Use of Force Essay- Pro Force

Have you ever felt so angry you would like to hit them, just to make them understand what you are saying? As humans we have a tendency of making people do what WE want them to do. Now, in some cases we tend to review our decisions at the end and decide what we could have done would have been better than what we did do. In the Use of Force, a short story by Williamson Carlson Williams, the author introduces the readers to a village setting, where there has been a recent spread of the life threatening, extremely contagious disease; diphtheria. We are introduced to a family in this village to whom a doctor is going too, to help cure their daughter, Mathilda. The doctor must first find a diagnosis to the fever she has been suffering for the past three days, which the parents have noticed. In order to however figure whether or not Mathilda has diphtheria, the doctor must check her throat to see if there is any mucus buildup. The girl however refuses to open up, and the doctor is forced to use force to open Mathildas mouth. In my opinion the doctor had no other option but to use force on the patients because he had no other options. However, the doctor could not ignore his fundamental duties; to cure their patients and protect the public, to obey the wishes of the patient, and to protect himself/ herself in the face of danger to his own individual well being. These fundamental principles cannot be ignored and to blame the doctor for using force on the patient is unjust. All doctors must swear to a oath before they begin to practice which includes the statement: I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.-Hippocratic Oath. According to this a doctors job is to cure their patients, and to protect the public from diseases and infections. A doctors job is hard enough already and without using force on Mathilda, he would not have been able to accomplish what he was supposed to. He would have failed Mathila, her parents and the entire village. The doctor also realized that the girl had already

suffered for three days from a high fever and he had already seen two cases like this lying in bed dead of neglect. He could not afford to come back, because he believed that he could not have saved her otherwise. Some may argue that the doctor could have come back because he noted that the patient was as strong as a heifer. However, would it have been a better outcome if the patients parents had to watch their only daughter die in front of them, if the doctor got their late for any chance? It would have left them emotionally scarred and crippled for life and perhaps would have plunged the village into even more danger from the threat of diphtheria. For the doctor, it was a do or die situation, so by acting quickly and diagnosing the patient correctly he may have saved the grief of mourning parents and the lives of many in the village, all at the cost of a young girls tantrum to not be checked and cured for a life threatening disease. The doctors second responsibility is obey the wishes of a patient, and if the patient is underage, then the wishes of the legal guardian must be obeyed, according C F Donovan (Pub Med Central). The doctor did nothing wrong by applying force to get the job done because the doctor informed the parents of the patient, of the danger and risk that he would have to take to make sure he could get the correct diagnosis. Not only that, one of the guardian actually agreed to hold the patient down, while the doctor confirmed his diagnosis, which was of utmost importance for the successful cure to Mathildas sickness. On the other hand, the argument here would be that the father let go of his daughter at the most crucial times, for fear of causing harm to his daughter? Well, the doctor is like any human being and may not have had the capacity to see that the parent was in distress due to situation that was at hand, with his main goal being able to check Mathildas mouth for the infection. So he cannot be blamed and expected to infer from the parents actions towards their daughter as a signal to stop what he was doing, which was ironically the reason that he was there in the first place. Therefore if there is any blame to be laid for harming the child, then it should be on the shoulders of the parents of the patient

for consenting to the doctors use of force in the first place, and speaking up and stating their intentions plainly when they did not approve of the doctors methods. The Doctors third responsibility was to protect himself in the face of the patients violent actions toward him. The doctor, has a right to defend him or herself against violent bodily harm as laid down in the Human Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Also the doctor did not face any resistance toward his actions on Mathilda from the parents, but rather helped the doctor restrain their bad girl (mom mentioned it). Put her in front of you and hold her wrists-the doctor ordered *to the dad+, who obeyed Still even after that she clawed instinctively for my eyes showing more outward violence towards the doctor. What the doctor did the girl was, if not out of self defense, then for her own good and cure. Some may argue that the doctor could have tried a kinder approach to calm Mathilda down. However, he did just that at first, he tried a kinder approach; I smiled in my best professional manner and Aw, cmon I coaxed, open your mouth. He tried a kind and professional approach at first and only resorted to force when the patient escalated the situation beyond what could control with reasoned argument. In conclusion, the doctor is definitely not to blame for the method that he used to save a girls life and villages lives. The doctor did what was expected of him and completed the fundamental aspects of his job successfully; to help a patient or patients that are in need of their help, to respect the requests of the patient or in this case the legal guardians of the patient and to protect himself in the face of violence against him. I find no evidence that makes the doctor guilty in a situation like the situation which is portrayed in the Use of Force by Williamson Carlson Williams. This short story did a good job in portraying what could very well happen in the real world today, and serves as a reminder for us, a reminder for when force must be used, and even when we should control ourselves and do the right thing.