What Is The Controversy Between Medical Technology And Ethical?

Accompanying with the enormous technological progress, medicine as a modern science has been affected in many positive ways. However, the timeless tradition and the everlasting secret of medicine is merely care giving. Modern medicine has been relying too much on technology, which is cool, but also very cold from a humanistic aspect. All the patients are presented by a series of numbers via binary signals of the internet. Nowadays, medicine is more about running tests and diagnosing based on numbers, as opposed to investigating symptoms upon the physician’s observational skills and comprehensive knowledge. As bedside caring becomes less concerned as it was in the old days, the diminishing of the sense of caring in medical professionals appears as a side effect. There is no doubt that technology enables medical professionals to perform all types of fancy tasks, though it is their offering of compassion that comforts the patients the most. And this quintessence of medical practice ought not to be overlooked at any point of the history of medicine.

Currently, computers are used for everything in life. For example, from researching for a large essay project to playing video games with friends. “From the outset, computers were weighed for both military and commercial significance, and hence they straddled the very institutional boundaries that central to this study. It is also significant that computers became valuable research instruments in nearly all disciplines.” (Akera, 2). The first digital computer was constructed in 1946 by John Mauchly, a professor, and Presper Eckert, an inventor. “They met by chance in 1941 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering. They soon developed a revolutionary vision: to use electricity as a means of computing--in other words, to make electricity "think."” (McCartney, 1). They were ignored by their colleagues, but in 1943 they were becoming more well known and was funded by the U.S Army. The U.S Army was seeking for a contraption that can quickly calculate ballistic missile trajectories in wartime Europe and Africa (McCartney, 1). John Mauchly and Presper Eckert led a team that constructed the computer that occupied 1,800 square feet and weighed thirty tons. They named the large computer, ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The process of building this machine was not an effortless task, Mauchly and Presper and their team had to overcome many problems

Although all the clinical practitioners were not required to study medical ethics at that time, AMA still believed that the clinical practitioners would be able to make good moral judgements in bioethical dilemmas. The AMA’s laissez-faire approach worked fine until the emergence of the morally disruptive technologies, such as the dialysis machine, ventilator etc. These new innovations in medicine were morally disruptive because they challenged the previous definitions of life and death. For example, the invention of a ventilator destroys the previous definition of death. With the use of a ventilator, a patient whose heart stopped beating could still live because the ventilator would provide the pulmonary function to him/her. This not only led to the reconsideration of the definition of death, but also raised the moral issues of whether or not they should discontinue the life support of the ventilator-dependent patients. In addition, there was an outbreak of research ethics scandals, in which the clinical researchers continued to do research on

Keeping a person alive by excessive treatment might devastate the family and make the dying suffer tremendously in the end. “Advance medical technology that seems to one person a godsend, extending life, may seem to another a curse that only prolong dying. Dignity can be devalued amid technology focused solely on the biological organism.”

As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in the medical field, it becomes apparent that medicine and ethics have a unique and pertinent relationship. Everyday doctors, nurses, and other health care workers have to make ethical decisions or help families make ethical decisions for their patients. For example, in the video that featured bioethicist Toby Schonfeld, she discussed some of the ethical dilemmas faced in hospitals today. The most notable ethical conflicts she noted were physician assisted suicide, and other dilemmas such as transferring a patient to palliative care, or whether someone should get a pacemaker or not. Perhaps, in my future I will face similar ethical problems and will have to figure out a way to draw a conclusion that is the best for both the patient and their family.

Modern medical expertise has achieved remarkable achievements in lengthening the lives of humans. Ventilators can support a patient’s weakening lungs and pills can sustain that patient’s bodily processes. For those patients who have a genuine chance of surviving a sickness or accident, medical technology is science’s greatest gift to mankind. For the terminally ill, however, it is just a means of prolonging suffering. Medicine is supposed to alleviate the suffering that a patient undergoes. Yet the only thing that medical technology does for a dying patient is give that patient more pain and agony day after day and cause them to spend more money that could go to help their family after the patient passes away. Some terminal patients in the past have gone to their doctors and asked for a final medication that would take all the pain away— lethal drugs. For example, imagine a woman who was suffering from a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, begged her doctor to assist her to die because she could no longer stand the pain. Another example is a lady with an inoperable brain

Rapid and dramatic developments in medicine and technology have given us the power to save more lives than ever possible in the past. Medicine has put at our disposal the means to cure or to reduce the suffering of people afflicted with diseases that were once fatal or painful. At the same time, however, medical technology has given us the power to sustain the lives (or some would say, prolong the deaths) of patients whose physical and mental capabilities cannot be restored, whose degenerating conditions cannot be

The author’s claim is that if a human being is near death and is suffering more to stay alive rather than if they were to pass on peacefully, then it is not so harmful to the patient and the doctors to let the patient pass on without technology prolonging their death. The intended audience is aimed at those who would like to have everything done to keep someone they love, alive longer, when its to the point of the patient being in more pain alive than if they were not.

