RESUMO
It took nearly two thousand years for society to recognize the Hippocratic insistence that "the doctor knows best"1 was an inadequate approach to medical decisionmaking. Today, patient-centered medicine has come to understand that the individual patient has a significant role in the decisionmaking process.2.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Médicos , Humanos , Juramento Hipocrático , CatolicismoRESUMO
This paper examines and critiques the ethical issues in postmortem sperm retrieval and the use of postmortem sperm to create new life. The article was occasioned by the recent request of the parents of a West Point cadet who died in a skiing accident at the Academy to retrieve and use his sperm to honor his memory and perpetuate the family name. The request occasioned national media attention. A trial court judge in New York in a two-page order authorized both the retrieval and use of the postmortem sperm.
Assuntos
Recuperação Espermática , Espermatozoides , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMO
A recent case of conjoined twins required multiple hospitalizations in the pediatric intensive care unit and led to a difficult situation confronting staff regarding the potential separation where surgery would result in the death of one twin. The hospital ethics committee was consulted. A systematic approach was utilized to examine medical standards, historical precedents, and various ethical and legal frameworks. The ethics committee believed that either proceeding with or forgoing attempted separation surgery would be ethically acceptable. We share our reasoning and lessons learned for others facing this situation in the future.
Assuntos
Procedimentos Cirúrgicos Eletivos/ética , Consentimento dos Pais/ética , Procedimentos de Cirurgia Plástica/ética , Gêmeos Unidos/cirurgia , Atitude do Pessoal de Saúde , Análise Ética , Feminino , Humanos , Lactente , Expectativa de Vida , Consentimento dos Pais/psicologia , Fatores de RiscoAssuntos
Infecções por Coronavirus , Pandemias , Pediatria , Pneumonia Viral , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19 , Criança , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , SARS-CoV-2Assuntos
Coloboma , Cardiopatias Congênitas , Deficiência Intelectual , Liberdade , Perda Auditiva Condutiva , HumanosAssuntos
Futilidade Médica/ética , Turismo Médico/ética , Pais/psicologia , Relações Profissional-Família/ética , Terapias em Estudo , Suspensão de Tratamento/ética , Dissidências e Disputas , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Masculino , Futilidade Médica/legislação & jurisprudência , Futilidade Médica/psicologia , Turismo Médico/legislação & jurisprudência , Turismo Médico/psicologia , Doente Terminal , Reino Unido , Estados Unidos , Suspensão de Tratamento/legislação & jurisprudênciaRESUMO
Dostoevsky wrote that love in action is a harsh and terrible thing compared to love in dreams. That reality is particularly evident in medicine, where there is an almost universal, involuntary participation of physicians and other healthcare workers in the suffering of their patients. This paper explores this phenomenon through the paradigm of 'mystery' as explained by the French existentialist philosopher Gabriel Marcel. A mystery is different from a problem in the sense that the former requires the active immersion of the person involved in order to be truly experienced. It is a 'meta-problem' that cannot be analyzed objectively and separately from the person that it affects, without changing the nature of the thing experienced. The authors contend that the human suffering encountered in medicine is one such phenomenon, and the paper draws on illustrations of this concept in art and literature. Awareness of the subtle but important difference between mystery and problem may help physicians better understand their personal entanglement with the suffering of patients.