Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company (BSNF) was formed December 31, 1996 when Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad merged as one. It is the second largest railroad system in the United States behind the Union Pacific. It owns and operates tracks in 27 states, mostly in the West and Midwest states, and a small amount of track located in Canada. Due to the complexity of the company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is broken down into 14 different divisions. Those divisions are then repeatedly broken down into smaller subdivisions. This was all done to help with what could easily become a logistical nightmare. However, it wasn’t a logistical nightmare that happened but a short but influential legal nightmare that ended up happening in early 2001 to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway was asked by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to “stop testing its employees for genetic defects as part of a workplace discrimination settlement”. (Schafer, 2001) This comes as a result of over 30 employees being tested without their knowledge or consent that genetic testing was being conducted using some of their blood samples provided during their physicals. This is the first case initiated against a company and a groundbreaking one when it comes to genetic testing.
The medical physicals were being conducted as a direct result of the employees complaining of possible carpel tunnel syndrome (CTS) from the repeated work they were doing in conjunction with their jobs or occupations. There ailments weren’t from prior medical problems like the company was secretly trying to uncover. These complaints hailed from the worker’s after many years of working. The repeated pressure and motion endured in their wrists, while working their specific occupation, has caused many of them pain and undue suffering over the years.
The company decided to send these employees for medical physicals using their own doctors. The company asked that they [doctors] take extra vials of blood to have it tested for possible prior genetic links to Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. They were trying to link it to their employee’s genes rather than accept that the employees contracted the injuries while working with the company.
Ohio Dep’t of Rehabilitation & Correction are the poor-quality patient care that Tomcik received and Tomcik’s health being at risk. Once engaged in a doctor-patient relationship, physicians are obligated to provide the best possible care for the patient by utilizing their skills and knowledge as expected from a competent physician under the same or similar conditions (“What Is a Doctor’s Duty of Care?” n.d.). However, in Tomcik’s situation, Dr. Evans did not deliver high-quality care, for he administered a perfunctory breast examination and thus did not follow standard protocols. There is evidence of indifference conveyed by Dr. Evans, and the lack of proper care towards Tomcik is an issue that can be scrutinized and judged appropriately. Additionally, Tomcik’s health was at risk due to the failure of a proper physical evaluation and the incredibly long delay in diagnosis and treatment. The negligence from Dr. Evans, along with the lack of medical attention sought out by Tomcik after she had first discovered the lump in her breast, may contribute to Tomcik’s life being in danger as well as the emotional anguish she may have felt during that time period. Overall, the incident of Tomcik’s expectations from the original physician and other employees at the institution not being met is an ethical issue that should be dealt with
Studies to make the process quicker and cleaner are under development.... ... middle of paper ... ... Insurance providers and other holders of genetic information should be prohibited from releasing genetic information (Hudson, 1998). Guidelines like these need to be formed into a federal law that people can pass in one way or another so that we can be protected from the various forms of discrimination that is possible with this kind of information.
Teutch, S., & Tuckson, R. Department of Health & Human Services, (2008). U.S. system of oversight of genetic testing: A response to the charge of the secretary of health and human services. Retrieved from website: http://osp.od.nih.gov/sites/default/files/SACGHS_oversight_report.pdf
In physical therapy, patients come to the clinic with a long list of symptoms and a specific mechanism of injury. It is the physical therapists job to take this information and form hypotheses of what pathology may be affecting the patient. With the patient that has been presented in this case, a full history shows a very good description of symptoms and what the patient remembers happening when the injury occurred. With this history, an examination plan can be created in order to make this examination process thorough, but efficient.
The railroads that were used for transportation from north to south were the CSX, Norfolk Southern and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. CSX’s roots date back to the early n...
The history of harmful eugenic practices, spurring from the Nazi implementations of discrimination towards biologically inferior people has given eugenics a negative stigma (1,Kitcher, 190). Genetic testing, as Kitcher sees it through a minimalistic perspective, should be restrained to aiding future children with extremely low qualities of life (2,Kitcher, 190). He believes that genetic engineering should only be used to avoid disease and illness serving the role of creating a healthier human race. He promotes laissez-faire eugenics, a “hands off” concept that corresponds to three components of eugenic practice, discrimination, coercion and division of traits. It holds the underlying works of genetic testing, accurate information, open access, and freedom of choice. Laissez-faire eugenics promises to enhance reproductive freedom preventing early child death due to genetic disease (3,Kitcher, 198). However there are dangers in Laissez-faire that Kitcher wants to avoid. The first is the historical tendency of population control, eugenics can go from avoiding suffering, to catering to a set of social values that will cause the practice of genetics to become prejudiced, insensitive and superficial. The second is that prenatal testing will become limited to the upper class, leaving the lower class with fewer options, creating biologically driven social barriers. Furthermore the decay of disability support systems due to prenatal testing can lead to an increased pressure to eliminate those unfit for society (4,Kitcher, 214).
