As we have seen in the past few classes, it was brought up of doctors talking about guilt. For instance we were talking about when the woman wants a natural birth, but she's having complications, and the doctors are telling her "We need to save you, for the good of the baby" I know that this method of guilting people to do brings up many other questions. And I know that usually for the baby, they are telling the truth. But sometimes, when there is a circumstance that doesn't have to deal with birth, some doctors will guilt people into doing something. For example with the cancer treatment on Breaking Bad. People are making him feel guilty when he says he doesn't want the treatment (his sister telling him she wants him to be alive and get treatment).
Some doctors usually use guilt to heal people, and of course to get a bigger paycheck. People also use guilt to fulfill their selfish aims. Do you think that using guilt is an ethical or unethical way to get a person to get a medical procedure done? In some instances guilt should be used, especially with the birth process, but most of the time, guilt isn't needed.
Although I believe that the concept of guilt is morally wrong, sometimes what's wrong just has to be done for the welfare of the majority. Sometimes, the one refusing to grant consent is being selfish in their own ways, whether it's from fear of pain or the unknown. Their resistance to grant consent out of a fear like that could ultimately harm their life, the lives of people close to them, and people with similar conditions in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think that guilt is an unethical way, but in some cases the doctor may really know whats best for the patient. The patient may be uneducated on the consequences or just plain scared to have the medical procedure done. Although the doctor might try to persuade a patient in the direction of their best interest, I think it ultimately should always be the patient's choice. If the patient is too young to make these decisions it's the family that then decides, not the doctor. No matter how much guilt doctors may use I think it's important that they discuss all possible consequences and choices of a procedure to a patient.
ReplyDeleteI think that using guilt to coerce an individual into treatment is unethical in most ways. Of course, in most cases, the doctor or loved one is trying to convince an individual to seek treatment so they can be healthy once again and be able to live longer. But I feel that this dips in a little bit with the issue of consent. Convincing someone to do something they would rather not after pressuring and guilting them may benefit them in the long run, but unless an individual is in a state where they cannot make decisions for themselves, guilt becomes more of a issue of selfishness than anything else. Although you would like to see a person live, there is going to be a point in their life where they will die, and it should depend on whether or not the individual is willing to fight their illness or has accepted it.
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