Consequently, the Hippocratic tradition of non-intervention was substituted by a innovative and fundamental concept, performing everything medically possible to increase and sustain a person’s longevity in good health. In altering the practice of medicine, it is debated that the technological advances debase the significance of the Hippocratic Oath. Proponents of physician assisted suicide and euthanasia dispute that the Hippocratic Oath has many prohibitions that are no longer found today, such as proscription of surgery, “I will not use the knife , even on sufferers from bladder stone.” Nowadays, Surgery is the most exceptional and trusted point of medical practice in comparison with other alternative medicine. Nonetheless, surgery was prohibited by the terms of the Hippocratic Oath because it was too dangerous to even consider until about one hundred years ago. (McLean and Britton, 1997, p. 47) This case could be similar to issues of abortion as well as euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Moreover, a same part of the Hippocratic Oath can be translated as a different signification in the medical profession. Proponents claim that the rebuttal “to treat those who are overmastered by their disease, realizing that in such cases medicine is powerless,” is to do away with the sufferings of the

Since the advancement of technology and capability of medicine, the debate has risen to a level of which it can’t be ignored. The fact of prolonging someone’s life has to be a factor since it is a possibility of prolonging it comfortably. Before there were advancement of technology and capability of medicine most American died at home, with their love ones around and family doctors which would provide comfort and solace, also in some occasion the doctor would give an extra dose of morphine for the pain or to help asses in death.

In the medical field, healthcare professionals need to always look into both major and minor aspects including advancement of medical sciences and technology. The process of selecting, hiring and management in a health care environment should involve the basic hiring criteria, and including knowledge in areas that could be irrelevant with critical thinking and patient needs. In health care, professionals deal with situations and dilemmas that are not usually experienced by general public. This includes the necessity of taking into consideration, the common good of all patients, hence the branch of medical ethics called applied ethics, meaning that it deals with the field of practical application of moral standards that is beneficiary for the patients (Bonnie F. Fregmen, 2012).

From the early nineteenth century until modern day, the practice of medicine has evolved from a state of health quackery into a field noted for its dynamic attitudes, scientific prowess, and true progressiveness. History affected the course of medical practice in an influential and prospering way. Conversely, the improvements of medicine have also had an effect on certain historical events. The cycle of medicine building the future and the future building how people treat medicine, has been a key descriptor in the twenty-first century, but finds its base in many Victorian era practices. Beyond the evolution of the various medical technologies that people take for granted today, there has also been a change in the ethics and morals embodied by today’s doctors—from Hippocrates and the symbolism behind the caduceus (the universal symbol for healthcare, a snake wrapped around a staff) to the more controversial works of today (Dr. Kevorkian or the studies into fetal stem cells). Regardless of which aspect of medicine, studied, there is a general trend towards a longer, more prosperous life, minimal intrusion by hospitals, and a pain free existence; together these characteristics seem to coalesce into the cornerstone of all medicine.

This edition consists of nine chapters divided into three parts, as well as an appendix of ten biomedical ethics cases. In Part I, chapter 1, entitled "Moral Norms," introduces the decision-making framework with attention to specifying and balancing principles and rules for moral deliberation and decision-making. Chapter 2, entitled "Moral Character," elaborates on moral virtues and ideals as an often-neglected area in biomedical ethics. In Part II, chapters 3 through 6 present the four basic groups of principles, and chapter 7, "Professional-Patient Relationships," examines the moral rules of veracity,

Over the course of many centuries, medical technology has developed to a great extent. Studies show that recent equipment has evolved more in the last ten to twenty years than in the past thousand years. Before human time, people learned to treat themselves by just using natural substances. Now-a-days, our hi-tech systems in the medical field have been created for the most effective tools for a high level of patient care. While they advance the tools, it will then allow for quicker diagnosis, less pain, and fewer costs, which in the end will help save more lives. Some people are accepting that modern technology can buy them more time to live while others might find it quite alarming because they fear

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).