Essay on Biomedical Ethics

Essay on Biomedical Ethics

             Ethics in the medical sector are important as they ensure that health care professionals obey the rights of the patients. Ethics provides solutions to health care providers in situations where health care providers are in confusion or conflict. Utilitarianism and Kant philosophies are popular theories used to solve various ethical dilemmas that arise in biomedical field. Utilitarianism is an ethical and philosophical theory that defines that any action can be taken as long as more people are comfortable with the action. The utilitarianism theory causes harm to the victim but on the other hand it causes joy to many members of the community who benefit from the action performed on the victim. However, Kant’s theory opposes the utilitarianism philosophy where Kant states that some actions like murder are prohibited even if the action brings joy to most members of society. Kant’s egoism rule allows personal interests to be involved while solving ethical dilemmas. Ethics principles and theories provide solutions to most of the ethical dilemmas that occur in the medical sector.

Mohammed al-Qahtani was subjected to physical and mental torture during his interrogation as depicted in the case study. Mohammed was alleged to be one of a group of men who hijacked planes. The American soldiers arrested Mr. Qahtani and detained him at the Guantanamo detention center (Baron, 2018). Mohammed was named as a high –value detainee, and the secretary of defense at that time authorized for extraordinary interrogation technique for Mohammed to provide information about the attack. Mohammed was being deprived of sleep, forced to violate his religious rules, and was forced to bark like a dog. Mr. Qahtani was being monitored by the physician to ensure that he is healthy during the interrogation theory. The techniques applied in interrogating Mohammed al-Qahtani violated his rights. According to Kant’s theory on ethics, Qahtani was not supposed to be tortured even if the outcome of the torture would bring critical information required by the public (Baron, 2018). In my view, the method used in Qahtani case was against his rights. Qahtani was supposed to be subjected to structured interrogations by professional interrogators to extract the information he had about the attack instead of torturing him.

In a different case, a fourteen-year adolescent was starved in the process of shaping his behavior. The chief psychiatrist said that the patient had been in an isolated room for fourteen days without eating. Kathleen Barthel who was a junior psychiatrist was terrified on hearing the kind of therapy that was used on the fourteen-year adolescent. The kind of therapy employed on the fourteen-year adolescent was against the utilitarianism theory of ethics (Mill, 2016). Ethical problems in mental health occur commonly in clinical psychology. In my view, the fourteen-year adolescent was supposed to be taken through a counselling session. An experienced counselor would have helped the adolescent to change her behavior through a counselling therapy.

In conclusion, biomedical ethics is the application of core principals in making health care decisions. Utilitarianism is an ethical and philosophical theory that states that any actions can be taken to victims as long as the outcome is favorable to most members of the society. Kant’s theory opposes the utilitarianism by stating that some actions such as murder should not be taken on victims even if the action brings joy to many people. Ethics in health care defines the relationship between the patient and the health care provider. Mohammed Qahtani rights were violated because his interrogators failed to apply ethics when interrogating him. The fourteen-year adolescent was starved to shape his behavior that was against his will. Ethics principles allow patients to have the right to decide on the kind of therapy to be carried on them.

References

Baron, M. W. (2018). Kantian ethics almost without apology. Cornell University Press.

Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven masterpieces of philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge