Many doctors consider that a strict ethical view of growth hormone treatment would be unreasonable and unfair to the individuals who must bear the burdens of discrimination... It is not easy to dismiss the profound and understandable distress some children experience because they are short. Such children undeniably are disadvantaged by their condition" (Considerations Related to the Use of Recombinant Human Growth Hormone in Children, 1997)
This important ethical debate is also discussed in various other studies. For example, in a study entitled Moral assessment of growth hormone therapy for children with idiopathic short stature (1997) by Verweij and Kortmann, the authors state that one of the greatest ethical dilemmas facing medicine is the prescription of growth hormone treatment for those children who do not have a deficiency of the growth hormone. They ask the question; "Is it morally appropriate to enhance the growth, by means of medical treatment, of a child wish idiopathic short stature? The medical, moral, and philosophical questions in this area are many" (p. 305). This article in fact favors the view that growth hormone treatment is ethically validated when it serves to prevent of psychological and social problems due to short stature.
3. Conclusion
In conclusion and in summary, the effectiveness of growth hormone theory has been seen in the many applications that have emerged for the hormone in the last few decades. These include increasing growth in individuals who lack this particular hormone or who have suffered a depletion of the hormone due to illness. However, there are many other instances in which the hormone is used that lead to various ethical and moral issues.
On the one hand, studies note that the exact outcome and effects of this type of hormone treatment are not adequately known and that this fact in itself becomes and an ethical dilemma. However, the most complex ethical area is the use of this hormone treatment in cases where ether is no innate or medical necessity for its usage.
In these cases, the question is raised...
Many studies however conclude that it is medically ethical to make use of this hormone treatment in cases where lack of stature can lead to psychological and social problems for the individual.
References
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Considerations Related to the Use of Recombinant Human Growth Hormone in Children. PEDIATRICS Vol. 99 No. 1 January 1997, pp. 122-129. Retrieved April 7, 2008, at http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;99/1/122
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Verweij M. And Kortmann F. (1997) Moral assessment of growth hormone therapy for children with idiopathic short stature. Journal of Medical Ethics, 23(5).
Although anabolic effects and changes in body composition have clearly been associated with the use of human growth hormone, in elderly people little or no evidence exists of an important positive functional effect on the processes of ageing" (Hintz, 2004).
Ethics and Human Growth Hormone
