Free Birth Control??

I recently read an article were a health group has come out saying that women should receive free birth control with health care reform. And one of the first comments from the story stated that conservatives would hate any type of mentally sound plan. I found this to be true from the politics you here on television. The right wants to end federally funded abortions, yet they do not want to help take care of the children after they are born. How are the mothers these children have been imposed on suppose to take care of them properly if they didn't want them in the first place. Where do our conservative counterparts stand ethically, when they have yet to address the full situation and not just one side or as Fox News likes to call it the other side of the story. I feel until both sides can come to some sort of agreement we will forever be in the battle of women's rights..which leads to my next point, how can a man decide what is best for a woman's body when he has no clue what they go through. But that is for another time.

Blowing the Whistle

So I've always wondered when someone decides to blow the whistle, what put them over as to why they did it. What did that person do to cause this to happen and more so how long had it been going on before they decided to act. What thoughts go through their heads and how do they come to the decision to call someone about it. For example, if you knew one of your coworkers was stealing office supplies for personal use would you call, or if they were stealing them for sell online would you get upset because you didn't think of it first. Would you try to go in on the business venture with them? Or blackmail them in the end, I think the same could be said for healthcare. On Grey's Anatomy, one of the doctors changed the medicine for a patient in a trial and was caught by another doctor. They were friends, but because they were both competing for the same position; he told the chief of staff about the incident hoping to get them pushed from the job opportunity. What ensued was the staff was upset that he told and he was not given the job in the end because of it. Was what he did ethical? Yes and no. Yes because by the other doctors actions she had pretty much caused the trial to not be considered valid anymore. And no because he told for the wrong reasons, not because of the trial but because he wanted the position and felt that telling would help him get the position. So what should he have done. In that case it's hard to say. But it always makes you wonder, when should someone blow the whistle?

Alternative Medicine

These days I feel like you can't go anywhere without some peddling the newest herbal remedy or energy bracelet

to keep you healthy. I always wondered if the people who believed in these remedies changed their mind about them when they finally got sick. Now I understand leading a healthy life, taking my vitamins and eating my veggie but what about when a cold or flu is caught, is being healthy enough. There are old wives tales and I've always wondered how many are true. The only one that I have tried is the chicken soup one and I will admit it did help a lot with keep my colds away.

For those who believe in non-western medical help. I've always wondered what do they think of our version of keeping people healthy? When someone is sick, we as westerners want to keep them alive and will probably do everything possible. But with others, do they think when someone is sick and it can't be cured do they accept the fate and leave it be?

According to Wikipedia: A witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine. In the first world it usually refers to chiropractors, homeopaths and faith healers.

In its original meaning, a witch doctor was emphatically not a witch himself but rather the person who had remedies to protect others against witchcraft.

As different as this sounds to be, someone out there swears buy this persons powers and follows their every word. So should we as westerners doubt their powers or embrace them for what they are. Another form of healing.

Patient Confidentiality

I am a huge fan of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Recently on the last few episodes of Private Practice, one of the doctors is being sued and liable to lose their license for a releasing a book that entailed personal information about one of their clients. One of the clients read the book and decided to sue the doctor for breach of confidentiality. This is one of the few ethical topics, that I disagree with in terms on breach of confidentiality. Within the show, most of the doctors would asked their peers to answer different scenarios. This in my opinion is ok, physicians are merely getting an outside perspective. Each doctor within the business had a different specialty and looked at each case from another view. I feel that once a physician is very deep into their specialty they forget to look at the problem from a different light. Even on the program HOUSE, which has a doctor on there who specializes in solving difficult diagnosis, he still steps outside of his group and ask for other opinions as well.

