Topic > Patient participation in decision-making - 681

Does doctors' decision-making really benefit patients? Patients often give up any autonomy due to the doctor's perceived great knowledge of health services. But as in all human beings, self-interest almost always clouds the decision about what is best. Terence Ackerman states that noninterference is bad because it does not consider the effects of a patient's illness (Degrazia, Mappes, and Ballard 70-140). This means that non-interference regarding autonomy; it makes the doctor's job and decision very simple: "let the patient decide". This is often a tragic case because most patients do not understand the consequences or benefits of a healthcare decision or procedure. This is why Edmund Pellegrino argues that the central paradox in medicine is the tension between altruism and self-interest, which means altruism (Degrazia, Mappes, and Ballard 70-140). Lying to patients for self-interest is an injustice on every level, and I will demonstrate why. In one recent and very disturbing case, a doctor named Kermit Gosnell was performing abortions. You might be wondering, well, what's the big deal. Yes, abortions are a sad but common part of our society. Before we discuss the terms of how the abortions were performed, I will reveal who was helping. The people in West Philadelphia are part of a very poor community. Dr. Gosnell targeted poor, immigrant, and minority women (Walters and Dale). So was he the hero and savior of these women or was he doing an injustice? Dr. Gosnell's procedures often consisted of late abortions, meaning after 23 weeks. Dr. Gosnell performed abortions up to 7 months. Often the procedure for late-term abortions is to dismember the body inside the uterus and remove it in pieces. Dr. Gosnell was inducing labor and doing what he called “snipping.” After the babies were born, he cut their necks and cut the spinal cord with scissors (Walters and Dale). And with Howard Browdy's informed consent transparency model there was a huge injustice to patients. The transparency model is about making the doctor's basic thinking clear or transparent. This is achieved by speaking out loud to the patient and in lay language or terms for the patient to understand. At least two women have died from the procedures, while dozens more have suffered perforation of their intestines, cervix and uterus.