End Of Life: Dr. Bearing

1006 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What does the term ethics mean

End of Life Paper Since the beginning of medicine, physicians have taken an oath to uphold specific ethical standards regarding patient care. However, over time, this oath has become less of a promise and more of a formality. The thirst for knowledge and individual recognition for research has led to patients ultimately becoming an afterthought in the eyes of people entrusted to care for them most. The movie WIT illustrates this unpleasant reality in an unashamed way, time and time again. The patient, Dr. Bearing, is treated more as a medical experiment rather than a person currently going through one of the worst scenarios possible in life. Rather than giving her hope and optimism, the doctors give her orders and demands to ‘take the full dose’ no matter what. Rather than actually involving her in the decisions regarding her individual life, they treat her as though her fate has already been decided and now all that remains is a chance to gain valuable knowledge—at the expense of her having any kind of comfort in her last moments …show more content…

Wit, there are two ethical issues that arise during this production. The first ethical issue is related to the strong use of chemo drug therapy on a patient in order to promote research. It does not seem fair to use strenuous amounts of drug therapy on a patient to promote scientific research if it will harm the patient more than it will benefit the patient or if it is not the patient’s will. The second ethical issue is that Dr. Wit specified that she would like to be a “no code” and her right as a patient was violated when the physician and care team used life-altering measures to save her. It is unethical to violate the patient’s wish, even if a person does not agree with what the patient wants. Although members of the healthcare team are taught to save lives and to do no harm, disrespecting a patient’s will is essentially inflicting harm on the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Lisa Belkin's First Do No Harm

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    For anyone who has ever worked in healthcare, or simply for someone who has watched a popular hit television show such as Grey’s Anatomy, General Hospital, House or ER know that there can be times when a doctor or health care provider is placed in extremely difficult situations. Often times, those situations are something that we watch from the sidelines and hope for the best in the patient’s interest. However, what happens when you place yourself inside the doctors, nurses, or any other of the medical provider’s shoes? What if you were placed in charge of a patient who had an ethically challenging situation? What you would you do then? That is precisely what Lisa Belkin accomplishes in her book “First Do No Harm”. Belkin takes the reader on

    Read More

  • Respect For Patients, Physicians, And The Truth By Susan Cullen And Margaret Brown

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the most complex, ever-changing careers is the medical field. Physicians are not only faced with medical challenges, but also with ethical ones. In “Respect for Patients, Physicians, and the Truth”, by Susan Cullen and Margaret Klein, they discuss to great extent the complicated dilemmas physicians encounter during their practice. In their publication, Cullen and Klein discuss the pros and cons of disclosing the medical diagnosis (identifying the nature or cause of the disease), and the prognosis (the end result after treating the condition). But this subject is not easily regulated nor are there guidelines to follow. One example that clearly illustrates the ambiguity of the subject is when a patient is diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening

    Read More

  • Essay On The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    When we see patients, we must remember that we are not simply treating a disease. We are caring for people with lives, hobbies, jobs, families, and friends, who are likely in a very vulnerable position. We must ensure that we use the status of physicians to benefit patients first and foremost, and do what we promised to when we entered the profession: provide care and improve quality of life, and hopefully leave the world a little better than it was

    Read More

  • Shafer Landau An Act Consequentialism, And Rule Utilitarianism

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the act utilitarian whatever the doctors did, produced maximum pleasure over pain for the doctors at that time. The act of hiding the fact of giving the cancer cell injections to the patients, produced the maximum pleasure because by hiding the fact, the doctors thought that they might find a cure for cancer.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Conscientious Objection In Medicine: A Moral Dilemma

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first, I believed that a patient should have the say so and get what they demand. I didn’t feel sympathetic for the health care provider one bit. I was able to look through the eyes of a physician and see the trials that they have to go through. It is not easy making the decisions that they have to make. There job is based on decisions, and most of it is the patient’s. “There will certainly be times when I will be faced with a request from a patient or patient’s representative that I will personally find morally difficult, but one that is still legally and ethically acceptable. must be very difficult to work in an area with little control over what you want to do.” (Bradley 1). Even though I do not fully understand a health care providers everyday role, I do know that they are faced with painful options. I personally feel that I can not work in this field for that exact reason. Health care providers play an extremely important role in our society, and others need to look upon

    Read More

  • Chester M. Southam

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    “In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients’ “ease” but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonguing and even magnifying patients’ dis-ease.”

