Falsification Of Dishonesty In The Medical Field

“Benevolent deception” is a typical practice where doctors purposely mask important information from their patients for the patients’ own benefit. Doctors will restrain information because “they believed it was best not to confuse or upset patients with frightening terms they might not understand, like cancer” (Skloot, 2010, 2011, p. 63). In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, doctors withheld crucial information from Henrietta, and overall left her in the unknown. Lacks had to frequently make trips to John Hopkins because of her constant discomforts and pains, and she had no clue what was causing it.

Consequently taking away the patients decision and instead giving physicians full control to seemingly “play god”, as the decision is now in their hand. Through this problem within the medical community, society has inadvertently traded off ethics in pursuit for common good (Martinez). Because of this, such practices as benevolent deception in hospitals had room to emerge during the Jim Crow era. As doctors apparently took the decision of the patient in their own hands. Benevolent deception was a widely common practice during the times of Henrietta Lacks.

Once Dr. Davis looked at the chart and realized that the patient came about 15 times the last month and was a frequent flier, many thoughts occurred to him. When he thought to himself, “So now, despite my suspicions, I could not say with 100% certainty that Thomas was faking in order to get the drugs.” , I was surprised and intrigued because that was not the first thing I would think of after finding out that patient was a frequent flier (Davis 27-28). Some questions that he thought was what if the patient was faking his illness to get more drugs? If so, how would it be proved?

Or he could keep the secret and let the innocent stranger continue to be charged for something they did not do and let the patient live their life like nothing happened. But, if the doctor chooses The Rights Approach and resolves the situation with what option will best respect all people who have a stake, they are still doing harm. The doctor could keep the secret between him and the patient and that lets the innocent person stay in jail and the patient and doctor are now both living with the guilt of knowing. Or, the doctor could tell authority and get the innocent person out of trouble and let the patient be convicted for the crime they really committed. Whichever approach of ethics the doctor chooses to take will do harm to someone and wont follow the Hippocratic

One of the most fundamental trust relationships is between a patient and their doctor. Physicians have supposedly earned their trustworthy title because of their extended education and desire to help others. However, this perception is being shattered by physicians violating patients’ trust by not providing all the information needed for making a responsible decision for a person’s health and performing unimaginable procedures. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” provides multiple examples of the unethical practice of doctors. When scientists do not recognize their subjects as human beings and their relationship results in an unbalanced power dynamic, their advantageous position often leads to the unethical treatments of subjects, especially

At times, doctors have to choose between the preservation and honor of a patient's dignity or to break ethical guidelines to help the human races’ health. A doctor who puts his patients’ well-being as his priority, usually respects the patient’s wishes. However, many factors influence a person’s decision to conduct an unethical experiment. In the contemporary biography, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot shows that scientists constantly discover and develop new concepts and procedures that help heal numerous people, despite the unethical experiments that they conduct on living organisms.

Claudia Kalb’s article “ Do No Harm,” published in the October 4, 2010, issue of Society, discuses the healthcare professionals’ defensive behavior that causes the malpractices among patients. Kalb reports that since the Health system’s applied the lawyer Boothman’s program of “ disclosure and compensation,” then the number of lawsuits reduced as well as the legal- defense costs have dropped around 61 percent. In 1999, there were around 100,000 Americans people are killed from the preventable medical errors, noted Kalb. Also, the header of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services even claims that there won’t be any refund to the hospitals for preventable medical error cases. According to Kalb, Harvard’s Institute for Professionalism and

Covert use of medication can be seen as dishonest as the NMC code (2015) states respect the level to which people receiving care want to be involved in decisions about their own health, wellbeing and care; the code of practice also states act with honesty and integrity at all times, treating people fairly. In contrast however, Beauchamp and Childress (2009) highlights non disclosure, limited discolour, deception or lying may be considered when veracity and the principle of autonomy is thought to conflict with other ethical obligation. Jean was given the opportunity to understand and evaluate what was being asked and was provided with all relevant information to support their decision making process.

A moral dilemma that arises in a doctor-patient relationship is whether or not the doctor should always tell their patient the truth about their health. Although withholding information was a common practice in the past, in today’s world, patient autonomy is more important than paternalism. Many still are asking if it is ever morally permissible for a doctor to lie to a patient, though. David C. Thomasma writes that truth-telling is important as a right, a utility, and a kindness, but other values may be more important in certain instances. The truth is a right because respect for the person demands it.

In Joseph Collins article, “Should Doctors Tell the Truth?” he states that doctors shouldn’t tell the truth to their patients that deals with their life and death. Collins argued that doctor should withhold the truth on any circumstances. For example, when Collins blamed himself because of the death of a lawyer who suffered from kidney disease, only if he had lied to the lawyer about his health issue, the lawyer still could have been alive. However, I believe that doctors should always tell the truth to their patients regardless of the circumstances because withholding information violates patient’s autonomy and harms the doctor-patient relationship.

If we as nurses respect the confidentiality of a patient, we should do so for all the patients. However, Griffith (2007) argues that the duty of confidence should not be absolute and nurses should always consider sharing information if required. Though the principle of respecting patient autonomy and their right to confidentiality is broken here, the principle of beneficence and non-maleficence is uphold. Nurses have an obligation to protect patient’s confidentiality but the duty to warn an innocent party of imminent harm is far more critical. Therefore, breaking confidentiality here is potentially doing more good than

They must ensure that they are providing adequate services to patients and at the same time ensuring that insurance companies are getting paid (Saint Joseph’s University, 2011, Para 6). Along with that they must secure that they are getting paid. Furthermore, physician moral and ethics are challenged as well; Thus, causing them to rethink how they take on their responsibilities as a medical care provider by trying to keep patients best interest, insurance companies interest and their own interests. This conflict with trying to meet the needs of several different stakeholders causes strain on the physician because they must walk fine line to please each. While trying to please a specific stakeholder another holder could be compromised.

It is very clear to most that Grey ’s Anatomy is an inaccurate depiction of medicine and the healthcare industry. Though heavily dramatized and ‘doctored’, there have been moments of learning, especially with this ethical issue.

The practice of health care includes many scenarios that have to do with making adequate decisions when it comes to a patient’s life, and the way they are treated. Having an ethical code in all health care organizations is very important, because it helps health care workers with reaching a suited and ethical decision when it comes to the patient. In health care, patient will always be put first, and their autonomy will always be respected. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where a patient might be in harm, or might be making their condition worse because of the decisions they made. Health care workers will always be there to

Truth telling and confidentiality depend upon the situations. It is right to tell the truth in certain but it is also right to hide something from the patients in certain situations. According to utilitarianism one should usually tell the truth and keep one’s promise because you should always perform an action that provides maximum utility and if keeping a promise and telling the truth makes someone happy then it is providing maximum utility.