Medical ethics: principles, practice, and contemporary issues

Medical Ethics

What is the greatest medical ethical challenge facing Americans today?

I believe the greatest challenge to our healthcare system today is the inequality of care provided to America's citizens. It is outrageous that for many people, the first thought they have when they learn they have cancer is: how can I afford this? Hard-working individuals who own their own businesses find it almost impossible to get affordable insurance coverage. Even individuals with insurance have to fight to have experimental treatments paid for by their insurance companies. Healthcare cannot be a business. It is in the financial interest of insurance companies to pay for as little care as possible. The lack of universal coverage also means that sometimes the people who need the most healthcare get the least, and vice versa. A healthy young employee of a major corporation with good insurance may get screened for many procedures for which he or she is at little risk because his or her co-pays are so low, while a low-income woman in her 40s with a family history of breast cancer may not get screened because she has poor or nonexistent coverage. At least, with universal health care, care would be prioritized more effectively, and everyone, regardless of income, would get basic care.

How do we balance technological advancements with what is best for humanity?

For all of the problems technology can create, it is important to remember all of the great things that technology has given to us as a species. I would not want to live in a world without antibiotics or vaccines -- and it is worth remembering, too, that many people worried that the population would get too large if there weren't diseases to keep the population contained! However, the opposite tends to be true -- the more technology improves the standard of living and quality of care, the fewer children people choose to have because they have greater resources to limit their family size and more optimism about the present. Today, screening for genetic diseased prenatally has empowered parents with the ability to choose what is right for their families. Even GMOs have produced disease-resistant crops that can help famine-stricken regions to feed themselves. Technology has made AIDS a manageable ailment, not a death sentence. Some of even the most feared technologies have potential benefits that are too great to ignore. It is up to the patient to be an informed consumer of medical care; government cannot stringently dictate where medical science and technology will lead.