Ethics and Live Tissue Training

Dr. James Vedder, a combat surgeon who was stationed at Iwo Jima for his first experience with combat, describes the constant encounters he must have with horrible injuries and death, and ultimately concludes that “in all this horror, the job became routine,” such to say he become numb towards the tragedy he encountered so frequently. He lost his human quality of compassion and pain, and went through the motions of fixing mangled faces and missing limbs. While it is devastating for someone to see death and injury as routine, this aspect of dehumanization is likely necessary for someone like Dr. Vedder to mentally survive the war. If he were to fully absorb the death surrounding him, it is not likely he would be able to handle doing his job.

To begin, the experimental use of animals in medical studies is unethical. These creatures are confined in isolated cages where they are deprived of necessary environmental elements. It is not uncommon that they undergo ghastly methods of experimentation; including the inhalation of toxic fumes, the burning of their skin, and the crushing of their spinal cords ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"). This information sheds light on the grim realities of animal experimentation. These creatures are living, breathing beings that do not deserve to be treated as they are nothing more than lab objects. Not only are they ripped from their natural habitats, but are forced to endure an irreversible psychological trauma . To put it in perspective, imagine a six-month-old child being taken from their parents and sent to a lab to undergo scientific experiments that could ultimately result in

Do soldiers really know how to treat an injury during a war? Well in the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara’s 1974 novel, we are exposed to historical figures that could have treated their injuries and made them minor if they knew how to. With the medical training we have today the figures could have saved their limbs and taking care of themselves. There were three figures that were most important and had the worst injuries. Such as, Kilrain buster,chamberlain, and Robert E. Lee.

The American Civil War was a gruesome war. Brother against brother fighting with one another. Over five hundred men lost their lives fighting in one of the nations biggest, bloodiest battles. Obviously, the leading factor in deaths during the Civil War was wounded soldiers. Limbs were being shattered and wounds were becoming infected and spreading through out the body. Even though the Civil War was a gruesome battle, many lifesaving procedures were born. Because of the high medical need during the American Civil War, necessary advances such as medical inventions, lifesaving procedures; and reconstructive surgery established the foundation for our current medical methods

those who are there to care for the injured during combat. The volume and intensity of this work

The benefits of having personnel trained with a tactical medic background can be extremely beneficial in many different situations. Tactical medicine can be implemented to save time, and lives, as well as educating individuals and crews on what to look for and how to react to an unstable and unsafe scene.

Estimates of up to ten percent of officers and four percent of enlisted soldiers suffered from shell shock in WWI (Macleod, 2004). For an officer to receive a diagnosis of shell shock meant recovery in pleasant surroundings similar to a resort. Enlisted soldiers on the other hand were generally kept close to the battlefield and treated as military disappointments. Those close to artillery fire received a diagnose of physical trauma and those not in close contact with artillery fire where labeled as

All over the world, with every new war breaking out, new medical innovations came with it. With each fatal injury incurred on soldiers it was up to surgeons to come up with effective solutions. According to most experts at the time of WW11 stopping the bleeding was in quote "the most vital step" to buy time for the soldier to recuperate and survive, better limb amputation methods led to significantly decreased deaths because of shock or bleeding out. Even today, in specific times in particular during the Afghan war, American medics brought into life new clotting agents that gave the injured more time to get full treatment at a hospital. Another tool that at first was frowned upon by medics

Gonna tell you little bit about what you do you comin’ through the woods, you find a man wounded in his chest. You gotta seal it off. That wound workin’ like a valve, pullin’ in air, makin’ pressure to collapse that man’s lung; you get him to breathe out and hold his breath. You apply the metal-foil side a the waterproof wrapping of the first-aid dressing, tie it off. Gonna hafta tie it extra; you use your poncho, his poncho, you get strips of cloth. You tear up you own damn shirt. I don’t care. You let that boy have his lung. You let him breathe.” (Rabe, 55-56). This training is specific to saving the life of and relying on your fellow soldiers. Sergeant Tower is determined that all recruits under his care learn the valuable lessons of how to survive. Again, Sergeant Tower gives sage advice on survival when he teaches the soldiers how to kill in hand-to-hand combat when he states, “This here real life, Gen’lmen. You actin’ like there ain’t never been a war in this world. Don’t you know what I’m sayin’? You got to want to put this steel into a man. You got to want to cut him, hurt him, make him die. (Rabe 38). This lesson in survival describes brutal killing in a kill or be killed scenario. The dominant technique that Rabe has Sergeant Tower express multiple times throughout the story is the ability

During World War One, four-fifths of men who had entered hospital suffering shell shock were never able to return to military duty: it was imperative that such high levels of 'permanent ineffectives' were reduced.” In World War II the military tried to weed out those they though were susceptible to war trauma during the examinations, however this proved to not to work because those that passed ended up with symptoms. It also shows how the military’s understanding of trauma effects were

Just in the United States, “there are about 26 million different species, from dogs to birds, being used every year for medical and science related testing” (“Animals in Science / Research”). Throughout the process of testing, “monkeys are addicted to drugs, cats are deafened and have holes drilled into their skulls, sheep and pigs have their skin burned off, and rats have their spinal cords crushed” (“Animals in Medical Experiments”). As a result, animals face cruel conditions and have no way of fighting back. Although medical testings on animals may cure the deadliest diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis, the abuse and mistreatment these animals face while testing medicines should be deemed inhumane, and such practices should be banned in the United States.

PETA. "Using Animals for Medical Testing Is Unethical and Unnecessary." Ed. Tamara Thompson. The Ethics of Medical Testing. Detroit MI: Greenhaven/Gale, Cengage Learning, 2011. 76-82. Print.

Right this second, millions of animals are in cold empty cages waiting to be put out of their pain and misery. Around the country, animal testing trials are going on right now, as we speak. Many do not consider that those animals that are tested on are not taken care of properly, when animals are in pain and scared, they give off negative results, but most importantly, people and animals are different, which creates inaccurate results. PETA is an organization to help protect animals against cruelty. On their website it states, “The only U.S. law that governs the use of animals in laboratories—the Animal Welfare Act—allows animals to be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged” (“Animal testing is bad”, n.d., para. 21). We do not protect our animals as well as we should, but on top of that, these animals

Firstly; Each year thousands of animals perish by cause of military experiments, with humane, cost effective, accurate alternatives available. In their research labs, numerous species of animals including amphibians, goats, pigs, and non-human primates are subject to testing used to study the effects of combat casualty trauma, radiation exposure, conventional weapons, and many more. For example, in Combat Trauma Training, goats´ limbs are amputated to cause bleeding and hemorrhaging. Rats have been submerged in boiling water for 10 seconds, and had the burns infected. Medical Training consists of treating gunshot wounds, tissue damage, burns, and other painful injuries caused by the labs. An example of a humane alternative is an Artificial Human Immune System, which was to developed to allow scientists to test

Ethics, in medicine, is described as applying one’s morals and values to healthcare decisions (Fremgen 2012). It requires a critical-thinking approach that examines important considerations such as fairness for all patients, the impact of the decision on society and the future repercussions of the decision (Fremgen 2012). According to Fremgen (2012), bioethics concerns ethical issues discussed in the perspective of advanced medical technology. Goldman and Schafer (2012) state bioethical issues that arise in medical practice include antibiotics, dialysis, transplantation, intensive care units, issues of genetics, reproductive choices and termination of care. In clinical practice the most common issues revolve around informed consent, termination of life-sustaining treatments, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, and conflicts of interest (Goldman, Schafer 2012).