The Human Genome Project is the largest scientific endeavor undertaken since the Manhattan Project, and, as with the Manhattan Project, the completion of the Human Genome Project has brought to surface many moral and ethical issues concerning the use of the knowledge gained from the project. Although genetic tests for certain diseases have been available for 15 years (Ridley, 1999), the completion of the Human Genome Project will certainly lead to an exponential increase in the number of genetic tests available. Therefore, before genetic testing becomes a routine part of a visit to a doctor's office, the two main questions at the heart of the controversy surrounding genetic testing must be addressed: When should genetic testing be used? And who should have access to the results of genetic tests? As I intend to show, genetic tests should only be used for treatable diseases, and individuals should have the freedom to decide who has access to their test results.
According to the report provided by the consultant, the employees at this facility were not taking precautions in safeguarding the patient’s health information. Therefore, the employees at this facility were in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). It is important for employees to understand the form of technology being used and the precautions they must take to safeguard patient information.
Morris, D. T. (1993). Cost containment and reproductive autonomy: Prenatal genetic screening and the American health security act of 1993. American Journal of Law & Medicine, 20, 295-316.
When professionals in the health sector are compliant to the standards and ethics of practice, then accidents in the sector and any activities that undermine patient safety are bound to be addressed. In particular, whistleblowers in the sector should also be protected to improve service delivery in the health sector.
In today’s world, people are learning a great deal in the rapidly growing and developing fields of science and technology. Almost each day, an individual can see or hear about new discoveries and advances in these fields of study. One science that is rapidly progressing is genetic testing; a valuable science that promotes prevention efforts for genetically susceptible people and provides new strategies for disease management. Unnaturally, and morally wrong, genetic testing is a controversial science that manipulates human ethics. Although genetic testing has enormous advantages, the uncertainties of genetic testing will depreciate our quality of life, and thereby result in psychological burden, discrimination, and abortion.
Bishop, J.E. (1984, September 12). Predictive probes: scientists are focusing on genes predisposing people to illnesses --- new methods will facilitate prevention but will raise ethical, legal questions --- should employers be told?. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/397923305/142BF1EC4C524F61E66/128?accountid=34899
Workers are under tremendous pressure to work fast and not report any injuries that may occur. The annual bonuses of plant foremen and supervisors are often based in part on the injury rate of their workers. Instead of creating a safer workplace, the supervisors pressure workers not to report any injuries and as a bonus, they would be moved to an easier job to give them some time to heal. Often, in this industry, superv...
Genetic testing, also known as screening, is a rapidly advancing new scientific field that can potentially revolutionize not only the world of medicine, but many aspects of our lives. Genetic screening is the sequencing of human DNA in order to discover genetic differences, anomalies, or mutations that may prove pathological. As genetic screening becomes more advanced and easily accessible, it presents society with difficult questions that must be asked about the boundaries of science and to what degree we are allowed to tamper with the human genome. To better understand the potential impact of genetic screening on our society, we must examine the potential benefits in comparison to the possible negative impact it may cause. With this knowledge in hand, we can examine what the future holds for this field of study and the best possible direction to take.
Management has to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s regulations, or risk getting fined. There are many cases where companies try to cut costs, violate rules made by OSHA, and hide any unsafe conditions or ask their employees to lie about it. Putting employees in danger to make a greater profit goes against their corporate responsibility and makes their company lack integrity. Upper level management should make policies against using unsafe practices and lower level management lying about work conditions. They should also promote that employees report unsafe conditions to management and not penalize employees for “whistle-blowing”. Johnson & Johnson’s credo states, “…working conditions [must be] clean, orderly, and safe” (Code of Business Conduct, 2015). Johnson & Johnson implemented a variety of programs to make sure their employees are safe within the workplace including: machine, electrical, contractor, warehouse, and office safety, hazardous processes, and fall prevention (Workplace Safety, 2013). Johnson & Johnson works to reduce their workplace injuries each year and even gets employees and their families to help come up with new programs to further reduce unsafe situations in the workplace. All this contributes to why Johnson &