Transcript bioethics midterm exam presentation

BIOETHICS MIDTERM
EXAM PRESENTATION
Group: Sky People
Julia Louise Ang
• Francis Gary Tomwong
• Francis Tubo
• Jaime Santos
•
1. Ethical Issues
•
2 Ethical issues from House Episode – One Day,
One Room
a. Cuddy informs House that not only Eve has chlamydia, but she is also
pregnant. House tells Eve the news and recommends an abortion given
the circumstances of conception. She tells him that she believes abortion
is murder and that she could never go through with it.
b. There was a side plot about a homeless man who is terminally ill
with lung cancer. He feels that he has wasted his life and he wants
somebody to remember him so he decides to die without pain
medication. She told Cameron not to give him any medication so
that Cameron will remember him.
• 2 Ethical issues from House Episode – Fetal Position
a. When Dr. House's decision was to terminate the baby since it's
detrimental to the life of the mother. The other doctor Cuddy was
determined to save the mom but the operation was very risky as it can
save both the mom and the child (fetus) or kill them both. They got
the consent of the mom though to do whatever it takes to save the
baby.
b. The patient is healthy but her unborn child is ill and the
patient has maternal mirror syndrome. House suggests
paralyzing the fetus to take a better MRI. Cuddy and House
both convince the patient it's the only way to proceed the
surgery. Cuddy wants to do surgery to correct the problem.
The procedure has risks and the patient is afraid of losing the
baby because she is 42 and has already had two miscarriages.
2. Answers by Dr. Gregory House
• 2 answers from House Episode – One Day, One Room
a. House promotes abortion of the fetus because it has a risks of infection
and miscarriage. They start to talk about whether the rapist will be
punished or not. They also start arguing about abortion and this is the time
that they actually talked. The patient thinks that house is also hurting
inside and house confirms that it was his father that abused him not his
grandmother. This eventually made the girl open up about what happened
to her.
b. Cameron followed the principle of respect for autonomy and informed
consent. Even though it was her job to treat the terminally ill patient, or at
least make him comfortable by giving him drugs and medications, she
followed the decision of the patient. The patient has his own principles
wherein he wanted to die in pain and he didn't want to receive medication.
• 2 answers from House Episode – Fetal Position
a. House was able to successfully diagnose what was detrimental
to the mother although the life of the baby would be sacrificed. It
was a two-way condition to Dr. House, either cut the baby and
save the mother or both of them die. He was being objective and
his objective was to save the life of the mom since to him the baby,
in his terms , a fetus, still has no life. He was rejected by Cuddy
because she was determined to save the life of the child even with
the most risky operation.
b. Dr. House and Cuddy got the consent of the mother to do
whatever it takes even if it risks them both.
3. Cite Principles of Bioethics used in relevant cases
• Principle of Informed Consent:
- One day, One room Episode
> The homeless patient with terminal lung cancer who wants to die in suffering tells
Cameron that he doesn’t want any medication simply so that someone will
remember him.
- Fetal Position Episode
> Whenever they will take a procedure, they will always inform Emma about the
risks involved.
• Principle of Respect for Autonomy:
- One day, One room Episode
> When Dr. House wants to terminate the pregnancy of Eve but she doesn’t want to
so Dr. House agrees and respects the decision of Eve.
- Fetal Position Episode
 House suggests there is only one sure cure: to abort the fetus at 21 weeks.
House informs Emma and she wants to wait two weeks until the fetus
is viable, but House warns she will not last two days. She refuses to have an
abortion and demands House fix it so they can both live and House agrees
on Emma.
• Principle of Justice:
- Dr. House treats his patients fairly.Even though they are suffering from
different illnesses/medical conditions, Dr. House is always giving the right
medical attention they need
• Principle of Risk-Benefit Ratio:
- One day, One room Episode
• After talking to the patient for about an hour, the psychiatrist screams for a crash cart. It
seems that when she was giving Eve a benzodiazepine for her to keep calm. Eve is
resuscitated and admitted to the hospital. After she wakes up, Eve tells House that she
won’t try to kill herself again. She tells him that she just wants to talk.
