can point us in different directions. This goes to support the idea that virtue ethics is not able to provide concrete ethical guidance to doctors (Hursthouse, 651). The Emperor of All Maladies gives a history of cancer. It is an ancient disease that was not talked about much but its effects brought about the need for it to be looked into. This was in an attempt to learn more about its personality and behavior. It traces back the origin of the disease, the triumphs and deaths encountered. It brings out the start, the progressiveness and the war waged against it by people who were determined to see that it comes to an end or find ways of preventing and curing the disease (Mukherjee, 224). A thirty year old kindergarten teacher named Carla Reed and a mother of three woke up one morning with a headache. As she later found out, it was not an ordinary headache. She was a very active teacher and had noticed that something was not right for close to a month. As time went by she became concerned over her health because she had woken up with bruises on her back one morning and another morning she woke up and they were gone. She would experience pains and would sleep for more hours than usual only to wake up feeling tired and exhausted (Mukherjee, 306). In four weeks she had seen a general physician and a nurse twice but with no clue of what was happening to her. This left her more puzzled than worried over this illness she had. Given her good health record, she could not tell what the problem was since visits to the doctor were rare for her. All these were taking place in May of 2004. The need to find out what the problem was drove her to seek medical attention and request for blood tests. The symptoms she had varied from on to another and she had to see several specialists in order to try and figure out what the disease was. This meant getting different ideas from the different doctors since they all dealt in different areas (Mukherjee, 307). Carla Reed was suffering from leukemia. As Mukherjee put it, “cancer is not one disease but many diseases”. However, they are commonly referred to as cancer by many. Cancer of the white blood cells is what is referred to as leukemia. This was horrifying for Carla given the effects of this disease. The tests earlier done revealed that her red cells count was very low and instead of normal white cells she had large malignant white cells. Cancer was not only horrifying for the patients but even for the doctors since there was no concrete ethical guidance. This was so because virtue ethics dealt with a person rather than an action. (Mukherjee, 307). Even with the good training, good doctors and years of experience, cancer is horrifying to both the patients and doctors. Good ethical guidance ought to involve well laid down ways of dealing with a situation. The various situations can be brought out differently but the actions taken for each should be standard. In the case of cancer there are various types and people of different ages are affected. With this view it might be difficult for virtue ethics to be able to provide concrete ethical guidance (Hursthouse, 647). William Halsted a nineteenth century surgeon dealt with cancer through surgeries in the hope that cutting more of the cancerous cells would mean more healing to the patients. To this point it can be said that virtue ethics cannot provide concrete ethical guidance to doctors. This is because it based on a person rather than an action. Different cancer patients discover their ailment at different stages and are treated by different doctors. Different people have different characters and deal with issues differently meaning that what one doctor may feel is the right thing to do may not be right by another doctor. (Mukherjee, 308). Over the centuries, there have been different theories of what cancer could be its causes and cure. Now it is known that cancer is the growth of a single cell uncontrollably. This growth is caused by DNA changes that affect genes which in return cause the abnormal growth of cells. These changes are generally referred to as mutations. Cell division is what allows us to function normally. When this division is distorted it allows cancer cells to grow and adapt to our body system. These cells grow faster and adopt better making them spread very fast. This brought the need to find ways of preventing the mutations or removing the mutated cells (Hursthouse, 649). The bid to get the source and cure for cancer has involved and still does involve giving finding s of different patients, their progress and cure or unfortunate death. Since it involves ones personal life, it means that virtue ethics cannot provide concrete ethical guidance. This is because of its nature of being person based. Most of the research done was done based on individual cases and though some of them were almost similar, various issues needed to be looked into. This is because of the difference in age and gender of the patients. There was also a difference in the stages at which the cancer was detected. (Mukherjee, 138). The different studies done on cancer were brought about by case studies. In the case above, Carla’s condition brought about the need to study the disease among people in the same age bracket as Carla. This is in order to know how to best deal with it. Due to the different types of cancer, there was also the need to need to study other cases in order to know the general characteristics and the different characteristics based on age, gender and type of cancer. The amount of