Medical Humanities Commons^™

Advances In Biomedical Research And Treatments: What Is Acceptable?, Michael L. Clancy, Khalid M. Iskandarani, Mitchell C. Mccrea

Journal of Health Ethics

This study investigated the technology acceptance (TA) of twenty-first century biomedical treatments by adults in the United States. A new TA instrument was created, using five distinct levels: (1) Healing and Prevention, (2) Replacement Organs, (3) Enhancements-Medical, (4) Enhancements-Discretionary, and (5) Transhumans. An on-line survey produced 353 usable responses, which showed distinct patterns for each of five biomedical treatment levels. There was clear support for Levels 1–3, but very strong opposition to Levels 4–5. The TA finding draws the line between which human interventions are acceptable versus others that should be prohibited through public policies and medical guidelines.

Discussing The Injustice Of The Covid-19 Vaccine Pass Imposed On Medical Consultation In Public Hospitals In Hong Kong, Fung Kei Cheng

Journal of Health Ethics

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated public health, economy and social life all over the world, especially wherever a vaccine pass scheme has been implemented. Many countries have begun to relax schedules to return to normal activities. In contrast, Hong Kong continues to tighten the utilisation of a vaccine pass for medical services in order to boost vaccination rates. Such a practice not only significantly challenges ethical and operative concerns but also threatens health equity and social justice for healthcare decision-makers and practitioners, consequently hurting public health and community well-being. This discussion analyses the various arguments, reviews vaccine hesitancy and suggests …

Ethical Imperatives Critical To Effective Disease Control In The Coronavirus Pandemic: Recognition Of Global Health Interdependence As A Driver Of Health And Social Equity, George A. Gellert Md, Mph, Mpa

Journal of Health Ethics

Ethical imperatives critical to effective disease control in the coronavirus pandemic: Recognition of global health interdependence as a driver of health and social equity

George A. Gellert MD, MPH, MPA

ABSTRACT

Decades into the era of emerging infectious diseases, the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic has caught the world, and the United States in particular, poorly prepared to engage effective public health disease prevention and control measures. In part, this reflects poor public health planning, response, logistical preparation and pandemic readiness, and complacency by governments and disease control agencies. In terms of future responses to emerging infection pandemics, these deficiencies can be …

Tuskegee Syphilis Study Not America's Only Medical Scandal: Chester M. Southam, Md, Henrietta Lacks, And The Sloan-Kettering Research Scandal, Leonard F. Vernon

Journal of Health Ethics

The words “human medical experimentation” conjure up visions of Nazi medicine, which has come to exemplify the worst evils in the history of humankind. Places like Auschwitz and Dachau, where human life was cheap and test subjects plentiful were used as laboratories.

In 2010 the US government apologized to Guatemala for allowing U.S. doctors to infect Guatemalan prisoners and mental patients with syphilis 65 years earlier, while acknowledging dozens of similar experiments in the United States. These included studies that often involved making healthy people sick. such as in the Tuskegee syphilis study.

These experiments were often life threatening and …

The Cura Personalis Of Healthcare Delivery: Ethical Reflections On Internal Medicine, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author explores the meaning of care for the whole person, and underscores the mission of compassion as being willing to meet patients at their suffering point.

Managing Endings In The Beginning: Ethical Reflections On Neonatal Intensive Care, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author examines the difficult task of determining quality of life for seriously-ill newborns, and highlights the narrative vitalism so often characteristic of those forced to make end-of-life decisions on behalf of those whose lives have just begun.

Dignity And The Life Worth Living: Ethical Reflections On Pediatric Intensive Care, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author navigates the terrain of proxy decision making, and uncovers the hidden tendency of some clinicians to reduce quality of life to physical capability.

The Moral Obligation Of Bearing One Another’S Burdens: Ethical Reflections On Surgical Intensive Care, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author analyzes the nature of curing and healing, and offers practical steps for managing families who request medically contraindicated interventions.