Back to Private Practice, now while what the doctor decided to do in publishing the book that was still very closely related to her life was wrong. It was wrong for the fact that she was too close to the book and that the events were not that far from past. No one in the book was deceased, so she ran the risk of offending someone who's personal secrets she had kept and now was displaying for the rest of the world for an easy dollar. Most of what she wrote did come back to bite her, when there were losses of clients who worried that their stories would be in the next edition. That right there should have told her that you cannot continue to practice and write, if you are writing about current life events. Now while she make maintain the defense that it was part of her healing process, what doctor in their write mind decides to let every secret in their life out. Her husband on the show made to point time and time again and yet she did not listen. And because of the book, the practice in the end had to shut down to avoid each doctor working there being at risk of losing their license as well.

Choosing Death: When is it Ok?

I choose this topic because by far it is one of the most ethically questioned debates going on today. As a healthcare provider you take an oath to save life to the best of your ability. But what do you do when someone wants to end their life? People have called Dr. Kevorkian a murderer but was he really doing anything wrong? Most of his patients were at the end of their ropes and had nothing to live for and wanted to end their suffering. I wonder why the people who were up in arms could not cope with the fact that someone was ready to leave this planet. I think that’s where the discussion comes from; people in general are afraid of dying and haven’t properly educated themselves nor learned how to cope with the fact that their loved one are not going to be around forever. I think it is especially painful when parents watch their children suffer and leave before them. No parent should ever be in that position but sometimes is happens. I want the best for everyone and I hope that whatever decisions they have made were carefully thought out and not on a whim.
I attended a seminar last night that death with Living Wills and Health Directives and the information made sense. Why leave the choice of whether or not you are to linger on, on this planet when all the signs are telling your loved ones no but they are afraid to pull the plug. Should there be time limits? Yes. Why? Because that way at the end of the day everyone can say that they tried. Everyone always believes that there might some little glimmer of hope and there maybe. But at the end of the day someone has to pay that bill and would you rather your loved ones remember you for the person you were. Or for the giant debt you left them in?

Anthony Weiner: Power and Ethics

When the story of Representative Anthony Weiner first broke, many news channels took the comedic course based on the information at hand. And while I found this very entertaining especially on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; I couldn't help but wonder, why does this always happen with powerful men. When men are in power whether your shift manager at the local fast food chain or as the President of the United States (cough cough Bill Clinton) they assume the idea that they are untouchable. This is where we find men at one of their weakest points, by assuming that no one will ever turn on them they try once with their potential vice and if they are able to get away with it or cover it up smoothly; they have found something new to play with. So where does power and ethics play into this? For me when a powerful man is doing the exact opposite of what they preach: adultery, gambling, illegal drugs, the list could go on...where do they, as powerful men in their own right draw the line?

Now in the case on Anthony Weiner we could blame just him for what he did. But remember he sent these photos to someone and not just once according to a story on ABC News at least one of these illicit affairs went on for over a month. The women in question claims she didn't know who Weiner was but now is selling her story to the highest bidder. Where do her ethics lay, she doesn't want this to affect her 3 year old daughter and yet she is talking about her story to the public and submitting a photo of herself so that we now who she is and where she is from.

In my opinion both men and women need to be careful with power and be aware of their ethical standards in which they set for themselves. Don't play into the media which has clearly showed us they don't believe in any sort of ethical behavior lately. In fact learn about what is going on the world on your own and make your own opinion. That way you will know where your ethics and values stand.

What are ethics to me?

When I think if ethics I think of fairness. Should all patients be treated the same? Or should patients with money receive better care than someone barely making it by. I believe in karma and I believe that we need to help one another for the greater good. It could be my job that has me thinking this way. I work with low income people and yet I don't see them for where they are I see them for where they can be. I hold them accountable and sometimes its like this has never happened in their life before. I want to realize what they can do with their life and make them proud for themselves.

According to Santa Clara University: What is Ethics?

Simply stated, ethics refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves-as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals, and so on.

I think both of us are somewhat on the same mental track, in my opinion I treat them how I would treat anyone else in a given situation. Not making excuses and holding them for their actions gives them a sense of people citizens of this world and not lowly for what others considered them to be.

This is going to be an interesting summer.