Are You Interested in Bioethics?
Are you interested in Bioethics? You may have shown some interest simply by coming to this "Bioethics Discussion Blog". I hope many of my visitors have obtained some education and enlightenment about bioethics and bioethical issues as well as having a chance to express themselves by coming here. In addition, there may be those visitors who really would appreciate participating in formal education programs particularly if the visitors occupation could or will involve bioethics but also even for simply becoming more understanding of the discipline.
There are various opportunities available for bioethics education throughout the United States. You may find an institution that can provide that education by going to the National Institutes of Health website which lists some academic centers and programs. Programs that may be offered can include a survey course, a graduate certificate program in bioethics and a program leading to a Master of Arts degree in bioethics. Which program one selects will depend upon its use. Those who want to add understanding bioethics to their general knowledge or are new members to a hospital ethics committee may find the survey course sufficient. Others, will find the other two programs of value to enhance their occupation or professional background and skills.
Currently for those who live in Southern California, all 3 such programs are available at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and the details of the programs can be obtained by going to the LMU/LA website.
I hope this information will be of interest and perhaps a stimulus to some of my visitors to become more understanding and educated in the applied discipline of bioethics. ..Maurice.
posted by Maurice Bernstein, M.D. @ 12:00:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
In answer to your reply and question on Facebook:
The issue most in my mind at this time is what would become of healthcare in the US if a national healthcare plan were to be enacted.
I've read over and over that medical care for the elderly and chronically ill would be "rationed". I'm thinking of all of the elderly (and chronically ill) people who have been forced to go on Medicare to remain on dialysis, and this particular health service is only one of the many medical treatment which would be "rationed".
This is just another way to dispose of the elderly and chronically ill, who are a real "burden" on the current healthcare system. What will happen to the weakest and most helpless of our country goes without saying: they will be euthanized through a long, lonely, painful process: enforced neglect. Criminal neglect, in my eyes.
Looking at the horrible mess the government has made of Medicare makes me wonder just what they're going to do with the entire country's population ... !
My poor mother-in-law who is very ill, and has a lot of medications, pays more than I do for copays ... and on her fixed income, has to somehow get through the "doughnut hole" months; all of this on an income that is already mostly spent on medications and medical copays, and leaves her very little for transportation, housing, food, clothing ... etc.
I know that our current system is slowly crumbling, and without some sort of change will surely collapse - most likely sooner than later. We have the world's latest medical equipment, arguably the world's finest medical techniques, but our medical delivery system is broken, and getting worse with every passing week. I agree that we need to effect some massive changes, but I question whether a single payer system run by the government is the right way to go.
Let us take our lessons from the UK, from Canada, from all of the other countries who have traveled down this road, before we adopt those methods for our own country.
Moof, although the content of your posting doesn't really match with the thread topic or title, in a way I am glad you posted it here because it is an example of what you are NOT going to learn about and what will NOT help you solve or anyone solve the nation's healthcare woes by taking up any of the educational resources presented.
If the courses were that of politics or healthcare management or social service then maybe learning the elements of these disciplines would help your education regarding the issues you presented. But they are not. They are about ethics and one can write alot about beneficence and non-maleficence, fiduciary responsibility and being just but all that writing and teaching, I am afraid, has been lost by those who have created the medical mess we are in and one may easily doubt how readily principles of bioethics will be incorporated into the mess that is attempted to be constructed by our politicians.
So, Moof, if you answer the question "Yes, I am interested in bioethics" don't think that signing up to these courses will provide you with a direct solution to your U.S. healthcare concerns. Sorry! ..Maurice.
p.s- However, I look forward to any comment by those who administer or teach these courses to present a different view.
Dr. Bernstein, those were not courses I was taking, but rather my personal understanding and reaction to the things I have been reading on medical blogs, and seeing in periodicals and newspapers for the last 6 months or so.
The bioethical point was that entire groups of people, mostly those who are in the greatest need, would be receiving "rationed medical care".
I am against any healthcare system which would deliberately single out any part of the population as being less important, and thus receive less care.
I'm sorry that I wasn't more specific. :o)
Moof what you are writing about is the ethical principle of justice which you want to see practiced in any healthcare system. Yes, justice will be taught to those participating in these bioethics courses but learning about the principle of justice in a university curriculum is one thing and what I am trying to express is that it is an entirely different matter to insure justice when devising a healtcare system. Perhaps we were talking past each other. ..Maurice.
A side issue regarding ethics courses has to do with the decisions by some state medical boards as a response to misbehavior, incompetency or frank illegal acts by physicians which include an order for the physician to attend an ethics course as part of the administrative actions to punish and yet attempt to rehabilitate those physicians. This order for attending ethics courses approved by the board has been applied to California medical board cases.
Here are some examples from California:
"Criminal conviction for having sexual relations with a patient. [License]Revoked, stayed, placed on 7 years probation with terms and conditions including, but not limited to, completing an ethics course, an educational course in addition to required CME and must have a third party chaperone present while consulting, examining or treating female patients."
"Stipulated Decision. Committed an act of dishonesty by signing a certification under penalty of perjury that he had attended 65 hours of lectures at a conference where in fact he had only attended 1 day of the 5 day seminar and had returned to California to treat patients. Physician must complete an ethics course. Public Reprimand."
The question is whether having a physician attend an ethics course will do anything to rehabilitate the physician's subsequent behavior. ..Maurice.
I am extending a discussion of the issue of the role of ethics courses in the rehabilitation of the unethical in a new separate thread titled: "Ethics Courses and Unethical Behavior: Do They Rehabilitate or Simply Facilitate?".
Please continue the discussion on that specific topic on that thread and NOT HERE. I WOULD LIKE THIS THREAD, IN FUTURE COMMENTS, TO CONTAIN ONLY RESOURCE INFORMATION FOR BIOETHICS COURSES WHICH ARE AVAILABLE. Thanks, ..Maurice.
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