Norberg V. Morris Wynrib Case

This case is extremely relevant to what is known as the four D’s of negligence; duty, dereliction, direct cause and damages. Duty is when a doctor and a patient have formed a relationship and said doctor has taken on the responsibility of taking care of the patient. Dereliction or failure to perform a duty, there must be some kind of proof that the doctor somehow neglected the doctor neglected the patient. Direct cause, there must be some kind of proof that what happened to the patient was a direct cause of how the doctor conducted himself or his failure to act which resulted in injury. Damages a patient must prove that harm was incurred by the direct result of the physicians actions.

This research paper is being submitted on December 8, 2011, for Mara Pehkonen’s M230 Medical Law and Ethics Course.

Many people believe that drug addiction is a moral issue and that the user can stop taking drugs at their own free will. According to Baltimore City's health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen, "The biggest misconception that people have about opioid addiction, and any addiction, is that it is a choice that individuals make. Therefore the implication is that if someone is addicted, it's a moral failing – if they end up dead, it's their fault… (Newman).”

With the mounting stress imposed by the conditions at work, “Jackie began to divert narcotics. Jackie was able to justify her actions because she perceived the drugs reduced her anxiety and stress, which enabled her to better care for her patients” (Badzek, et al., 1998). Initially, Jackie’s diversion of controlled drugs went unnoticed. But, ultimately her luck ran out, and Jackie’s actions were discovered.

Ethics are society's idea of what is right and wrong. They follow rules set by powers like government and other organizations. (“Ethics vs Morals”). When doctors receive their license to practice, they take an oath. It is called the Hippocratic Oath. It originated in Greece and since evolved to serve modern medicine. The Oath states, “I will keep them from harm…” Helping a patient commit suicide would go against this vow to keep patients from harm. It also states, “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” Giving a patient a lethal drug with the intent for them to die is a direct violation of the oath they take. Suggesting that a patient misuse a drug to overdose and kill themselves also goes against the oath. (Tyson). Furthermore, the oath declares, “Above all, I must not play at God.” This sentence means that a doctor should not be able to choose who lives and ideas. They must always help to the best of their abilities. The cannot wittingly and willingly kill their patient or help the patient be killed. (Medical Definition of Hippocratic Oath). Undermining the Hippocratic Oath undermines the foundation of the relationship between a physician and his

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, industrialized nations have seen the medicalization of a plethora of diseases including the ongoing trend of acknowledging addiction as a ‘brain disease.’ The claimsmaking made primarily by Nora Volkow in the documentary Addiction encompasses the constructionist ideologies of socially constructing a problem, or in the case of deviant drinking and drug use, a disease. The functionality of medicalization in America is seen with many different conditions and diseases. For example, the recent spike in the prescription of medications for ADD and ADHD is a prime model for how a deviant set of traits can be spun into a more socially acceptable and treatable “disease.” Whether or not drug and alcohol addiction

In the story of “Old Doc Rivers,” readers learn Doctor Rivers, an alcoholic who is surprisingly able to do his job in impeccable fashion. Physicians require a tremendous amount of coordination and attention, thus seeing a physician that is consistently intoxicated is concerning. Like Morphine, Dr. Rivers appears to use the alcohol as a coping mechanism, thus generally improving his work. Physicians are not exempt from suffering from illness and addictions. Dr. Rivers, “always had a jug of it behind his desk,” an indication of his embrace of addiction. Though dangerous, Dr. Rivers generally does a satisfactory job, leaving his patients with no reason to complain about his addiction. Do physicians that suffer from deadly addictions have to be barred from practicing? Dr. Rivers brings this debate to light. Physicians should be able to practice as long as they are not harming their patients. Though physicians do have a high responsibility in their career, they cannot be treated as outcasts for dealing with problems other people face on a regular basis. Physicians deal with human problems and patients must be aware of that. The social pressures put on Dr. Rivers to address his addiction ultimately led to his decline as a physician. He was a mediocre physician while sober, but a great physician while under the influence of his alcohol or dope. As Dr. Rivers comes to terms with his addiction, he starts messing up more, indicative of the mental battles some physicians face. He epitomized the saying, “doctors make the worst patients,” creating a dangerous situation for himself as he began to decline further into his addiction

Dr. Gabor Mate, a Hungarian born Canadian physician, who is also a neurologist, psychiatrist, and psychologist, but who specializes in the study and treatment of addiction, reveals revolutionary evidence pertaining to addiction. In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Dr. Mate worked with patients suffering chronic drug addiction for 12 years. With 20 years of experience as a family practitioner, Dr. Mate is a renowned speaker and teacher throughout North America; sharing his extensive knowledge with diverse audiences including health care professionals and educators (Mate, About Dr. Mate, 2016). The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Dr. Mate’s most recent best-selling book, illuminates the origins and causes of addiction. As Co-founder of Compassion for Addiction (a non-profit organization), Dr. Gabor Mate encourages a greater understanding; “addiction is the attempt of affected human beings to escape a profound discomfort with themselves and their world” (Mate, Compassion4Addiction, 2015). Drawing on cutting-edge science, Dr. Mate presents the world with a shocking discovery: “The source of addiction is not to be found in genes, but in the early childhood environment.” Therefore, Dr. Mate simply “calls for a more compassionate approach toward the addict.” (Mate, 2016) As cutting-edge science concludes addiction to be a mental health issue, rather than criminal behavior, the American legal system demonstrates a devastating disservice to its own society.

