David Bland

The Ideal

Professor Draves

9/27/2005

Ethical Decision Making and Medicine

My name is David Bland and this discussion on ethical decisions making will undoubtedly reflect my past experiences and opinions. I have lived in Springfield, Illinois all of my life with my mother, father, and one younger brother. I grew up in a nice neighborhood and money was never particularly an issue, though I feel confident in saying that I don’t believe I was spoiled growing up. I decided to major in biology for a few reasons, the most prominent being that they were the most interesting and enjoyable classes I took in high school. I also found it extremely hard to turn off the discovery channel because life in general and all its intricacies fascinates me. I am significantly considering becoming a doctor because I enjoy helping people and hate to see people suffer. My father is also a Psychiatrist which allowed me to have a better understanding for what he does as a professional and whether I might like to follow a similar career choice. Though I am not one hundred percent positive I would like to be a doctor, I think it has a very significant chance of being my profession of choice.

Being a doctor requires many years of undergraduate study, specialized graduate school study, and time spent as a medical resident working in conjunction with seasoned veterans. It is considered an extremely important profession in current society considering the fact that people’s health is always in danger and most people don’t enjoy being unhealthy. These reasons are among some that contribute to making a professional in the medical field be held to higher moral and legal standards. Whether it is good for doctors to be held to these higher legal and moral standards or whether it becomes a disrespectful hindrance to a professional trying to do their job is debatable.

In America, physicians are held to a code of ethics that is published by the American Medical Association. According to the AMA’s website, their book on ethics," undergoes regular revisions and is the most comprehensive ethics guide for physicians" (AMA). The American Medical Association also has a council that enforces and decides reasonable ethical guidelines for practicing physicians. Though I have not found documentation to support this fact, I would assume that medical physicians are supposed to be familiar with these guidelines and either purchase new copies or receive updates on revisions to the medical guidelines.

The preamble of the AMA’s principles of medical ethics has nine precepts that are overarching in all medical practices. It would be exhaustive for the parameters of this assignment to list the preamble in it’s entirety, but the major principles are that a physician shall: provide competent medical care, respect human dignity and rights, respect the law while seeking changes that contradict the best interests of a patient, support access to medical care for all people, and should consider a patient’s needs as the highest priority (AMA).

It is hard to make a profound statement on the difference between decision making and ethical decision making for medical practitioners. I would probably say that you should generally try to make all your decisions based upon current standards and your own reasonable moral input. When this is not possible, it should be an individual’s duty to seek consultation as well as using their best judgment would probably be the best possible course of action. When dealing with team decision making, democratic group operations as well as plenty of time for personal reflection are the only reliable way to provide a mutually agreeable outcome.

Aside from the written code provided by the AMA and possibly policies of the physician’s workplace (depending upon where the physician practices medicine), I think a physician generally has free reign on how to best treat their patients. I don’t particularly think that all the codes provided need to be strictly followed, though I do understand the reasoning behind their existence. In my own experience, I find that taking situations on a case by case basis tends to provide a smoother and more effective means for decision making as opposed to doing everything by the book. An example of where I think I would probably have to differ from the guidelines is in not providing treatment to individuals that you have strong personal or familial relations with. There is sound reasoning behind this in the fact that your personal feelings won’t cloud your judgment. I don’t particularly see any reason why you shouldn’t prescribe anti-biotics to your child or spouse when they become sick with bacterial infections. I also probably would be more inclined to do my utmost to relieve suffering and take a strong look at the quality of life of an individual as opposed to merely keeping a person alive simply for the sake of life over death. I do believe it is necessary to provide a structural framework for a universal code of ethics and of medical study/practice. Without these guidelines, there would be all sorts of people out there providing services that aren’t in the best interest of society or individual patients.

Works Cited

 

This website was created for the course Honors 210:The Ideal at Monmouth College.

HOME INDEX