    Read More

  • Essay On The Power Of Mistakes By Atul Gawande

    2168 Words  | 5 Pages

    This internal conflict is a result of the mistakes a physician makes, and the ability to move on from it is regarded as almost unreachable. For example, in the essay, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”, Gawande is standing over his patient Louise Williams, viewing her “lips blue, her throat swollen, bloody, and suddenly closed passage” (73). The imagery of the patient’s lifeless body gives a larger meaning to the doctor’s daily preoccupations. Gawande’s use of morbid language helps the reader identify that death is, unfortunately, a facet of a physician’s career. However, Gawande does not leave the reader to ponder of what emotions went through him after witnessing the loss of his patient. He writes, “Perhaps a backup suction device should always be at hand, and better light more easily available. Perhaps the institutions could have trained me better for such crises” (“When Doctors Make Mistakes” 73). The repetition of “perhaps” only epitomizes the inability to move on from making a mistake. However, this repetitive language also demonstrates the ends a doctor will meet to save a patient’s life (73). Therefore, it is not the doctor, but medicine itself that can be seen as the gateway from life to death or vice versa. Although the limitations of medicine can allow for the death of a patient to occur, a doctor will still experience emotional turmoil after losing someone he was trying to

    Read More

  • Death with Dignity or Sanctity of Life: Who Gets to Choose?

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Denise Dudzinski, PhD, MTS, Helene Starks, PhD, MPH, Nicole White, MD, MA (2009) ETHICS IN MEDICINE. Retrieved from: http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/pad.html

    Read More

  • Decisions from Health Care Providers

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    Providers must act in the best interest of the patient and their basic obligation is to do no harm and work for the public’s wellbeing. A physician shall always keep in mind the obligation of preserving human life. Providers must communicate full, accurate and unbiased information so patients can make informed decisions about their health care. As a result of their recommendations, providers are responsible for generating costs in health care but do not generate the need for those expenses. Every hospital has both an ethical as well as a legal responsibility to provide care, even if the care may be uncompensated.

    Read More

  • The Erosion of Patient Confidentiality

    465 Words  | 1 Pages

    The medical Profession recognizes that patients have a number of basic rights. These include but are not limited to the following: the right to reasonable response to his or her requests and need and needs for treatment within the hospital's capacity. The right to considerate, respectful care focused on the patient's individual needs. The right of the patient to make health care decisions, including the right to refuse treatment. The right to formulate advance directives. The right to be provided with information regarding treatment that enables the patient to make treatment decisions that reflect his or her wishes. The right to be provided upon admission to a health care facility with information about the health care provider's policies regarding advance directives, patient rights, and patient complaints. The right to participate in ethical decision making that may arise in the course of treatment. The right to be notified of any medical research or educational projects that may affect the patient's care. The right to privacy and confid...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie Wit

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film Wit is an emotional story about a woman’s struggle with terminal ovarian cancer. The film focuses on the treatment she receives in the hospital not only from the chemotherapy but the inhumane treatment from the staff especially the physicians. This was an eye opening experience to see the patient’s side to hospitalization and how important it is to see the patient as a human and not an object that lacks feelings and emotions (Bosanquet & Nichols, 2001). The greatest ethical dilemma posed in the film was aggressively treating the ovarian cancer with the full dose radiation and have the patient suffer the unpleasant severe side effects, or allow the cancer to grow and metastasize. In this film, the nurse tries to convince

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination and Health Care

    1821 Words  | 4 Pages

    Steinbock, Bonnie, Alex J. London, and John D. Arras. "The Principles Approach." Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine. Contemporary Readings in Bioethics. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 36-37. Print.

    Read More

  • Essay On Ethical And Ethical Issues In Nursing

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another huge ethical topic is the patient’s right to choose autonomy in the refusal of life-saving medicine or treatment. This issue affects a nurse’s standards of care and code of ethics. “The nurse owes the patient a duty of care and must act in accordance with this duty at all times, by respecting and supporting the patient’s right to accept or decline treatment” (Volinsky). In order for a patient to be able make these types of decisions they must first be deemed competent. While the choice of patient’s to refuse life-saving treatment may go against nursing ethical codes and beliefs to attempt and coerce them to get treatment is trespass and would conclude in legal action. “….then refusal of these interventions may be regarded as inappropriate, but in the case of a patient with capacity, the patient must have the ultimate authority to decide” (Volinsky). While my values of the worth of life and importance of action may be different than others, as a nurse I have to learn to set that aside and follow all codes of ethics whether I have a dilemma with them or not. Sometimes with ethics there is no right or wrong, but as a nurse we have to figure out where to draw the line in some cases.

    Read More

  • Moral and Ethical Issues of Euthanasia

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    McGee, Glenn and Arthur L. Caplan. "Medical Ethics." Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997: Microsoft Corporation. CD-ROM.

    Read More

  • The Case for Mercy-Killing

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, let’s consider the reasoning behind the patients choosing to forego extraordinary treatment for their cancer. They have decided, as Beauchamp would put it, that refusing to prolong their lives in the face of pain and suffering “neither harms nor wrongs [them] and may provide a benefit” (Beauchamp, 76). They “intend to quit life because of its bleak possibilities” (Beauchamp, 77). The doctor readily complies with their wishes out of moral, legal, and professional obligation. A choice has been made to let both patients die, as a response to their “competent and authoritative refusal of treatment” (Beauchamp 74).

    Read More

More about End Of Life: Dr. Bearing

Open Document