- Fetal Position Episode
> During the operation, the fetus's hand appears weakly and grasps House's index finger.
They find injury in the fetus's lungs but Emma goes into ventricular fibrillation. House
prepares to cut the umbilical cord but Cuddy insists on applying the paddles until Emma is
revived, once threatening to electrocute House. Cuddy succeeds and allowing Emma and
her son to live.
• Principle of Common Good:
- One day, One room Episode
> Each character give different advice to House about how he should talk with Eve, and
the advice differed wildly depending on who he talked to.
- Fetal Position Episode
> Cuddy admits that everyone was right all along and Emma's lungs
are shutting down. They try to figure out a way to examine the lungs
more thoroughly. They finally decide to do exploratory surgery and
explain things to Emma. She agrees and they take her into surgery
where House and Cuddy will do the operation
• Principle of Beneficence and Non-maleficence:
- One day, One room Episode
> When House agrees to talk to her and Eve share the story of what
had happened to her and House also talks about his childhood.
- Fetal Position Episode
> Cameron and Chase are doing an MRI. They find a small problem
with the patient's mitral valve and start a procedure to treat her. The
procedure goes well.
4. ETHICAL EVALUATION
> Abortion of a fetus, which was a result of rape, was first option Dr.
House looked to as he informed Eve, his patient with chlamydia. I
was as shocked as Dr. House when Eve did not want to go through
termination of the fetus. I expected a woman, who went through the
traumatizing experience of rape, to terminate this fetus to help her
forget about that event. However Eve was a woman who instead took
this life given to her and accepted it as her own. A very admirable
choice she made in my opinion. It’s hard to think of any woman who
could do the same
• The last thing you’d expect from a sick and dying old man coming into a
hospital is the refusal to be treated. In this very odd situation, there is really
nothing you can do but to follow this man’s wish to die alone. Even if you’d see
how much this man is suffering you cannot do anything about it without his
consent. I believe the doctor did the right thing by doing nothing, even though
the will to treat this man was strong.
• Problems are bound to happen when a high profile pregnant mother is rushed
to the hospital moments after collapsing at a photo shoot. All seemed to be
going well at first when this patient was being treated, until these doctors
couldn’t find the reason behind all this patients symptoms. Unable to find
answers to their questions the doctors dug deeper, ran more tests, only to find
out that it was the fetus inside the mother that was killing her.
• Dr. House straightforwardly said that the safest option, the best option was to
terminate this fetus. The mother found this hard to accept because she
already had numerous miscarriages with her previous husband and she was
beginning to lose hope, thinking that maybe she really wasn’t meant to have a
child. Dr. Cuddy saw a lot of herself in this mother and decided to look for
another way to solve this. She ran more tests, thought harder, and even
pleaded Dr. House, who was reluctant, to help he find this solution. A highrisk surgery was all the doctors could come up with, a surgery that could most
likely kill both the fetus and the mother. At this point I would’ve sided with
Dr. House, saving one life is way better than losing both. However Dr.
Cuddy’s empathy with this mother really convinced her to go on with the
surgery, knowing full well that if she messed up, their deaths would be on her
hands.
• In the end the surgery miraculously ended successfully
with both lived being saved. The best ending you could
wish for. I’d like to think that even though I considered
Dr. Cuddy’s decision to be most unwise, she proved to
me in the end that a life of sadness and fulfillment is
what this mother would have had if the baby didn’t make
it, and that is not a life worth living, not a life worth
saving.
SOURCES:
• http://house.wikia.com/wiki/Fetal_Position
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day,_One_Roo
m
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_Position_(Hous
e)
• http://www.politedissent.com/archives/1549
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0902016/reviews?ref_
=tt_urv