Bioethics is a field of ethical thought and theory which focuses its debate on the relationship between society and biological sciences. These two sets of interests intersect and collide very frequently in medicine, where the impact of scientific advancement on people can be truly a life or death matter. Researchers, doctors, hospital organizations, medical service and product providers, and patients themselves all contend with bioethical dilemmas. With the ever-evolving advancement of AI and other technologies, medicine, like almost all areas of human life is being transformed and along with it, the ethical choices and challenges present are changing too.
- As previously discussed in this blog’s coverage of whistleblowers in the pharmaceutical industry, the sales and marketing of prescription drugs is a practice full of risks for fraud and misconduct. Pharmaceutical companies paying or otherwise influencing doctors to recommend and prescribe their products to their patients is ripe for conflicts of interest issues. Doctors who might prescribe medication for any reason other than the most appropriate treatment protocol and wellness outlook for their patients, to whom they owe a high standard of professional care, pose great risk of causing both intentional and negligent harm. The risk of this is exceptionally troublesome when the doctors have histories of fraud or misconduct. Payments from pharmaceutical companies to doctors are legal and not unusual, but they are also certainly controversial and pose significant bioethical challenges to appropriate patient care. In this case, there is definitely a call for compliance controls and ethical decision-making incentives, in that the conduct not against any law or regulation but may certainly run afoul of society’s expectations or medical institutions’ business values: Drugmaker paid doctors with problem records to promote its pill
- Traditional Chinese medicine, which uses herbs, plant, and animal parts to make teas or soups, has been relied upon as a popular remedy for centuries. While the practices of clinics offering these ingredients and instructions for using them as cures have been largely unchanged all this time, in recent years technological innovation has reached even into these farthest corners of medical practice. Some of these old-fashioned recipes have gotten a modern variation, turning them from culinary creations to formulations for injectable drugs. The risk lies in the possibility that the patient taking the drug might have an adverse reaction, as the injectable versions of these drugs contain many different compounds, making diagnosing an allergy or contamination very difficult. As major companies enter this market estimated at $13 billion in sales value, doctors are prescribing drugs that are largely unregulated, untested, and unknown. This presents a huge regulatory challenge to ensure public safety and to set supervisory standards for prescription and administration of the drugs: Patient Deaths Show Darker Side of Modern Chinese Medicine
- Recently an elderly, unconscious patient showed up in Miami, Florida hospital with a shocking tattoo that read “DO NOT RESCUSCITATE.” Doctors and nurses found themselves struggling to resolve the ethical dilemma of determining their patient’s true desire for care and to what extent. In the state of Florida, an order to not resuscitate (DNR) is valid only if it is completed on an official form and printed on the designated yellow paper. This patient did end up having such a legal form, so when his condition deteriorated eventually, the valid DNR was honored. However, doctors did debate what reaction, if any, they owed to the tattoo and the patient’s evident choice to make his DNR wishes emphatically clear. The medical team in question here provided basic care, sought ethics advice, and got the support system of social workers involved to make a collaborative, respectful patient care plan. The question of what would motivate a patient to have such a tattoo, however, and the wide variety of medical and legal reactions it can provoke, presents an interesting bioethical dilemma in end-of-life care: What to Do When a Patient Has a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ Tattoo
- Continuing on this theme of patient care at the end of life, another compelling bioethical dilemma is in the provision of non-essential treatment in hospice. In this case, a patient wanted eye surgery to restore his vision for the last days of his life. He desired comfort, independence, and reconnection with his family before he died that being able to see again could uniquely give to him. Some care providers, however, would not find it acceptable to perform surgery on someone who would die only a few weeks later, incurring costs and risks to provide ultimately unnecessary treatment. The question of when and why to provide this sort of treatment to hospice patients has arguments for cost and efficiency on one side and dignity and compassion on the other: Should Eye Surgeons Fulfill A Dying Man’s Wish To See His Family?
- During all surgeries and medical treatments, there is an ever-present risk that something could go wrong and the professionals performing the procedure will need to stray from the expected protocol. While this is done in the best interests of treatment success and preventing harm or even saving lives, these interventions present difficult challenges to consent and control. In the scenario of childbirth, these concerns are especially fraught: Doctors who ignore consent are traumatizing women during childbirth
The moral and ethical questions posed in the evolving practice of medicine are and will continue to be the subject of frequent popular debate. Medical care providers confront these issues in their work and standards for and expectations of patient care are impacted by decision-making on these bioethical dilemmas.