Last week, in class, we watched a documentary on the Lynchburg colony and the Virginia eugenics movement. This sparked a discussion afterwards in which we examined the various ethical issues surrounding forced sterilization and wrestled with the questions of "right vs. wrong" with respect to the actions of the politicians, doctors, and other authority figures who either created the program or participated in its implementation. However, we soon drifted away from the example of Lynchburg specifically and began to discuss ethics of patient care in general.
Recently in the news, there was a story of a 17-year old girl in Connecticut who was taken away from her parents and forced to undergo chemotherapy against her will. Cassandra C., who was diagnosed with Stage 3/4 Hodgkin's lymphoma, underwent a procedure to remove part of her lymph node. However, she firmly opposed chemotherapy. Even though she was still technically a minor, she was a clearly intelligent, well-spoken young lady who had done the research and had made an informed decision to refuse treatment. Her parents supported her decision. However, in spite of all this, the doctors got the state involved and made Cassandra a ward of the state, taking custody of her away from her mother and forcing her to undergo the chemotherapy that she was so strongly against.
I had never heard of this case until it was brought up in class that day, but I was honestly horrified. To think that physicians had taken this girl away from her family and forced her to undergo a procedure that she had clearly said "no" to... It made me lose faith in society, to a certain extent. In this case, it seems to me like a terrible abuse of power to do that. The fact that they even did so under alleged "parental medical neglect" just made it worse. As a future physician myself, I would do my utmost to respect the wishes of my patients, because it's their body and their right to decide what they want to do with it. Even though I'd be in a position of relative medical expertise, it wouldn't give me the right to do whatever I wanted to them. The principles of autonomy and social justice are absolutely central to medicine, and physicians must learn to wrestle with ethics, because it is almost certain that they will come across ethical dilemmas at least once in their career. I know that every ethical dilemma has a number of different angles, and there are always multiple perspectives and ways to look at them; moreover, every case is different. In Cassandra's case, I would say that the state had no right to force treatment. However, the boundary between acting in a patient's best interest and respecting their autonomy is not always clear, and that's what makes ethics in patient care such a complex issue.
I greatly enjoyed the discussion we had that day in class, and I hope I continue to have the opportunity to examine medical ethics in the future. It's a topic that I find really fascinating, and have strong opinions about.
Recently in the news, there was a story of a 17-year old girl in Connecticut who was taken away from her parents and forced to undergo chemotherapy against her will. Cassandra C., who was diagnosed with Stage 3/4 Hodgkin's lymphoma, underwent a procedure to remove part of her lymph node. However, she firmly opposed chemotherapy. Even though she was still technically a minor, she was a clearly intelligent, well-spoken young lady who had done the research and had made an informed decision to refuse treatment. Her parents supported her decision. However, in spite of all this, the doctors got the state involved and made Cassandra a ward of the state, taking custody of her away from her mother and forcing her to undergo the chemotherapy that she was so strongly against.
I had never heard of this case until it was brought up in class that day, but I was honestly horrified. To think that physicians had taken this girl away from her family and forced her to undergo a procedure that she had clearly said "no" to... It made me lose faith in society, to a certain extent. In this case, it seems to me like a terrible abuse of power to do that. The fact that they even did so under alleged "parental medical neglect" just made it worse. As a future physician myself, I would do my utmost to respect the wishes of my patients, because it's their body and their right to decide what they want to do with it. Even though I'd be in a position of relative medical expertise, it wouldn't give me the right to do whatever I wanted to them. The principles of autonomy and social justice are absolutely central to medicine, and physicians must learn to wrestle with ethics, because it is almost certain that they will come across ethical dilemmas at least once in their career. I know that every ethical dilemma has a number of different angles, and there are always multiple perspectives and ways to look at them; moreover, every case is different. In Cassandra's case, I would say that the state had no right to force treatment. However, the boundary between acting in a patient's best interest and respecting their autonomy is not always clear, and that's what makes ethics in patient care such a complex issue.
I greatly enjoyed the discussion we had that day in class, and I hope I continue to have the opportunity to examine medical ethics in the future. It's a topic that I find really fascinating, and have strong opinions about.
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