Healing Without Curing: Ethical Reflections On Palliative Care Medicine, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author evaluates the nature of hope in the chronically ill, and emphasizes the many lessons dying individuals can teach us about living.

The Truths That Make Us Free: Ethical Reflections On Reproductive Endocrinology, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author surveys the concept of therapeutic privilege, and addresses the temptation to respond to biographical questions with biological answers in the context of personal meaning-making.

The Morality Of Medical Miracles: Ethical Reflections On Pediatric Oncology, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author investigates the practical ethics of miraculous healings, and proposes a four-step approach for working with parents who, for religious reasons, refuse life-saving treatment for children.

Introduction: Notes From The Bedside, Sheila P. Davis

Journal of Health Ethics

No abstract provided.

Living With Productive Discomfort: Ethical Reflections On Critical Care Medicine, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

In this essay, the author considers the theme of deaths and resurrections in light of uncertain outcomes, and captures the pressure on ethicists to always know “the right thing to do.”

Euthanasia, Assisted-Suicide, And Palliative Sedation: A Brief Clarification And Reinforcement Of The Moral Logic, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

A persistent misunderstanding of the moral distinctions between the practices of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and palliative sedation suggests a critical need to revisit the relationship each shares with licit medical practice in the context of palliative care. To that end, this essay grounds its arguments in two, straightforward premises: (i) the licitness of medical practice is largely determined by the balance between (a) good ends, (b) proportionate means, (c) appropriate circumstances, and (d) benevolent intentions; and (ii) whereas palliative sedation employs criteria A-D (above), both euthanasia and assisted suicide fail to secure criteria A-C. Drawing from this syllogism, the aim …

The Ethical Justification Of Equal Candidacy For Organ Transplantation In Alcoholic Patients, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

An increasingly blurred understanding of the distinctive challenges posed to transplantation medicine and, by extension, public health, by the debilitating reality of alcoholism suggests a critical need to revisit the relationship between causality, candidacy, and culpability in light of substance addiction. This essay grounds its arguments in two, straightforward premises: (i) compassionate medical practice - understood as the sympathetic willingness to enter into the existential suffering of another in order to ameliorate the anguish invoked by disease - rests on the fiduciary relationship shared between provider and patient; and (ii) allocating medical goods according to moral desert rather than existential …

Should Doctors Take Into Account Human Races? A Medical Ethics Approach, Gabriel Andrade

Journal of Health Ethics

Racial discrimination has some very harmful social effects. But, can discrimination in medicine lead to good outcomes? This is an emerging question in medical ethics. It is undoubtedly true that some individuals are more genetically prone to some diseases than others. But, we should not rush to judgment, and believe that race may be a good guide in order to discover what diseases an individual is more susceptible to. Illnesses such as sickle cell-anemia and Tay Sachs disease have long been thought to have a racial correspondence. This is in fact not true. There have also been attempts to prescribe …

Approaching Organ Transplant In Islam From A Multidimensional Framework, Daniel J. Hurst

Journal of Health Ethics

The subject of organ transplant has been highly contested within Islam. Though the majority of Muslims now accept the validity of the practice from both live and deceased donors, this is by no means a universal consensus. In particular Islamic contexts, the subject of organ transplant remains a major subject of debate. Intertwined with the debate of organ transplant is the sensitive and complex issue of what constitutes death. Bioethical decision-making in Islam takes place within a multi-dimensional framework of authorities and themes. With no central authoritative body for the Islamic community, general consensus on bioethical matters is difficult to …

Generational Conflicts Among Vietnamese Americans In The Health Care Decision Making Process, Georgie D. Nguyen

Journal of Health Ethics

In the U.S. there are approximately 1.3 million Vietnamese Americans. This group faced multiple problems after their immigration to the U.S. after the Fall of Saigon. While some easily acculturated within this group, others such as the older generation suffered difficulty doing so. The purpose of this article is to address concerns regarding the health care decision making process among the Vietnamese community and its importance to helping health care providers understand why there is a high mortality rate within this group.