Charlie Gordon Flowers For Algernon Ethical Analysis

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Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do. The basis for these guidelines and decisions stem from an individuals rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues according to Arthur Dobrin, a writer for Psychology Today. Many doctors and surgeons are forced to make ethical decisions every day and their actions are based on how long a person may live, available medical treatments and drugs, plus assessing risks inherent with traditional vs.experimental methods of treatment. Flowers for Algernon examines decisions made by two doctors treating Charlie Gordon, a 37 year-old-man with an IQ of 68, who underwent an operation in the United States during the late 1960’s to make him smarter. I believe that Charlie’s physicians (Dr. Nemur and Dr. Stauss) did not act …show more content…

They had nothing planned on how to handle that situation. Is the patient mentally capable and legally competent, and is there evidence of incapacity? This was another question the doctors did not take into consideration. Because Charlie had an IQ of 68 at his age, he was not mentally capable of making this decision for them to operate on him. All he wanted to do is get smarter but he never really understood the entire process and neither did the doctors. Who is the appropriate surrogate to make decisions for the incapacitated patient? This raises another flaw; Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss basically disagreed on many things. They didn't get along very well which is a big problem when operating on someone using new methods, while also risking the patients life. Both Doctors thought they were right every time and sometimes only one of them made the decision while the other did not agree. Doctors need to work together in order to succeed in the experiment while also keeping the patient

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