Assignment 1 - Fundamental Ethics

1.What are the fundamental values of medical ethics that remain consistent
across countries and societies?
From my perspective, i will say its being at high level of competence. As a
medical staff, whether it is doctor , nurse , or other , they will at least has the
ability to perform their task after being trained for a long time. Although the
technology is advancing so quickly that there may be new equipments and
drugs being released everyday, their level of competence is still enough to
take care of their patients even if they do not know about it because new
equipments and drugs are just modified and improved version of the
prototypes. The new equipment and drugs may be more effective but it does
not mean the old one will not work, if they ever be exposed with the new
equipments or drugs, i am sure they will learn it and maintain their level of
competence. I do not think the values of compassion, autonomy, deontology,
principlism and consequentialism will remain consistent across countries and
societies as every human beings behave differently .Just by comparing a new
doctor and an experienced doctor, the experienced doctor will not be so
compassion and respect the patients' autonomy to decide the options they
have because they will not understand medical terms being told and thus
they might just ask them for some symptoms , look at their signs and give
them the medications without further explainations.

2.Which are the factors that physicians may face which may be in conflict
with medical ethical standards?
Respect for autonomy - (1) Patient with psychiatric condition may not be able
to decide whether to receive or refuse treatments given, thus treatments are
given in their best interests instead of having the patients to decide. (2)
Certain patients get information from the internet and reject the offer of
doctors' recommended choice of treatment or medications .
Beneficence - Medical staff may be too tired to always smile and give patients
the most comfort after working within the packed schedule. Sometimes they
may have emotional issues too.
Non-maleficence - Practitioners are prone to use treatments that they believe
will do good but not because they may be too focused on treating the illness
but not the patient itself, which may lead to successful treatment but having
a died patient.

Double effect - Some heavily ill patients might suffer from intense pain and
torture that they need certain drugs to relieve themselves but it may shorten
their life.

3.In which document does it say, ''Health of my patient will be my first

consideration''?
Declaration of Geneva

4. What is the relation between medical ethics and bioethics?

Medical ethics are patient related while bioethics are substantially societal
oriented. Both are closely related and always overlap with each other .
Bioethics generally has more to do with life and death, for example cloning,
stem cell therapy and abortion.

5.Which approach(s) do you consider as rational approaches to ethical

decision making?
Deontology, Consequentialism , Principlism ,Virtue ethics

6.Which approach(s) are non-rational approaches to ethical decision and can

vary among individual's experiences?
Excessie obedience, Imitation of treatment, Feeling or desire, Intuition, Habit.

7.Which rational approach to ethical desicion making has 'utility' as its

measure and defines as 'the greatest good for the greatest number' ?
Utilitarianism

8.Which rational approach to ethical decision making has won universal

assent?
None. Every human beings has their own set of belief, behaviours, mindset
and judgement. What a rational decision is vary among person to person,

there is no absolute decision that is being called as a rational decision, it can

not be generalised. Let say there is a lady that is pregnant due to her being
raped, and she consults a doctor to discuss about abortion. In this case it is
clear that none of the approaches (deontology, consequentialism ,
principlism, virtue ethics ) can be called as rational because ultimately it
depends on what the patients want and feel.

Assignment 2 - Holistic care

1.After reading about the story of Mrs.G, what do you think is lacking with
today's doctors?
Today's doctor treat patient like a case of illness rather than a person that is
seeking care and treatment. Doctors often just want to hurriedly finish their
job by asking sign and symptoms, proceeds to some physical examination
and then finish with prescription of medication instead of asking for the
patients about their conditions, feelings and things they did. Doctors are not
compassion and caring anymore, to them, patients are just cases that need
to be cleared, i will say they are treating the illness or case but not the
patients because they do not even look at the patient, not to mention giving
a smile.
2.Discuss about professionalism and how it was practiced by the consultant
and his assistants?
They may be doing their job nicely by checking Mrs.G and treating her but
they do not has compassion and communications to patients. They neglect
the existence of their patients and treat them like a rock with illness, they are
solely treating the illness, which is pointless. As a professional practitioner,
one must give holistic care to the patient, treating both the body and soul,
talk to them, listen to them, feel them, so that even there is nothing can be
done to cure the illness, there is comfort at least. As a practitioner, one must
have care, either taking care of caring about the condition of patient, they
might know how to treat the disease, have so much experience that they
know the solution for every condition ,but what can u do if the patient do not
follow what u told them to do? What if they do not take the medicine, do u
know? What did they eat, what did they feel, they do not know, because
evaluation is based on reading, based on what u hear from the stethoscope.
What if the patient did not take the prescribe medicine but something else
that they believe? What if they took in something that may clash with the

given medication? Without knowing the patient but only the illness itself,
maybe the patient will stay on the hospital bed forever.
3.Why do you think the consultant walked away from Mrs.G without even
even looking at her?
It is because he just bother about the disease itself rather than Mrs.G . What
he wants to cure is the illness, thus not bothering about Mrs.G at all .

