Analytical Essay On Unethical Practices

Great Essays
Final Topical Essay

1.0 Introduction

Ken Harrison, a deranged sculptor who is injured in a car accident finds himself in the middle of life permanently paralyzed from the neck down. He is dependent on others for his care, survival, and every day primitive needs. Ken is a strong-willed, passionate man dedicated to his art. As he continues to spend time in the hospital he discovers he does not want to continue life depending on doctors, nurses, family, and friends. Yet, the catch is that he wants to be released from the hospital with no care giving him about a week to live “So Whose life is it anyway?” Throughout the play it is discovered that the ultimate right to his life is Mr. Harrison’s. Despite the doctors and nurse opinions and medical
…show more content…
Emerson proceeded to give him the medicine after he refused to take the Valium. This part of the play made me extremely uncomfortable. I could not imagine being a patient refusing medication and the doctor continues to proceed. If I was Harrison not only would I want to be discharged, but I would have sued the hospital for misconduct against a patient. In my opinion, this is one of the most unethical practices in the play.
2.2 Unethical Practice

The second unethical practice is the art of deception and white lies. Dr. Emerson knows that Harrison may never walk again or leave the hospital, but continues to encourage him and give him hope as if it will happen. I personally would not consider this to be lying, but Dr. Emerson withholds some information from Harrison. The boundary between lying and deception is often vague. He deceives with the truth. On the other end Harrison knows that the hospital just wants to keep him there to run test and monitor his condition. But, he is ready to die. Pages 18-19 is an interesting conversation between Dr. Emerson and Harrison because Harrison would like the truth and Dr. Emerson is answering his questions in-directly.

Ken: “I think you do. Spell it out for me, please. What chance have I of only being partly dependent on nursing?”

Dr. Emerson: “It’s impossible to say with certainty what the prognosis of any case

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Clayton Anderson Ethics in the Profession Midterm The Ethical Case of AshleyMadison.com To begin discussing this case you must know some of the history and information about the website. First off the name Ashley Madison was not a real person it actually comes from the conjunction of two popular female names “Ashley” and “Madison”. The Website has a slogan which is “Life is short. Have an affair.”.…

    • 1516 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Capstone Analysis Approaching the ethical analysis: Briefly describe the key facts of the situation. How is this an ethical situation? Who is helped and who is harmed? What dilemmas are apparent?…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Of course, the statement spooked Jackson even further since Doctor Adams told him he didn’t need any medication unless he asked for it, so as a result when the orderly moved in next to his bed, Jackson went on the offensive as he locked his right arm around the man’s throat. Since he didn’t expect a bed-ridden man with a brain injury to move with the quickness of a cheetah, the attack caught him off guard as Jackson held on until the orderly passed out. Dumping the man on his bed, Jackson picked up the two syringes from the floor and read the names on the vials, Potassium chloride and succinylcholine and he didn’t know what they did, but it couldn’t be good this man wanted to inject the drugs into his body. Needing both hands, Jackson placed…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ Skloot develops variety’s of central ideas throughout the text. One of the central ideas is patients rights. She anylisis this central idea by demostrating how the patients have their rights, yet its like they didnt have any. First off with HEnrietta, Henrietta was a african american patient at hopkins hospitl. Which was the only option she had since segregation was a thing back then.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Doctors are sometimes perceived as miracle-workers that perform the unimaginable. They hold a difficult, strenuous, but powerful position in our society. They make decisions on how to perform surgeries, what treatments to continue, and inevitably save lives on a daily basis. With all this control over patients, you wonder whether their own opinions on morality is an input into their decision making.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The man had been the doctor’s patient for seven years, so at some point the doctor developed some kind of personal attachment to this patient. After giving the man the morphine that should have ended his life, the doctor said “I did not murder him. I am innocent” (Selzer 145). The doctor feels guilty because he was the one to empty the morphine filled syringes into the man’s veins. The doctor was doing as the family wished, not what he thought was right.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethical Case Review

