Liberty University Health & Medical Ethics in Medical Practice Essay

MUST OWN INTERVENTION & REFLECTION: BASIC ISSUES IN BIOETHICS. DO NOT BID IF YOU DON’T OWN THIS BOOK!

You  will submit a  essay synthesizing course readings and outside  research into an articulate and cogent response to the following  question: are there occasions in the delivery of health care when  deception is warranted?

Must read:

• Munson: Chapter 3, pages 253 – 296

Based on your reading of the textbook, Scripture, and additional sources:

• Review  the following scenarios of medical deception provided and rank them  with commentary regarding appropriate behavior (most appropriate to  least appropriate):
  1. A physician intentionally submits faulty  information to an insurance company in an attempt to help a sick patient  pay for needed healthcare services.
  2. A physician recognizes the  patient has psychosomatic symptoms and prescribes a placebo pill in  hopes that the emotional relief of the placebo will help the patient  recover (thus saving the patient from possible treatments which would be  more invasive and/or extensive).
  3. A physician does not provide  full disclosure of a surgical procedure because he/she suspects the  patient is not emotionally stable enough to handling all the details of  the surgery, treatment and recovery.
• Review the following scenarios and rank them with commentary regarding a physician’s ethics (most ethical to least ethical):
  1. Physicians accept pharmaceutical perks if they recommend a specific drug for treatment.
  2. When  prescribing pain medication, some physicians may “undertreat” a patient  if they sense their patient may have a propensity for addiction.
  3. A  physician treating a patient with a terminal illness fails to disclose  secondary ailments/diseases which may arise (in an attempt to protect  the patient’s emotional stability and will to fight).
• Recount  occasions from your personal life experiences of being lied to/misled  by a health care clinician and, in retrospect, comment on the  correctness of this decision.
• Provide a rationale (in terms of  biblical commandments, guidelines, or inferences) on whether or not a  Christian clinician should deceive a patient.