4.Why did the young medical student vomit?

She was in extreme sadness and disappointment that her role model/ the
doctor is acting totally opposite than what she had imagined . After looking at
how other consults just follow the doctor like bunch of ducklings, she wonders
is this how it really is in real? She just can not believe and accept it .

Assignment 3 - Principle Ethics

1. Do you believe that respect for physicians has changed over years?
Yes. Patients are not completely reliant or believe physicians as they have the
source to seek for medical knowledge (internet), besides that cases where
patients die under malpractise of physicians has caused worry in them. Some
patient that do not receive enough attention from physician may think that
the physician do not listen to their complain about symptom and thus being
overlook.
2.What are the fundamental values of medical ethics that remain consistent
across countries and societies?
From my perspective, i will say its being at high level of competence. As a
medical staff, whether it is doctor , nurse , or other , they will at least has the
ability to perform their task after being trained for a long time. Although the
technology is advancing so quickly that there may be new equipments and
drugs being released everyday, their level of competence is still enough to
take care of their patients even if they do not know about it because new
equipments and drugs are just modified and improved version of the
prototypes. The new equipment and drugs may be more effective but it does
not mean the old one will not work, if they ever be exposed with the new
equipments or drugs, i am sure they will learn it and maintain their level of
competence. I do not think the values of compassion, autonomy, deontology,
principlism and consequentialism will remain consistent across countries and
societies as every human beings behave differently .Just by comparing a new
doctor and an experienced doctor, the experienced doctor will not be so
compassion and respect the patients' autonomy to decide the options they
have because they will not understand medical terms being told and thus
they might just ask them for some symptoms , look at their signs and give
them the medications without further explainations.

3.Which are the factors that physicians may face which may be in conflict
with medical ethical standards?
Respect for autonomy - (1) Patient with psychiatric condition may not be able
to decide whether to receive or refuse treatments given, thus treatments are
given in their best interests instead of having the patients to decide. (2)
Certain patients get information from the internet and reject the offer of
doctors' recommended choice of treatment or medications .
Beneficence - Medical staff may be too tired to always smile and give patients
the most comfort after working within the packed schedule. Sometimes they
may have emotional issues too.
Non-maleficence - Practitioners are prone to use treatments that they believe
will do good but not because they may be too focused on treating the illness
but not the patient itself, which may lead to successful treatment but having
a died patient.
Double effect - Some heavily ill patients might suffer from intense pain and
torture that they need certain drugs to relieve themselves but it may shorten
their life.

4.In which document does it say, ''Health of my patient will be my first

consideration''?
Declaration of Geneva

5. Which of the non-rational approaches to ethical decision-making has the

potential for the most adverse consequences for the patient?
Imitation - By imitating the prescription of drug without the correct dose and
form, or consideration of other body condition may be fatal.

6.Which approach(s) are non-rational approaches to ethical decision and can

vary among individual's experiences?
Excessie obedience, Imitation of treatment, Feeling or desire, Intuition, Habit.

7.Which rational approach to ethical desicion making has 'utility' as its

measure and defines as 'the greatest good for the greatest number' ?
Utilitarianism

8. When faced with a problem for which there is no obvious answer, what
steps would you take?
I can not answer this question because it will be depend on what kind of
problem i might face. However i can generally say that i will first have a look
at some laws to see what i can and can not do legally, then i will ask the
patient about his will or consider the best for the patient if he is unconscious
and unable to answer me. After all , patient's safety is the most prioritised
subject.

9.Which rational approach to ethical decision making has won universal

assent?
None. Every human beings has their own set of belief, behaviours, mindset
and judgement. What a rational decision is vary among person to person,
there is no absolute decision that is being called as a rational decision, it can
not be generalised. Let say there is a lady that is pregnant due to her being
raped, and she consults a doctor to discuss about abortion. In this case it is
clear that none of the approaches (deontology, consequentialism ,
principlism, virtue ethics ) can be called as rational because ultimately it
depends on what the patients want and feel.