dosage that would be given to an adult would not be the same for a child therefore there were various factors to be considered in studying this (Hursthouse, 650). Over time, many researches have been completed and during this time there have been deaths of both the young and the old. However, there have also been cures and more insight into the disease. There has also been more awareness activities that have prompted people to be aware of the disease, its symptoms and how to self test. The need to find a cure has led to various inventions on how to manage the disease at different levels. Further research is still in progress in order to further reduce the deaths that occur due to cancer (Mukherjee, 226). Among the early people to try and understand cancer was Sydney Farber. His specialty was pediatric pathology, the study of children’s diseases. His study was driven by a parcel he received in 1947 from New York. The parcel contained some specimen that was to be tested in the hope that leukemia growth in children would be halted. Leukemia in children had brought confusion and no cure since its discovery in 1845. Researchers had tried to find its cause and cure and had written a lot of books on the same. There were various leukemia cells photos in books (Mukherjee, 223). The first case was reported by a Scottish physician called Bennett who had a patient with a malady previously unknown. The patient had been ill for a while and after a few months a growth was noticed in his abdomen. After about four months the growth stalled but the effects of it got worse. The patient became worse and tumors could be seen on his armpits and groin. Various symptoms were seen on the patient and he came close to death. He was given the usual treatment but there was no improvement and no concrete ethical guidance (Hursthouse, 645). A few weeks later an autopsy was done and Bennett was convinced that he had found the problem. He discovered that the patient’s blood was full of white blood cells and indication that there was an infection. Though this would have been a good explanation, there was none for the existence of purse in the patient’s system. Bennett tried to find the source of the purse but to no avail since there was no wound in the patient’s body. With his research having hit a dead end, he stated his case and closed that chapter (Hursthouse, 652). The Scottish physician was unable to find the problem and its cure because what he had found was based on one patient. About four months later he described this disease to Rudolf Virchow a German researcher. This researcher had a similar case but would not buy Bennett’s theory that the blood had transformed into something else. Virchow wondered what had caused the suppuration of blood and sought a name for the disease. He called it Weisses Blut meaning white blood. He later changed the name to leukemia. Had virtue ethics been able to provide concrete evidence, Virchow would have used the findings of the Scottish physician (Mukherjee, 308). The change of name to leukemia gave people a better understanding of the disease. Virchow had given the disease a name but was still open to other ideas and discoveries. He did not assert to have established the cause of the disease or be sure that he was right. He was a pathologist and after naming leukemia he launched on a job of describing human diseases in simple terms. This was in the early 1840’s when diseases were attributed to some unseen forces. Out of frustration, Virchow decided to work with what he could see under the microscope rather than what he could not see (Hursthouse, 653). After getting ideas from other professionals, Virchow concluded that the body was fabricated of cells, which could only come out of cells. With this in mind, his thought was that cells could increase in only two ways, by either increasing in number or increasing in size. From this discovery, it came to be known that the disease was cancer. This further increased the understanding of the disease. More theories came up and by the time Virchow died in 1902, it was known that cancer was a disease of the cells with a will to divide abnormally (Mukherjee, 308). It was found out that these cells could divide and grow very fast. They would also spread from one area to another causing various diseases metastases. These diseases would crop up in areas like the stomach, the brain and other parts of the human body. It was also discovered that cancer comes in various forms, stomach cancer, breast cancer, skin and cervical cancer. It also comes in form of leukemia and lymphomas. This was a huge step in trying to figure out the causes and cure (Hursthouse,650). Many researchers have over the years used these findings in trying to better understand cancer and find its cure and concrete ethical guidance. These findings opened ways for the discovery of other cancers and ways in which they can be detected for early treatment. Many cancer deaths are still reported in various parts of the world though the number has reduced compared to the early days. Virtue ethics is still not able to provide concrete ethical guidance even with the discovery of cancer and its causes. This is due to the various causes and various options provided for the patient. One person’s choice of action may not be right for another, in this case the person being the patient or doctor. (Hursthouse, 652). Works Cited Hursthouse, Rosalind. On Virtue Ethics. Oxford University Press. 2002. Mukherjee, Siddartha. The Emperor of All Maladies. Scribner. 2011. Read More