The United States of America has had a war against drugs since the 37th president, Richard Nixon, declared more crimination on drug abuse in June 1971. From mid-1990s to today, a crisis challenges the health department and government on opioid regulation, as millions of Americans die due overdoses of painkillers. Opioids are substances used as painkillers, and they range from prescription medications to the illegal drug, heroin. Abusing these substances can cause a dependency or addiction, which can lead to overdoses, physical damages, emotional trauma, and death. To ease the crisis, physicians are asked to depend on alternatives to pain management. Law enforcement cracks down on profiting drug-dealers and heroin abusers. People are warned against misusing opioids. The controversy begins for those who suffer from chronic pain, because they depend on opioids. There’s so a correlation to the 1980s cocaine epidemic, and people are upset over racial discrimination. Nonetheless, the best way to avoid this crisis is to recover the people at risk, reduce inappropriate opioid description, and have a proper response.

As a physician, situated in Vancouver, Maté is no stranger to vulnerable drug addicts. Most of his clients are addicted to cocaine, alcohol, opiates, or tranquilizers and many suffer from mental illness. (288)

Every time health professionals claim to speak for the rights of others many questions arise within the bioethical community. Although altruism is a motivating mechanism of selfless care for others, it may have a dark side. Involuntary treatment for alcohol and drug abuse is a controversial tool used in medical care. The question of whether or not such treatment can be applied has been an unresolvable issue in bioethics for many years. Main ethical concerns often address questions of patient’s autonomy and health, doctor’s paternalism, and social wellbeing (Sjostrand and Helgesson 2008). The complex and multidimensional issue of

With regard to Ms. Green’s claims against O’Brien, it is apparent that Ms. Green was O’Brien’s client, and that O’Brien owed Ms. Green a duty. Should this case proceed to trial we do not anticipate that we would argue to a jury that O’Brien did not neglect this duty. Rather, there are serious questions as to whether “the negligence resulted in and was the proximate cause of loss to the client.” Kendall v. Rogers, 181 Md. 606, 611-12 (1943). Indeed, the estate will have to demonstrate that Ms. Green would have prevailed in proving that one or both health care provider defendants committed medical negligence that caused her to fall into the diabetic coma.

Getting involved with opioids now days seem fairly easy, our young ones are becoming addicted to these medications because our doctors don’t care. Doctors are just signing off prescriptions left and right. But in reality physicians have responsibilities, such as obtaining physical examination, a medical history, develop a written treatment plan for their patients, and comply with controlled substances laws and regulations. In a lot of cases doctors don’t want to deal with their patients so they will just prescribed medications to get people in and out of the office, to keep up with their hectic schedule, and don’t want to find the root of the cause, or maybe they just don’t have the time. Other ways to get opioids include within relatives, visits out of the country, pharmacy and hospital theft, and “stealing from grandma’s cabinet” (Inciardi, Surratt, Kurtz, and Cicero 2007). Despite the overload of opioids in our country almost 80% of the world 's population today has no access to morphine. And an estimated 33 million people, need specialized medical care but have no access to even basic care and symptom control. This terrible lack of pain relief can be attributed to our governments need to control and regulation.

Showing the connection of opioid treatment being manipulated and influenced by the patients themselves which influences the current epidemic. If the doctor stops the supply of opioids to a patient who is dependent or addicted, this patient is more likely to turn to getting the pain killers off the street. This includes illegally purchased prescriptions, or even heroin. One does not have to of been prescribed opioids to become addicted. One may start off using opioids from off the street for many reasons. One may be in pain but knows the doctor isn’t going to help them, or it is even possible for one to become addicted to opioids just from using them recreationally or to self-medicate. This leads to major risks of opioid addiction and the chance of a fatal overdose. Overdoses in the United States continue to be an issue we are all fighting and witnessing on a daily basis. Opioids were involved in 42,249 deaths in 2016, and opioid overdose deaths were five times higher in 2016 than 1999 ("Opioid Overdose" 2017). There should be an unsettling feeling when reading that the opioid overdose deaths have been multiplied by 5 from 1999 to 2016. This is showing that the issue of opioid abuse is trending in the upward direction of getting worse as time goes on. By finding a solution to avoiding opioid dependency and addiction, the issue of fatal overdoses in the United States can also be

The issue is whether the defendant National Institute of Health (NIH) placed the patient JoAnn Goodman in jeopardy while undergoing an experimental isolated liver perfusion ILP surgery to save her life. After the ILP procedure she was prescribed a pain medication called Melphalan which caused a negative reaction. Could this medication and the ILP surgery have compromised JoAnn Goodman’s’ health to quickly decline and eventually expire due to the negligence care of her physician could this condition constitute battery in the wrongful death of Mr. Goodman’s’ wife?