Bioethics Discussion Blog: January 2011

REMINDER: I AM POSTING A NEW TOPIC ABOUT ONCE A WEEK OR PERHAPS TWICE A WEEK. HOWEVER, IF YOU DON'T FIND A NEW TOPIC POSTED, THERE ARE AS OF MARCH 2013 OVER 900 TOPIC THREADS TO WHICH YOU CAN READ AND WRITE COMMENTS. I WILL BE AWARE OF EACH COMMENTARY AND MAY COME BACK WITH A REPLY.

TO FIND A TOPIC OF INTEREST TO YOU ON THIS BLOG, SIMPLY TYPE IN THE NAME OR WORDS RELATED TO THE TOPIC IN THE FIELD IN THE LEFT HAND SIDE AT TOP OF THE PAGE AND THEN CLICK ON “SEARCH BLOG”. WITH WELL OVER 900 TOPICS, MOST ABOUT GENERAL OR SPECIFIC ETHICAL ISSUES BUT NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO ANY SPECIFIC DATE OR EVENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND WHAT YOU WANT. IF YOU DON’T PLEASE WRITE TO ME ON THE FEEDBACK THREAD OR BY E-MAIL DoktorMo@aol.com

IMPORTANT REQUEST TO ALL WHO COMMENT ON THIS BLOG: ALL COMMENTERS WHO WISH TO SIGN ON AS ANONYMOUS NEVERTHELESS PLEASE SIGN OFF AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENTS WITH A CONSISTENT PSEUDONYM NAME OR SOME INITIALS TO HELP MAINTAIN CONTINUITY AND NOT REQUIRE RESPONDERS TO LOOK UP THE DATE AND TIME OF THE POSTING TO DEFINE WHICH ANONYMOUS SAID WHAT. Thanks. ..Maurice

FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK! WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS BLOG, WHAT IS GOOD, POOR AND CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT TO THIS FEEDBACK THREAD

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Do You Care About the Affordable Care Act?: Is it Ethical?

There has been and currently (January 25 2011) is much controversy over President Obama's administration Affordable Care Act (so called "Obamacare") which was passed by Congress and signed by the President into law last year. At present there is much talk about getting rid of this Act and indeed the House of Representatives passed legislation recently to do so. There is much controversy about the politics of the act but I fear not much discussion about the ethics related to it. Isn't the purpose of the law is to provide the best healthcare available to all the people in the United States (beneficence) and to be fair (justice) in the distribution and management of the
rules governing the practice of the law to all the stakeholders? It is.. but some still wonder "is it?"
What I would like my visitors to write on this thread is their understanding of the Affordable Care Act in terms of whether they feel it is in everyones best interest or whether important parts are missing or parts of the law are unfair. What is your understanding? What are your suggestions? Do you care about the Affordable Care Act? ..Maurice.

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Patient Modesty: Volume 38

As of the beginning of this Volume 38 dealing with patient modesty issues, it is the beginning of a new year, 2011, and it is time for everyone to consider their own the New Year Resolution. Such a resolution should be that the individual resolves to a change in behavior or action which was not previously attempted or completed but is possible of being followed during the remainder of the year and beyond. So, now, what should the resolution be about as written to this thread?

Well, we are all patients or potential patients and we all, at some time will or have in the past, been involved in the doctor-patient relationship. So let's think of a New Year Resolution, pertinent to this thread of patient modesty that the visitor as a patient will resolve now to follow to develop or improve such a relationship. Of course, the relationship is not one sided and the doctor also has responsibility to make the relationship the best, towards primarily the interest of the patient.
But without the product of your resolve, the relationship may never be fully satisfactory. What do you think? ..and what do you resolve? ..Maurice.

ADDENDUM 1/31/2011: WE ARE PUBLISHED ON AMA NEWS!

I want to announce that Doug Capra and myself have had our article
published today in the AMA News (weekly newspaper of the American
Medical Association) website. The article is titled “What can physicians and patients do to improve the medical encounter?”
It deals with both the doctor and patient making a New Year’s Resolution, the patient to “speak up” to the doctor and for the doctor “to listen and pay attention to the patient.” There is a scenario where the doctor and patient engage in a colloquy with the main concern of the patient..guess what? Patient modesty!

Go to the website and read the article and then return and post your comments here or on Doug’s and Dr. Sherman’s website and maybe you could write a comment directly to the editors of AMA News. ..Maurice.

NOTICE: AS OF TODAY FEBRUARY 18, 2011 "PATIENT MODESTY: VOLUME 38" WILL BE CLOSED FOR FURTHER COMMENTS. YOU CAN CONTINUE POSTING COMMENTS ON VOLUME 39.

Monday, January 03, 2011

The Treatment of Animals for Science vs Food: Is One more Ethical than the Other?



Joel Marks writes in the Hastings Center “Bioethics Forum:

“If it’s okay to confine animals for their whole lives in cages or other artificial environments, perform sometimes painful and/or disfiguring procedures on them, and finally kill them at an early age, as is done routinely in biomedical research, then why wouldn’t it be okay to do the same for nutritional purposes?

Are not animals selected for human consumption treated with unnatural confinement, subjected to unnatural procedures and then killed for a premature death?

Those who are against animals used for experiments for the understanding and treatment of human as well as animal illnesses with the associated pain and suffering, shouldn’t they be also vegetarians who reject subjecting animals as a food source for humans? Unlike most scientific experiments whose goal is for the medical benefit of humans, there is evidence that suggests that eating meat provides no nutritional benefit that could not be attained with the consumption of vegetables and fruits and indeed eating meat can be harmful to some.

Read the Bioethics Forum article and return here with your comment regarding the ethics of using animals for human and animal scientific research versus killing animals for our food. ..Maurice.


Graphic: Meat. Photograph copied under fair use from http://backpackingrecipes.net .