This paper examines Case 7 in our text “Is Birth Control Bad for One’s Health?”. This is quite an old case (1970), but nonetheless applicable in several ways to ethical and moral issues we face in today’s society. We will examine the original case and some of the applications to similar situations today. We also recognize that in today’s society, legal charges would likely be brought against the physician who acted in a similar manner as Dr. Browne.
To summarize the case described in our text, a 16-year-old young woman wanted to be put on “the Pill”. She suspected that her doctor’s response would be to look down at her, especially considering that he had been her doctor since she was born, so she instead went to a clinic where she …show more content…
We “research”, using Google, Wikipedia (“Wack-a-pedia” as many medical professionals privately refer to it) or “WebMD”. As sources that are not peer reviewed, there is a lot of misinformation on these sites as well.
So what turned the tides? A shift from paternalism to patient autonomy has brought about the realization that the Hippocratic Oath cannot be the guide for healthcare decisions in and of itself. Perhaps the physician in this case believed that he was honoring his promise to avoid killing, presuming he felt that birth control is preventing the “natural” plan for things. Perhaps he felt that at age 16, this young woman wasn’t capable of being autonomous about her health care. There were no laws then to ensure her rights as a patient, regardless of her age.
In current healthcare, laws exist to protect the privacy of patients who aren’t yet 18 regarding reproductive health. Minors have the right to confidentiality regarding their sexual activity, orientation, birth control, and many other aspects of this type of healthcare. Without ensuring this confidential access, many minors would simply not seek any services for fear …show more content…
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. But was he really making his decision based on his own intrinsic values for moral goodness?
Had this same event occurred in today’s medical community, the physician would be bound by HIPAA. Violation of it comes with substantial fines, imprisonment, or both. The expectations of HIPAA laws are taught to all healthcare employees annually at a minimum.
Examples of violations: accessing a patient’s chart when you aren’t directly caring for that patient, running into someone at Walmart and giving them information about who is being treated in the hospital, faxing information regarding a patient’s health to someone not authorized to have it, and the list goes on. 250,000K fine per occurrence. Employees will be fired on the spot for some violations, and the hospital will still be held responsible for the breach. Hospitals are also required to be self-reporting. We tell on ourselves if
To summarize the case described in our text, a 16-year-old young woman wanted to be put on “the Pill”. She suspected that her doctor’s response would be to look down at her, especially considering that he had been her doctor since she was born, so she instead went to a clinic where she …show more content…
We “research”, using Google, Wikipedia (“Wack-a-pedia” as many medical professionals privately refer to it) or “WebMD”. As sources that are not peer reviewed, there is a lot of misinformation on these sites as well.
So what turned the tides? A shift from paternalism to patient autonomy has brought about the realization that the Hippocratic Oath cannot be the guide for healthcare decisions in and of itself. Perhaps the physician in this case believed that he was honoring his promise to avoid killing, presuming he felt that birth control is preventing the “natural” plan for things. Perhaps he felt that at age 16, this young woman wasn’t capable of being autonomous about her health care. There were no laws then to ensure her rights as a patient, regardless of her age.
In current healthcare, laws exist to protect the privacy of patients who aren’t yet 18 regarding reproductive health. Minors have the right to confidentiality regarding their sexual activity, orientation, birth control, and many other aspects of this type of healthcare. Without ensuring this confidential access, many minors would simply not seek any services for fear …show more content…
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. But was he really making his decision based on his own intrinsic values for moral goodness?
Had this same event occurred in today’s medical community, the physician would be bound by HIPAA. Violation of it comes with substantial fines, imprisonment, or both. The expectations of HIPAA laws are taught to all healthcare employees annually at a minimum.
Examples of violations: accessing a patient’s chart when you aren’t directly caring for that patient, running into someone at Walmart and giving them information about who is being treated in the hospital, faxing information regarding a patient’s health to someone not authorized to have it, and the list goes on. 250,000K fine per occurrence. Employees will be fired on the spot for some violations, and the hospital will still be held responsible for the breach. Hospitals are also required to be self-reporting. We tell on ourselves if