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Argumentative Essay: The Ethics Of Medical Experimentation

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Medical experimenting should go as far as everyone involved feels that it should go. For example, the patients and their family’s views, and the doctor and hospitals views are the critical opinions on what is ethical or unethical. Every medical condition and disease are different, so it is hard to justify exactly how far medical experimentation should go. Experimenting should take place when all parties consent, and there is a possibility that the testing could produce positive outcomes for the specific patient, or for patients in the future. The patient has rights to control their care. If the patient is unable to give consent, then their family members or advanced directives should be able to make medical decisions without feeling pressured …show more content…

For example, the little girl in the video who’s doctor was hesitant to do radiation of the brain because she was only seventeen months and her brain had not yet fully developed. When experimenting with children all pros and cons need to be investigated even more to determine how the cons will affect the child’s life in the future. The little girls doctor felt that the radiation to clear her of cancer was more significant than the girl losing an estimated ten points on an IQ test in the future because her brain was not fully developed at the time of the radiation. That was the doctor’s ethical views on the procedure. However, the parents were a little more hesitant to the decision because the radiation could cause life challenges for the child in the future. The parents did not want to live with knowing that they caused their child to struggle with her education. The parents had a terrible situation, which is why every case should be handled differently. The experimentation should be left to the ethical views of everyone involved, and those views and opinions should be discussed in great detail to determine what the best course of action would be for the patient. It 's hard to say at what age a child should be able to make its medical decisions, such as in the little girl’s case. A child’s cognitive development is not entirely complete until they are in their early twenties, but they are …show more content…

I feel that if a patient has a terminal condition and they agree to experimentation, then the doctor should be able to perform the experimentation as long as it stays within laws and regulations. I also believe that research should be conducted multiple times before an individual should carry out any experimentation. For example, people still do not have a cure for cancer and the only way we will find a cure is by experimentation and trial and error. When experimenting all parties should consent, and the pros of the experiment should outweigh the cons. I do not think my decision on experimentation has changed, and I would still go through the same question and answers if my child were in the same situation as the young boy or little girl in the video. The pros and cons of the experimentation would have to be considered, and all options would have to be weighed. Each case is different, so I would not be able to say whether I would agree to experimentation or not. There would be multiple questions with more than one doctor’s opinion, and I would complete my research to determine the best choice for the best outcome for my

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