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This I believe

1. Patient autonomy should stop when . . .

Patient autonomy should stop when the patient is no longer mentally capable of
making informed decisions. If someone has severe enough mental impairment that will
cause them to damage themselves they should not be able to be the primary decision
maker. This responsibility should be passed on to a person who has the patient’s best
interest in mind like a family member. They should still listen to patient and pay attention
to their needs, but at that point it should be up to the physician and the other person to
make these decisions. It is unfair for the patient to suffer because they didn’t know how
to make the best decision

2. Medical research should . . .

Medical research should strive to make advancements in the healthcare field that
will benefit all people and not be for an elite class. It should not be done on humans
unless that person has a knowledge of all possible outcomes and still feels like they
would like to take the risk. It should be constantly advancing and not only focus on
diseases that are the most publicized but also the ones that affect smaller groups in a
harsh way. I think it is wonderful that so much is being done for breast cancer especially
since a large percent of women will be affected at some point in their lives, but there are
many other forms of cancer that are still awful but do not have as much funding or focus
on finding treatments.

3. Genetic testing for the future should . . .

Genetic testing for the future should not be a way we eliminate people who are
different or less desired. It should be a way of learning more about genetic factors
associated with disease to target these illnesses in an earlier stage, or even before
symptoms start, to have a better chance at curing. I learned the other day about a
specific genetic mutation that will give women affected both ovarian and breast cancer.
Since we know this, women can have surgery to remove the areas that will be affected
and won’t have to deal with this potentially life threatening sickness at all and it would
be remarkable if we could find more traits like this.

4. Egg and sperm donation should be . . .

Egg and sperm donation should be looked at as a way to give someone that
would otherwise be childless an opportunity to have a child. I think it is great that there
are people willing to donate their own egg or sperm to help other people in this way and
it should not be looked at in a negative way. I have heard some people ask the donors if
it is weird to have potential children out in the world that they will never know about
which I think is a wrong way to view it. Yes, they are genetically their offspring, but they
are the child of the person who raised them.

5. Abortion should/should not be . . .

Abortion should be a means of termination only if the pregnancy is so hazardous


to the mother that it is a means of saving her life. I think it should also be an option who
women who were raped as the pregnancy could be incredibly difficult not only physically
but psychologically and it was not the fault of the woman. In other ways I am against
abortion because to me this is a form of murder and a way of punishing another person
for your decisions. I think that we should put more emphasis on birth control and
eliminating unwanted pregnancies before they happen rather than after.

6. Treating or terminating impaired infants should be decided by . . .

Treating or terminating impaired infants should be decided by the physician and


the parents. I am a firm believer that if there is a possibility of curing or having a good
quality of life after treatment it should be tried. So I don’t think that afraid parents who
will not fully understand the medical aspect of the situation should not be forced to make
the decision alone. The physician should give informed options or strong
recommendations and then leave the parents to make the final decision.

7. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be . . .

An option for people who are at the end of their life with the only care option left
being palliative. I work in the OR and had a patient come back several times for pain
management treatments and it made me really sad to see. He would be writhing in pain
barely able to talk and his body was so frail that I didn’t know how he even had the
strength to move. At that point their quality of life is so low and they are only prolonging
their imminent death.

8. Payment to organ donors or their families should be . . .

Payment to organ donors should be an incentive option for living donors as a


way to encourage more people to donate kidneys and portions of their liver. There are
13 people that die each day waiting for a kidney and I believe that offering monetary
compensation for strangers to donate a kidney to someone in need could be a way to
save a lot of lives. To me this is just as ethical as paying people to donate their plasma
so it should not be offensive. However I don’t believe that all organs should come at the
kind of price and that it should be an option for people on waiting lists to be able to pay
a little more for those organs but that they should go down the list like other available
organs. Other donors like those who have passed on or family members should really
just view it as a donation though and the family of the deceased donor should try to
focus on giving the donor’s death meaning.

9. Allocation of health care should/should not be considered based on a person's


age/quality of life/ability to pay

Allocation of health care should be considered based on a person's age/quality of


life/ability to pay to an extent and should be based on the certain situation rather than
making a broad assumption. Taking organ donation for example, if a person does not
take care of themselves and has bad habits like heavy drinking or smoking that will not
make them a good candidate for donation should be lower on the list than someone
who is doing their best to stay healthy. Financial situation should only come into play if
the person is evaluated and does not have the ability to take care of the organ once
they get it by coming to appointments, paying for follow up treatments and other things
like that where it could ultimately be a waste. In either of these situations there is an
opportunity for the patient to show that they are making a change and then they could
be reevaluated.

10. Medical research for women should . . .

Medical research for women should be just as important as medical research for
men. There are undeniable differences in the genetic makeup of men and women which
will make different treatments react different to each of the genders. Because of this,
researchers should have a good understanding of how it will affect all potential patients
before releasing treatments to the public. We do not need to say that one gender is
superior or inferior but merely acknowledge that they are different but equally important.

11. Health care for minorities should be . . .

Healthcare for minorities should be at the same level of excellence as it is for


those in majorities. It is not the person’s choice what their genetic makeup is and they
should not be punished because they are different that most people. Their bodies or
culture may be different which should be understood by physicians and healthcare
providers but this should merely be a means of better understanding the patient’s
situation in hopes of giving better care. Giving a lower quality of care to people in
minorities should be against the law and should not exist as it is discrimination and not
the best way of treatment.

12. Those with AIDS/HIV should . . .


Those with AIDS/HIV should acknowledge that this was a terrible disease given
to them due to their own decisions. They should make sure that their future partners are
aware of it and be respectful. They should do their best to prevent spreading it to others
in an attempt to stop the epidemic from spreading and getting worse. People should not
be judged that are affected though because it is a disease. Research should be
conducted to solve this crisis whether people agree with the actions that cause this or
not.

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