Verified Document

Ethics Biomedical Ethics In The Medical Profession Essay

Ethics Biomedical Ethics

Ethics in the medical profession is a topic that has gained in complexity in the past three decades. As patients are able to get more information about medical procedures, as billing becomes more complex, as new healthcare reform takes place, nurses are forced to gain an understanding of more issues with regard to biomedical ethics. The book "Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics" by Munson and Munson (2000) offers assistance to professionals with regard to basic ethical questions in the book's first chapter. Using the text as a starting point, this essay will define concepts central to biomedical ethics, how these concepts apply to the general public, and more importantly, for this essay, how these concepts can be seen in the book "Awakenings."

The book lists six issues -- autonomy, trust, dignity, respect, knowledge, and truth (Munson & Munson, 2000) -- that need to be defined within the construct of ethics. Autonomy speaks to the need of a patient to maintain their personhood and be involved in decisions (O'Neill, 2001). "Trust is not a response to certainty about other's future actions. On the contrary, trust is needed precisely when and because we lack certainty about others' future actions" (O'Neill, 2001). Trust in the medical profession has been assumed, but it must be gained more recently because mistakes are publicized and professionals are seen as fallible. Dignity is a difficult...

A nurse has respect for a patient not because of who they are, but because of what they are. Namely, they are a fellow human being who is in some way infirm and needs care. Knowledge is an interesting discussion that has two necessary divisions. The patent decides whether they want more knowledge of a procedure or less. It is not up to the medical professional to deny knowledge or to off-handedly push the patient to acquire knowledge. Truth describes the content of the knowledge given. It is never an ethical idea to gloss over the danger of a procedure to make a patient feel better. If they ask for knowledge, then it needs to be dispensed truthfully.
As mentioned above, people have access to an unprecedented amount of knowledge. Because of this, biomedical ethics has gained in importance and has become a very dangerous subject to breach. For many years, patients were kept in the dark and medical professionals were able to operate in more of a godlike atmosphere. Since the advent of electronic media, specifically the internet, patients can access a wide range of information regarding any condition or procedure. Patients are able to increase their autonomy and dignity because they have more knowledge. These are not concepts that the nurse maintains, but elements of the person that the nurse ethically protects.

A wonderful case study…

Sources used in this document:
References

Munson, R. & Munson, M. (2000). Intervention and reflection: Basic issues in medical ethics. Ann Arbor, MI: Wadsworth.

O'Neill, O. (2001). Autonomy and trust in bioethics. The Gifford Lectures. Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

Sacks, O. (1973). Awakenings. New York: Vintage.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Medical Research & Ethics Medical Research and
Words: 1958 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Medical Research & Ethics Medical Research and Ethics Conflict between Medical Research & Ethics Conflict between Medical Research & Ethics: Case of Tuskegee Syphilis Each day medical providers and researchers make decisions about what information is necessary to disclose to patients and under what circumstances they should make disclosures. In the clinical setting, the negative implications of a poorly considered disclosure decision can involve simple problems such as a patient being unaware that a

True Are Claims That the Medical Profession
Words: 2593 Length: 6 Document Type: Thesis

True Are Claims that the Medical Profession Exercises Undue Dominance Over Health Professionals and Patients? The objective of this study is to answer the question of how true the claims are that the Medical Profession exercises undue dominance over health professionals and patients? Toward this end, this study will conduct a review of literature in this area of inquiry. ) According to the work of Willis, et al. (2008) the

Medical Ethics Is a Topic That Is
Words: 1627 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

Medical Ethics Ethics is a topic that is nearly as old as the human race. Ethics is sometimes referred to a branch of philosophy called moral philosophy. Ethics is often conceptualized as a code or a system meant to categorize or otherwise classify as well as recommend behavior that is right and behavior that is wrong. Ethical codes often describe what right and wrong is in general as well. The practice

Medical Futility in Nursing Care Caring and
Words: 3647 Length: 12 Document Type: Essay

Medical Futility in Nursing Care CARING AND CHOOSING Bioethics is described as both a field of intellectual inquiry and a professional practice that examines moral questions affecting various disciplines (Arras, 2007). These disciplines include biology, medicine, law, public health, policy and ethics. In these disciplines are scholars, teachers, and clinical practitioners, including nurses. Their work has recently been subjected to an unprecedented turn in perspectives concerning relevant issues and behaviors. Among these

Medical Malpractice and Insurance
Words: 1565 Length: 5 Document Type: Book Review

Medical Malpractice Myth Review A summary of the book The Medical Malpractice Myth authored by Tom Baker, tackles the complex subject of medical malpractices in an insightful and concise manner. Mr. Baker is an accomplished professor of law who specializes in Insurance and Tort Law. In the first few pages of the book, Mr. Baker, lays out the myth; i.e. that an unprecedented number of people are filing medical malpractice lawsuits and

Ethical Guidelines in "Do Ethical
Words: 618 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Complicating matters further is the fact raised by Eriksson et al. (2008) that when doctors, psychiatrists, and other health care workers operate as a team the guidelines established by their individual professional organizations may clash. Thus, greater multiplicity is not the solution. Greater clarity and specificity trump multiplicity in terms of what the biomedical industries need in order to ensure ethical behaviors within their organizations. If the primary goal of

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now