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Ethical Case Review: The Case of Bryan Bryan has been a Licensed Professional Counselor for 5 years. During that time, the pastor at his church has referred clients dealing with various issues to Bryan. The latest referral is John. John initially presented with problems managing anger in relationships. In the fourth session, John reveals that he is dealing with issues regarding his sexual orientation.…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    To me, it is dishonest to twist ethical defenses for your own purposes. That is my own perception of veracity. The physician claimed that he was acting based on the Principles of Right Action including those subjective individual qualities as beneficence and nonmaleficence.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Carson Hawk Putman Hour 2 & 6 15 November 2016 Argument Paper Ethic are standards of rights and wrongs that guide us as humans what to do, and what not to do. They allow us to make decisions that are not going to harm us in the future, or hurt us in any way shape or form. The doctors in a story called Flowers For Algernon do not listen to ethics. They are using a special surgery to make a man named Charlie Gordon with an I.Q. of 68 to triple his intelligence to give him the intellect of a genius. It wasn't ethical of the doctors to perform this experiment, because they didn't inform Charlie of the risks, and they knew he couldn't research it.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey uses the emasculation of the patients at the hands of Nurse Ratched paired with the wild abandon and rebellion of the criminal, McMurphy, to illustrate the opposing forces of control and freedom, along with demonstrating the controlling nature of society. Kesey uses the introduction of McMurphy and the depiction of the ward along with the change after McMurphy’s introduction to illustrate the emasculating effect of control. The introduction of McMurphy is a catalyst to break the complete control and order of the ward. When McMurphy arrives on the extremely orderly and controlled ward, he makes a mockery of the system itself, claiming that he is “accustomed to being top man,” and he figures that…

    • 1984 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Implementing an electronic health record (EHR) strategy for a medical organization has the potential, and capacity, to transform the enterprise. However, simply purchasing and installing an EHR is not enough to improve quality of care or enhance patient experiences. Leveraging advanced technology to full advantage requires extensive training, and for many providers, the learning curve is steep. Training physicians how to access, organize and share data is critical for successful implementation. Here are a few tips to ensure teaching programs cover all the basics and empower physicians and their teams to exploit key features of their organizations EHR.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Code Of Ethics Essay

    • 1007 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ethics can be defined as the moral principles that dictate a person or groups’ behavior and decisions. Throughout the years, the human race has created a certain code of ethics, that most civilizations live by. When making a decision based on ethics, one must take into consideration all applicable variables that might be affected such as how this decision might benefit some people, and hinder others. Another thing to consider is the long term implications this decision might have. Ethical decision making is exceedingly important because in the long run, it’s what’s gotten our society to where it is today, humans make decisions based on ethics everyday, whether it be what movie to watch, or who to vote for.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Insistently, Harding attempts to get McMurphy to escape like they had planned the night before through the unlocked window, knowing he will get the worst punishment out of all the patients thus from the previous night. However, McMurphy says that “[he] couldn’t get his head through that window, let alone [his] whole body,” (p. 312) This detail suggests that McMurphy could have left the institute if he aspired to escape, however after getting caught he does not want to leave the other patients alone with the consequences while he avoided them. It is demonstrated that McMurphy has created such a close bond to the patients when Bromden says even if he had escaped, McMurphy, “Would have had to come back” (p.310) This implies that even though McMurphy would have been gone, he would return to the hospital to get back at the nurse for punishing the patients for their night of rowdiness.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Seven Pounds

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages

    One of the ethical dilemmas is when Dan (surgeon), Ben's lifetime friend, helps him accomplish his mission and agrees to complete the heart transplant that saves Emily's life. Dan does not agree with Ben's plan of committing suicide, but he cares about his friend and respects the decisions he has made so Dan goes along with it and prepares everything for the heart transplant. The issue is portrayed when Dan as a doctor, must break his Hippocratic Oath to help his best friend reach salvation and save Emily's life. The issue is resolved by Dan because even when broke laws it was for a purpose, a greater…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the first 4 weeks of this class we have had many class discussions and readings, which have brought up a great deal of thinking. The class name Organization Ethics and Decision-making, speaks for itself when it comes to the things that can be talked about in this class. Our world is changing each and everyday and you have to stay on top of the way things are. In this reflection essay I will hit on different topics and speak in different ways that ethical decisions and value systems work and how my view and knowledge on these have changed. Each individual will go about making decisions in a way that he or she sees fit based on there beliefs and teaching.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics