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
What's On Your Mind?: Medicine and Ethics
In the past 8 years, I have covered many, many topics regarding bioethics, ethics in general and ethics specifically as related to medical education and medical practice and I have many, many visitors who have contributed to the threads I have developed. But, still, there may be a host of topics which I have not considered and which has troubled some visitor. On this thread, I would like to hear about those topics which could be further developed or started as new. Google's Knol, a site where I was attempting to answer the ethics concerns of visitors there over the last few years is now being dismantled by Google. So, let's hear from you here if you have an idea or question. ..Maurice.
6 Comments:
One area that gets media attention but rarely the attention of ethicists is medical cannabis. Cannabis is a drug that countless doctors and professional medical organizations like the AMA and CMA agree is a helpful therapy for some patients and should be safely available to patients and most importantly legally researched, yet our federal laws continue to case these patients as criminals. When I see patients stigmatized and discriminated against, and worst arrested, it feels like an ethical violation.
Yes, Julia, this is where the United States federal government's "war on drugs" has led to non-ethical (non-beneficent) actions on those who are ill. Rather than going along with the regulations and limits set by states such as California approving medical marijuana use, the government continues to penalize those providing such care and, of course, the patients themselves.
Thanks for providing this topic which I may develop into an ongoing thread. The only previous reference to the marijuana issue is a thread back in April 2005 titled "Paying More Attention to Votes Than to Science" in which the ACLU presented their news release regarding challenging the Drug Enforcement Administration's policy of "obstructing private research that could lead to marijuana being approved as a prescription medicine.
The ACLU filed the case Friday on behalf of University of Massachusetts Professor Lyle Craker, Ph.D., who wants to grow an alternative, privately funded source of research-grade marijuana. The challenge comes in advance of an expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Raich v. Ashcroft, which addresses the question of whether the federal government can enforce federal marijuana laws in states where medical marijuana is legal."
Well, I guess we all know now what was the outcome of Reich v. Ashcroft: continued sending of federal enforcement troops into California! Again, thanks Julia. ..Maurice.
there's debate about "irresponsible use of antbiotics" by patients and in some ares they're only available on presciption. But serious research hs been done that seems to suggest there is also defensive medicine and "irresponsible use of antibiotics" by doctors...It turned out that many outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has came from hospitals, or otherwise the medications had been legally prescribed.
Maria, ..and the ethical question might be "who is irresponsible"? If one looks at the whole picture of antibiotic misuse, one could point fingers of blame to various sources. An easy but realistic source is ignorance by the profession regarding established standards of practice which turn out to be, after statistical studies, in error. Currently, for example is the use of antibiotics as initial therapy for mild to moderate sinusitis. Such use has been found now to be unnecessary.
A finger could be pointed to the pharmaceutical industry also. Because of organisms developing antibiotic resistance, there is financial incentive for the company coming out with a new antibiotic whose research and development was highly expensive to encourage use of that antibiotic over another but older antibiotic in order to recoup the development costs and quickly turn a profit before the resistance develops and sales go down.
Then of course, the finger pointing can go in the directions of the patient and, of course, the writer of the prescription, the doctor. The patient is a responsible stakeholder in this issue because the many patient demands to the doctor for antibiotic treatments for their illness and then, of course, the factors of limitation of time to discuss such demands, the need to satisfy the patient and then purely the concern to practice "defensive medicine", the doctor will go ahead and write that antibiotic prescription.
So what is the answer? All stakeholders from the medical schools, medical societies, hospitals,pharmaceutical companies, patients and doctors should be educated and provided with up-to-date scientific facts and statistics which will lead to an understanding and the responsible use of antibiotics. ..Maurice.
Julia
I agree,however, it will be interesting to see the big
picture as to wether cannabis dispensary becomes
abused. Any ailement will certainly become fair game,
yet, I wonder will the quality become so good as touted,
availability become so abundant that it actually puts
illegal drug dealers out of business.
Studies have shown that the key ingredient tetra-9
hydrocannabol has shrunk tumors in many lab studies,
that it can significantly reduce nausea much better than
even zofram. Personally, I believe it should be only
prescribed to cancer patients.
PT
It looks like both Julia and Maria have settled on a single ethical issue which could be the basis of a thread and that would be what is responsibility in the treatment of disease and who are the ones to be held responsible for the outcome and consequences. Does responsibility mean that those who manufacture, prescribe, receive or legislate treatment should be properly educated regarding the established scientific facts about the treatment and all the documented consequences of its availability and use? And that is followed by the ethical question who will set the definition or limits as to what would be an acceptable or unacceptable outcome and consequence. This more general discussion could go beyond pot and antibiotics.
This current thread will not be the place to discuss the issue but to develop it for publishing it later.
..Maurice.
Post a Comment
<< Home